I finally pulled A Novel Obsession by Caitlin Barasch off my shelves and I am glad I did. What started out as simple curiosity about her boyfriend’s ex, by looking her up on social media, seems to snowball into stalking, deceit, manipulation and all the wrong things.
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I enjoyed this story as Naomi, a mid-twenties bookseller and aspiring writer, gets herself deeply entrenched in Rosemary’s life. I kept shaking my head and turning the pages to see what she would do next.
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The ending was particularly satisfying to me and I applaud the author for the way she wrapped things up. This is a debut novel for Barasch and I look forward to what she writes next.

A dark and funny novel about a women who becomes obsessed with her new boyfriends ex girlfriend, at times it was incredibly uncomfortable as Naomi our main character becomes more and more obsessive in her stalking behaviour! Fantastically written and I loved the ending!

TW: Drinking, language, grooming, underage sex, rape, cancer, gaslighting, cheating

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:Twenty-four-year-old New York bookseller Naomi Ackerman is desperate to write a novel, but struggles to find a story to tell. When, after countless disastrous dates, she meets Caleb—a perfectly nice guy with a Welsh accent and a unique patience for all her quirks—she thinks she's finally stumbled onto a time-honored subject: love. Then Caleb's ex-girlfriend, Rosemary, enters the scene. Upon learning that Rosemary is not safely tucked away in Caleb’s homeland overseas, but in fact lives in New York and also works in the literary world, Naomi is threatened and intrigued in equal measure. If they both fell for the same man, what else might they have in common? The more Naomi learns about Rosemary, the more her curiosity consumes her. Before she knows it, her casual Instagram stalking morphs into a friendship under false pretenses—and becomes the subject of her nascent novel.
Release Date: March 15th, 2022
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 335
Rating: ⭐

What I Liked:
1. Cover is pretty in pink
2. Love books about stalkers & writers
3. I enjoyed the writing style

What I Didn't Like:
1. Chapters dragged on
2. Naomi is horrible
3. Some parts are cringy

Overall Thoughts:
I really tried to like this book and get into it. I mean who wouldn't love a book about a woman stalking her boyfriend's ex BUT it starts off with her already in the middle of doing it and I was just curious why she was. What happened that made Naomi so interested in knowing her? Perhaps I missed the why. I did zone out a bit when I was reading this book.

Okay for one thing the chapters are way too long. Omg some chapters were 70 pages. I'm not normally a person that is bothered at all by long chapters but with this book it just felt like it was going on and on with no end in sight. At this point a new chapter felt pointless since they went on for so long what was the point then of even ending the chapter.

There is some subject manner in it where Naomi is 16 and having sexual relations with a man - Adam that is 11 years older. There is also a pretty bad rape scene involving Naomi.

I wanted to love our main character but I felt as though so much was missing from her as a person within this book. She's so entitled and spoiled that it makes it hard to even relate to her even a little bit. She stalks Rosemary while getting more and more jealous with every bit of information she learns about her. Naomi is even gifted 5 - $500 bills from her grandmother for her birthday. I never know if I'm supposed to like the main character that the author has presented to us as likeable when they are painted in this way. After every chapter I found myself rolling my eyes at Naomi making out like the little things happening to her were a bigger deal than they really were. Weirdly enough she mentions that she can't afford to take a trip to Wales because she makes $12.50 an hour at the bookstore. Come on.... So she calls her mom and now he can spend 5 days with him. She's just one of those people that make their own problems because they live boring lives. The whole time I was rooting for Rosemary and Caleb being together because they deserved better. So exhausted being in a relationship with someone like her. Nothing is ever good enough for her. Every time he acts it's the wrong way - she expects him to act a certain way and if he doesn't then my God he's in love with Rosemary. Even when things are going good she's even questioning that and why is he being nice.
Caleb lying to Naomi was crap of him. He just kept lying to her no matter how many times and was she asked him to be honest with her. These two do not need to be together.

Ohhh and she uses Rosemary's massager.

Honestly I would seriously question why this random woman keeps asking me about my ex.

Final Thoughts:
Nothing happens in this book. I hate when I read a book and I feel like I gained nothing and could have just never read it. The ending was predictable. There is no shocking turn of events. You know that Naomi is going to get caught. I wish there was some twists and turn but just by the numbers.

Recommend For:
• Female friendships
• Stalkers

Woah! This book is a show stopper. Once you stop, you can't put it down. I love the suspense and obsession. Anyone looking for a great read should pick this book up.

I had heard amazing reviews on this book so I was so excited to dive in! I was not disappointed! This story was addicting and I did not want to put it down! The drama was effortless and flowed perfectly. I bought a physical copy!

This was such a wild book and I loved every flipping moment. I laughed out loud several times, and while there are certainly some massively uncomfortable moments, the main character might be one of the best and most interesting ones I've read in quite some time. Thanks so much to the publisher for the review copy!

I loved this. I was totally absorbed by our anti-heroines scheming and stayed up all night to finish it.

The premise is thrilling and I was excited beyond belief to get the ARC. Occasionally the prose fell flat for me - I wanted it to pack a punch and be connected to Naomi more.

I'm always impressed when authors are able to write unlikeable main characters while still keeping readers interested in the story, and that's what this book accomplished. This was a unique, bold debut novel and I can't think of another book like it that I've read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was a very fun read! As a writer, I am usually wary of books featuring writers. There are a lot, and it's what I do all of the time, so it's less exciting to me than it might be to some readers. But A Novel Obsession had me hooked FAST, and I couldn't stop reading.

Yikes, Naomi! Yikes! A Novel Obsession was a quick, witty read about female friendships and bonds. Although the means of the friendship is not the healthiest (stalking, following, Instagram-watching…), it still ends up alright in the end.

This was certainly a different read for me. If you like witty, beach reads with a NYC backdrop, this one is for you.

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, publisher and NetGalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

A Novel Obsession starts out interesting and then becomes quickly unbelievable to the point of almost becoming unreadable. The novel's pacing feels deliberately and painfully slow. Yes, it's fiction, but why would anyone, really or imagined behave in the way the main character did is beyond me.

2 out of 5 stars.

I really struggled to get into this book and to connect with the protagonist. Her choices were difficult to find reason it at times which impacted my engagement.

I feel like I was definitely the target audience for this book, I'm not sure if having it be so relatable is a good thing since our main character is unhinged but I loved it! The story takes a lot of twists and turns and will leave your mind spinning.

This book was a wild ride and I'm unsure how I feel about it. On the one hand, the reading experience was propulsive as I kept cringing through all of Naomi's horrible decisions, wondering when everything would blow up in her face. This book is a character study, as we're stuck in Naomi's head the entire time, trying to figure out her motivations and mental state. But, despite what could have been high stakes (and I saw a couple of very dark possible twists that did not come to pass) nothing much really happens. The ending was quite meh after all the build up and didn't feel quite realistic to me. I'd be interested to see what this author writes next and I mostly enjoyed this reading experience, but it unfortunately fell a bit flat for me.

When digging into your partners ex-girlfriend goes south

In this novel, THE NOVEL OBSESSION, Naomi Ackerman-, an aspiring novelist and bookseller is finally in a happy relationship with her boyfriend Caleb. Through conversation she learns that her boyfriend had moved from Wales to the US to be with his then girlfriend Rosemary, a relationship that in the end, didn't last. Naomi however, has a pattern of attachment, self-harm and is emotionally volatile to say the least. Her curiosity gets the better of her and she bases a novel on the ex-girlfriend, with the excuse of following Rosemary around her neighborhood, befriending her, and creating alternate internet and IRL personas to get closer to her.
Meanwhile her grandmother, friend and even rosemary herself (who Naomi ends up enlisting as editor after getting to know her) press her to put her writing first, even after Caleb had brought up the point that the material was too close to home and he would prefer to not be written about.
In the end Naomi's narcissistic need leads her on a deeper path towards looking into her boyfriends home, stalking Rosemary and her possible new beau and writing about it in her monogrammed journal. In the end Rosemary publishes an essay about Naomi, being stalked and followed and the subject of a real life-turned fictional story that gets published in Vogue. In the end Caleb leaves Naomi, Rosemary gets published and blocks her from her life and Naomi is left alone, with a novel that is now deemed worthless after being exposed and she must re-write her story in order to move on with her life.

I liked that this story kept going deeper and deeper into Naomis anxiety about feeling insecure in her relationship, wanting to know more about her boyfriends ex (cause lets face it, aren't we all curious who was there before us? and haven't we all done a little internet searching?) and generally not feeling like she's enough even though her boyfriend has shown her time and again how great she is. I found myself thinking " No girl! stop that!" when she kept doing things that were strange and bizarre and was annoyed with her actions half the time. Though she does have a backstory and her why to me it still didn't feel strong enough to make her likable? She seemed like an entitled girl who was used to coasting, wanted an easy route and ended up getting it blown up in her pace.

I gave it 4 stars because it kept me curious about what was going to happen. The ending for me was a bit flat and I wished she faced real consequences but i guess being labeled a stalked online will follow her for some time, so I just have to think about that as her payment for being awful. As I said naomi wasn't very likable to me so that's what knocked it down a little bit. Overall enjoyed this read though about a woman who can't seem to get enough of her boyfriends ex and what her actions would inevitable result in.

I did not like this one. Naomi was so unlikeable, selfish and immature. I rolled my eyes SO many times and literally said “this is so stupid” just as much. I wanted to DNF this but I still have a hard time doing that. Naomi had similar psycho behaviors as Lowen in Verity but none of it was interesting enough in this to make me really care what happened to any of the characters. The ending was rushed and ended abruptly, as if the author just stopped writing in the middle and submitted it on accident. Sorry to say I was not a fan of this one.

Barasch's premise was fascinating in this book about a woman writing a novel who becomes obsessed with her boyfriend's ex. Lots of interesting and entertaining twists and turns!

I enjoy books about books. I thought this book was ok, but I think I was not too fond of the female main character throughout the entire book. The author did a great job detailing Naomi's obsession with her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend Rosemary. Social media has literally changed the way everyone does things, and for this book, it details how one can use it to stalk someone. I predicted the ending correctly. Overall, a good read if you like books about books/writers.

Thank you to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for the e-ARC. I am sad to write this review because of all the good reviews this book had, but I guess I missed the mark because I could not with this book. I could not get into the concept I didnt like the character and I read it so I could finish it as soon as possible because honestly I thought I was missing something and it would get better but it didnt at least not for me.