The Roxy Letters is this decades Bridget Jones’s Diary. The story of Roxy, an Austin native, trying to get her life together. She shares her story by writing letters to her ex-boyfriend, whom she lives with. The letters range from reminders to pay the rent to scathing criticisms over his life choices.
With her friends, she sets out to keep Austin free from gentrification while working in the original Whole Foods store.
Does she finally find happiness? Does she get a new job? This story will make you want more of her.

As the title suggests, The Roxy Letters is written entirely as letters from protagonist Roxy to her ex-boyfriend Emmett. At first I found this format annoying because in order to form a narrative, the author added a lot of extraneous detail that didn't really align with the idea of a woman writing notes/letters to her ex. But partway through I was able to kind of ignore that format and just read the story.
Roxy is an underachieving hipster trainwreck trapping in crappy part-time job at a Whole Foods deli, but also likable because she is so earnest about her causes. She's floundering in life, love, work, and art, but she learns lessons and pulls herself together with the help of friends.

I laughed out loud as I read the adventures of Roxy, a young struggling artist working at the deli counter in Whole Foods. Through letters written to her ex boyfriend, Roxy details her life, meeting her outrageous friend, Artemis and getting into all kinds of trouble. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Book review
The Roxy Letters
A novel by Mary Pauline Lowry

A delightfully funny and raunchy romp for everyone who enjoyed Bridget Jones' Diary but yearned for more (lots more) sexual escapades. I read an advance copy of Lowry's book courtesy of NetGalley and Simon and Schuster and, while clearly not the intended audience, laughed my way through the adventures of this twenty-something under-employed and sexually deprived wanna-be artist and her friends in a hip Austin neighborhood. It's silly, charming, outrageous and a quick read. Lowry keeps her pacing tight and her plot speeding through a series of quirky and all-to-believable escapades filled with fun, believable characters.

I rarely, well I can’t even remember giving a book one star. This book deserves it in my opinion. First, I am in Austin Texas. I also loved Bridget Jones. I read the synopsis and thought cute. I was in the mood for cute. I closed the book in the first chapter. Roxy’s first letter to her ex was wordy and annoying. Her second was TMI. So, I stopped reading.

**Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy from NetGalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.**

PROS:
+ The novel's setup as letters written by Roxy to her ex-boyfriend/roommate to tell the story, as well as therapy for herself, is different and makes the story easier to read and understand.

CONS:
- The way Roxy is written makes her sound as if she is in her early 20's, not almost 30 years old. She's also an exaggeration of a millennial - she's pissed because a Lululemon is opening in Austin, TX? There are plenty of other high-end retail spaces int he city - Lululemon should be the least of her worries.


Maybe I'm just missing the point? But I just could not get over the fact that she was this pissed about the store opening and that's a focal point in the story.

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me a digital ARC of the Roxy Letters by Mary Pauline Lowry. Wow, this book was fun! This book was written in epistolary style which was a first for me, but I quickly warmed up to the unique style. Roxy is a 28 year old Austin native who fights to keep Austin “weird.” While working at Whole Foods, Roxy makes all sorts of quirky friends who help her to fight the “evil” Lululemom commercial empire. Roxy is a hoot and by the end of the book I was full on rooting for her. This book was a fun read, but also touched on some tough subjects such as mental illness, substance abuse and alcoholism. There were times when I had full belly laughs due to Roxy (& co.) cooky antics! I needed a light hearted read after some seriously heavy books and this was the ticket! Pub date: April 7

A fun book. I did have a little trouble with the format (written letters) but I got used to by mid book.

I requested The Roxy Letters from the ARC gods based on a review. I'm so glad I did! The description would have made me pass over this fun gem. Roxy is vegan, an artist, works at Whole Foods, prays to Venus, and says grrrl unironically. She is not someone I would typically want to read about or ever be friends with. After about 10 pages, I was on board with her and her letters to her ex-boyfriend/new roommate, Everett. Roxy is funny and has heart. I couldn't wait to see how she would take down Lululemon or keep her job while her boss, Dirty Steve, tried to fire her repeatedly. Definitely a fun read!

I've seen others compare THE ROXY LETTERS to BRIDGET JONES' DIARY, and that comparison is spot-on. Did I love this book? No, but again, I'm not a huge fan of that genre. Would I recommend it to someone who is? Absolutely. Solid read for those people.

In The Roxy Letters, the title character pens letters to her ex-boyfriend Everett in lieu of a diary and the reader follows along with her own accounts of life's ups and downs and everything in between.

Though Roxy would make a type-A person like me cringe, her story was enjoyable to follow along with and I found myself laughing out loud at certain parts. I loved reading about her "grrrl gang" and I thought Lowry did a great job at making the characters realistically imperfect. The tie-in of Whole Foods was intriguing, and her various love interests (and her trials in the dating world) were relatably loud sigh-worthy. Overall, The Roxy Letters was a breezy and fun read that I would recommend to someone looking for some quality laughs.

I received a Reviewer Copy of The Roxy Letters by Mary Pauline Lowry from the publisher Simon & Schuster through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Easy read. Very outside of the typical book I read. Roxy is a character we’ve seen before in other quirky books/TV shows. But the character was heavily devolved under the lens of the typical ~millennial~ stereotyping.

This was exactly the novel I needed to turn my brain off while doing NaNoWriMo. It was lovely and fun, but didn't take much concentration at all.

This is a fun read. What I would call mind candy or a beach read. The idea of formatting it as a series of letters works and the character developed meant was fun to follow. I enjoyed it and it was a pleasant distraction. I would recommend it to someone who wanted a book to tuck into their travel bag.

3 for neutral, couldn’t finish, but will update if able to at a later date. I really thought this would be a fun read, but it was just out there and I couldn’t get into it. I’m a moody reader, so if it’s my mood, will update later!

This story is told through funny letters and notes that our main character Roxy writes to her ex-boyfriend and roommate. I did LOL but I will admit that some of the writing is way over the top, try to hard to be funny.
The idea that this book was compared to Bridgette Jones made me really want to love it-but Roxy was just whiney and not so Bridget!
This one fell short for me even though I found some laughs along the way.
I was supplied an ARC from NetGalley for my honest opinion.

Oh Roxy. With all of your “goddess” and “Venus” and “grrrrrl” (and not like the “grrrrrrl lemme tell you” but like every time a female was referenced) talk I should have really wanted to punch you in the face. But dangnabbit you made me laugh so I was able to simply chalk it up to her being a vegan. KIDDING!

I requested The Roxy Letters because it was compared to Bridget Jones' Diary. In case you aren’t familiar with how I operate . . . .

EASY LIKE SUNDAY MORNING.

Despite most of the “if you liked, then you’ll loooooove” comparisons completely missing the mark, I never learn my lesson and fall for that trick almost every time. (I also request nearly every book with a house on the cover or the mere hint that it will be about some sort of hillbilly criminal element, but that doesn’t apply here so we’ll save that discussion for another occasion.) The shout-out to my darling Bridget is actually not a terrible one here (I have no idea why my other pal Bernadette was thrown in because huh? wha????) as the “letters” Roxy pens to her ex-boyfriend Everett are actually more “Dear Diary” style since she delivers very few of them. And as I mentioned above, her antics often made me chuckle. From attempting to take down the “man” (a/k/a Lululemon), to finding herself possibly joining some sort of fingerbanging sex cult, to dating 30-year-old skateboarding manboys, to battling the tweakers and the mobile meth lab parked next door, to becoming a better friend, to maybe growing up – all while attempting to Keep Austin Weird - Roxy could certainly be pegged as a millennial Bridget.

I wish I had the capability of slooooooooowing down rather than plowing through books or reading more than one thing at a time because I think I would have enjoyed this even more in smaller doses. Not to say I didn’t enjoy it, because 3.5 Stars obviously means I did. Rounding down because of a spoilery issue at the end regarding Roxy’s decisions on dating. ACTUAL SPOILER AHEAD – DO NOT CLICK IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW. [The one thing Roxy made pretty clear throughout the entire story was that she wasn’t fond of children. There was absolutely ZERO reason for her to feel bad about saying no to a date with someone who had kids. While I understand that one date does not equate marriage/step-parenting/etc., I also understand why she wouldn’t even want to waste her time and risk the potential of catching feelings for someone she couldn’t see herself with for the long-term. There is NOTHING selfish about a woman (a) not wanting to have children or (b) not wanting to co-parent someone else’s. (hide spoiler)]

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I picked this up at the end of December hoping to squeeze it into my 2019 reads. That didn’t happen since I got bored with it so often.

This was in epistolary style with Roxy writing letters to her temporary roommate and ex boyfriend Everett. I was initially put off by that but got over it quickly.

Roxy is a late 20s Austinite trying to make it as a employee at Whole Foods. She has some times with friends and dates a little. There are some really ridiculous things in this book so I just ended up thinking they were stupid and not funny.

I wish this would’ve been a better read for me. I was hoping for a quick fun read.

I wanted to like this one, I honestly and truly did. The cover sucked me in, the premise and blurb were enticing, and it sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately, this book was not for me and I struggled to get through it.

I'll start by saying I loved the idea of this book and the way in which it was implemented. What started as notes from Roxy to her ex-boyfriend slash roommate, turned into more of a diary in which she used Everett as a way to get her thoughts out and onto paper so they weren't trapped in her head. I even adored that she mentioned in some of the letters "this one you won't ever see" but still wrote to him. It was a cute idea, and it was executed well. However, the content and the characters are where I had an issue.

Roxy, a 28 year old "sometimes vegan" who works at Whole Foods sounds like someone you could get on board with, right? That's true, to an extent. Unfortunately, while I wanted to love Roxy, she reminded me too much of the "extreme millennial stereotype" and was beyond selfish and annoying. Granted, we all get a bit jealous when a friend gets a promotion, or annoyed when someone doesn't pay us the rent on time, however her personality and the way she handled situations was a bit grating, and I couldn't even remotely identify with her. I honestly wanted her to shut up at some points, but, as we know, literary characters never do what we want.

Once I was about 80% of the way through, I started to come around, largely because we saw growth from Roxy, and she was more tolerable. I won't give anything away, but she becomes a far more vulnerable human, and I respected that, and even wanted to cheer for her a bit. Unfortunately, the book gives us this bit of growth and then just kind of ends, so I was left with an unresolved feeling and a bit unsettled.

This book could have been wonderful. The letter writing, the diary-like entries, the inner-workings of a 20-something-year-old woman's mind; it's all a combination for success. This book just didn't have likeable characters and fell a bit flat as a result.

I felt that this book was quite reminiscent of Where'd You Go Bernadette in its tone, and while I loved that book, it didn't quite for for me here. I couldn't really connect to the characters and fr me, that's critical to the enjoyment of a story. I don't need to like them, but I do need them to be interesting to me. Not my cup of tea, but I'm sure it will appeal to plenty other readers!