I started Grown Ups and really enjoyed the main topics that were covered in the story. Ultimately as I kept reading I fell out of love with the main character. I didn’t feel like there was enough there to win me back over for her or to motivate me to finish the book. I ended up not finishing Grown Ups even though I felt like it had great potential.

This was a fun, easy read. Topical and humorous at times. I'd be interested to see what the author writes next.

Jennie moved out at eighteen. She has a life although it’s a bit upside down at the moment. Ex with someone else, mom moving in, lost her job due to either her silence as a modern feminist,or her opinions are no longer relevant. Either way this is a crossroads and Jennie needs direction and purpose.

Grown ups
By Emma Jane Unsworth

First thank you NetGalley and Gallery Scout Press for the advanced copy of this book.

Jennifer McClaine is a girl who refused to grow up. This is the story on how she struggles with life and becoming a responsible adult.

I struggled with this story in the beginning and thought about DNFing it but I kept going and enjoyed how the story ended.

Thank you again for the ARC!

Thank you to the publisher for approving me to read GROWN UPS! Call something Fleabag meets Conversations with Friends and I am on board! I loved the humor and the brutal honesty; this scratches the itch what it’s like to live as a millennial now.

I loved this one for its refreshingly modern look at life. Social media was a big theme woven into this one, exploring the ways that we present our lives one way in this space when it's usually much more complicated, and how it affects us. Jenny is an overthinker, an over-analyzer, and obsessed with the ways that people see her through her online presence.

This book wasnt for me. I got through about 25% of it. The main character is a total narcissist and mostly unrelateable. I did feel for her with her relationship with her mom and not even knowing her dads name. But, I just couldnt finish the book.

I found this book to be realistic, maybe a little too realistic. It is a very relatable story of things looking great at a surface level but then digging deeper to see a larger picture. Very insightful depiction of the perils of social media and how damaging it can be.

This book reminded me of the show Fleabag. Jenny is in her mid-thirties and struggling with life. Her life falls into the snare of social media. I liked the honest tone of the book, but overall just wasn't a hit for me.

Ooof, as a woman in her 30s, this one hit close to home. It's honest, relevant and refreshing. And it's full of funny one-liners that I found myself highlighting.

I made it to halfway through Grown Ups before I decided to DNF the book. My decision to DNF has much more to do with my taste as a reader and present mood than with the text. The reader follows Jenny, our main protagonist, as her life free falls even further from what she had dreamed for herself. Jenny is rendered immobile by the anxiety that she feels on how she is perceived, both in real life and online. Jenny is extremely self aware of what society expects of her and of the expectations she has placed on herself. It is very much a mediation on how all of us are trying to embody this abstract concept of a grown up. Unsworth excels at making Jenny’s neurotic and burnout voice shine through. While Jenny has not grown much in the 50% of the book that I’ve read, this is likely not due to character development issues but due to Jenny’s own ambling through life. While this book didn’t work for me, it will for others.

Being a grown-up is messy. This is a book that either works for you or doesn't. The author has tackled some difficult topics quite well. I liked the book but found it way too long. Overall a good read.

Funny, heartbreaking novel about a 30-something Londoner falling apart. Good for fans of Bridget Jones, Fleabag, etc. The fine balance of despair, heartbreak, and hilarious situations cause this novel to rise above others targeted at millennials. Ultimately hopeful, this is a great addition to lists that include My Year of Rest and Relaxation and other novels focusing on the lives of young urban women.

Want an embarrassing confession? I received and read an ARC of this back in 2020 and really liked it. And then never wrote a review (typical). Then I came across it again and noticed the low rating so I read it AGAIN in September of this year in order to know what I was talking about when I finally reviewed it. And then I still never wrote a review . . . .

Dear Authors: Want help selling absolutely ZERO copies of your latest release? Well then give ol’ Kelly an early copy and watch her do nothing with it!

So obviously at 3.32 this one wasn’t for everyone, but if you occasionally enjoy reading not-so-enjoyable people and can ride it out knowing that Jenny’s behaviour will be explained/she will get her redemption arc I highly recommend this take on arrested development. I’ll happily be the wrongreader here with my love for this one.

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

Jennie is no grownup. She is a write and a prolific social media junkie, who borders on the obsessive. She is annoying and her ridiculousness paints her as a childish bore. However, as the novel evolves so does she. The ebb and flow of the narrative slowly reveal Jennie's multilayered persona. She does not so much as turn over a new leaf character building-wise, but instead the reader's perspective changes as her true self is revealed. Grown Ups is realistic and a full circle novel that explores a mix of emotions that displays growth and hope. It's a feel-good read.

I will not be fully reviewing this book. I started it, but was not in the right mindset to finish it. I was definitely appreciative of the content, and will surely pick it up again soon. I will then fully review.

what an interesting account of a woman and her journey of going through a break up. This story was told through different media such as texts, emails, and social media posts, and i found it a unique perspective to tell her story through. The account of 35 year old Jenny was so realistic, I felt more as if I was reading an autobiography. Her perspective was refreshing, and even though she's ten years older than me, I could still relate to her sense of humor, obsession with social media, and healing process from the break up.

Witty, wonderful and a delight to read, I truly enjoyed this book! Thank you to net galley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy.

I absolutely adore Emma Jane Unsworth. Her first novel, Animals, stuck with me for many, many moons.

Jenny, our protagonist, is in the midst of a life crisis. Her life as she knows it is falling apart. Also, she's wildly neurotic. Her excessive attention to every digital detail and interaction of her life may be cringeworthy, but good god is it relevant as ever. Particularly because, just as in real life - nobody's coming to rescue Jenny from the life she's built (and torn down) for herself. Nobody can do it but her.

Witty, relevant, cringey, hopeful, all at the same time.

Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery Books for advanced access to this title!

My rating has changed since completing this one and writing this review. As a whole, I wasn't a huge fan of this book but not because it's a bad book but because of me. I don't really go for the self-deprecating humor and I'm not elbow deep in a social media and getting thumbs-up and liking post addiction. And when she missing the birthday party when she was supposed to bring the cake, I almost DNF'd this one.

But that's not all this story is about. It does a great job of showing the competition and love/hate between women. How we size each other up, how she show off our battle scars of motherhood or beauty regime to one-up other women in the room. Instead of seeing allies and others we need to lift, we take them down in order to come out on top. That women on the train was so enraging I had to take a minute before I kept reading. It's so seamlessly woven in to the story that it takes a minute to spot it between the trips and slips that the MC does.

And it reminded me to be kind. We aren't competing with each other, we're all on a tough road. Be kind. We have no idea what someone else is going through.