As a rule, I don’t read romance books but as I have read the majority of this author’s books, & enjoyed them, I thought I would give this new venture a go.

At the outset, I feel the blurb doesn’t do this read any favours. Yes, it is humorous. Yes, it has elements of a sapphic romcom BUT, ultimately, it is about friendships in all its forms & about allowing yourself to be you. As such, I really enjoyed this book.

Edi & Rowan have been together forever & have recently become engaged. Rowan feels they might be a bit too young & inexperienced in life, so suggests having an open relationship for three months. Edi reluctantly agrees. Rowan takes full advantage & it is not until Edi meets Fred, that she realises what she has been missing out on.

This is an enjoyable read, perfect holiday fare. The characters are predominantly well-drawn & I loved some of the WhatsApp conversations between the female group of friends. To be honest, Rowan seemed a bit of a prat & I couldn’t warm to him at all, whereas Fred seemed lovely & would’ve loved to have seen more of them.

Oh, before I go, the cliché I hate most in the world is in this book! Don’t let it put you off, if I can continue reading then so can you. Recommended.

Thank you HQ and NetGalley for the eARC! All opinions expressed are my own.

☆ Overall

According to the author's Twitter, this book was a step out of their comfort zone, as they typically write psychological thrillers and horrors. I can definitely see that in the writing and plot.

I DNF’d this book at 33%, so take that with a grain of salt with this review. This book is being marketed as a sapphic/queer romcom, but 30% through the book and nothing remotely resembling that to be seen. Also, I don’t understand being this far through a book and still having no strong sense of what the plot actually is.

I was going to force myself to stick it out with this book, but after looking at reviews from other readers mentioning transphobia and homophobia, I’m good. I did not enjoy the over-exertion of white feminism in the part I read, either. How many references to smashing the patriarchy do we need in the first 30% of the book before it’s beat?

At best, I would call this a straight break-up novel, but even that is pushing it in my opinion because did Edi and Rowan even have strong chemistry either?

I urge the author and publisher and everyone involved to not publish transphobia in 2022, especially when marketing to queer readers. Not very cool.

Firstly; there's a transophobic line. That's all I have to say on that one. I don't care if the comment suits the personality and ideas of the character, it's just not needed and makes me question the authors views.

Okay, so onto the actual review. Using Written in the Stars and Something to Talk About as comparable titles for this book is so, so wrong. After reading that, people immediately assume this will be a light-hearted, enjoyable sapphic rom-com.
It's not. At All.
The story is an interesting read I guess but it is by far not a rom-com as the cover and the blurb suggest. Theres no happy ending which I'm usually so okay with because I actively seek out books that hurt my feelings but a happy ending is an important rule of a romance/rom-com. So this is not that.
More importantly, it was supposed to be a SAPPHIC rom-com and it's NOT.
This book is not sapphic. Sure, there's sapphic rep and the mc is attracted to men and women (but this is never given a defining term, which is of course fine, but I can't tell whether that was the authors intentional choice or if there's just a clear ignorance towards bi and pan idenities, and after the use of a transphobic comment, I'm learning towards the latter, so no, this is not a sapphic/queer book).
Also empty words and slogans are not expressions of feminism. Just say you haven't done your research and move on.
The plot, however, is not bad, but it’s also not good. Edi, the female mc, is in an unhealthy relationship with her long-term boyfriend, Rowan (the transphobic character) and he's a terrible person. He cheated on her and he then convinces her to have an open relationship, which she doesn’t want it. That entire story arc is just gaslight central.
The female love interest is exactly that! She's literally JUST a love interest, there's no depth to her character and is so dull.
The friendship in the book was good, but the friends were so badly written and uncharacterised - no proper role and no personality at all.
So yeah, definitely disappointed.
Do not recommend reading this but it's out tomorrow so give it a go if it interests you.

Thank you Netgalley and HQ for the arc.

Overall, I did enjoy this book. It's maybe not the most romantic of romcoms, and it focuses more on the character's breakup with her fiancé and the relationship she has with herself, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

I loved the relationship the MC had with her friends. It was so wholesome and comforting, and it made me really want to be part of the group. However, I do believe that they blended into one another too much. It was hard to keep track of who was who and the friend group could probably have been shorten from 6 people to 3-4. Their personalities weren't distinct enough and other than a few surface-level characteristics (Faith is a lesbian; Lily is a man-hating feminist who smokes), it didn't feel like each woman was her own person.

I think Rowan was well-written in that I despised him SO so much, just as the author intended. And I liked that the MC reacted in ways that weren't the most rational or logical. I think it made her realistic. People don't necessarily make the right decisions, especially when love and relationships are involved so I loved seeing the way she worked through it all.

However, I did notice the transphobic line in the book, and I was taken aback by it. It was spoken by a character that was immediately deemed unlikable, but his terrible personality could have been showcased in so many other ways. It just felt useless, and the MC did not call him out on his transphobia, which would have been a slightly better way to go about the scene.

So, while I did enjoy the book, I don't think it was amazing. It did make me cry, and it was an easy read. I would possibly recommend it to people if the transphobic line gets removed in the final edition, but it won't be at the top of my lists.

2.5

This book is not so great. The story is interesting but is not a romance (the cover and the blurb suggest a sapphic romcom and it’s not fair) because there is not happy ending. The happy ending is a fundamental rule of a romance/romcom. So this is not a romance.
And the book is not sapphic. Sure, there is the rep of lesbian girls and the female leading is attracted by men and women (the words you searching is bisexual or pansexual, but of course the character doesn’t define herself. Which is fine, but there is no self consciousness and this is no good at all. This is not a queer book, I’m sorry).
Also the “feminist” rep is awful. If you just repeat “I’m a feminist” and “smash the patriarchy” you’re not a feminist. It’s not how feminist works. They are just empty slogans, that’s it.
The plot, however, is not bad at all, but it’s a little bit problematic. Edi, the female leading, is in an unhealthy relationship with his first boyfriend, Rowan. They are together since they were teens, but Rowan is an asshole. He cheated on her and he now persuades her to open their relationship for a bit. She clearly doesn’t want it and he pretends to step back, but he’s gaslighting her. She’ll understand that at same point, she’ll leave him, but the two of them remain friends. She remain friend with a man who has gaslighting her. Boh, okay.
The female love interest of Edi is boring. She’s a love interest, not a fully character. I’m so sick of those type of character! She’s obviously always cool and amazing, she have no faults. Boriiiiing!
Also boring are the five best friends of Edi. They are the real soulmate of Edi, the story is literally based on this concept (again: not a romance!), but only two of them are fully characterised. The other three are just there. They don’t have a role in the plot, don’t have a fully personality, nothing. They are boring.
I’m really sorry, because I was to fall in love with this book, but I can’t and the transphobic line doesn’t help on this.

THANK YOU NETGALLEY AND HQ FOR THE ARC!

I got The Break Up by Charlotte Barnes, for free from NetGalley for a fair and honest review.
Edi is happy when her boyfriend proposes to her and she accepts, however this soon turns to despair when he asks for a break, so they see other people before they settle down.
For me The Break Up was a nice light fun read, based on a young couple who had been together since primary school.
I even loved to me any way the slight reference to my eyes anyway when Edi and Rowan her fiancée go in to an out of the way pub and mention their engagement. One of the patrons says something like, do you know what you are doing and have you experienced enough of life.
This scene did seem to come out of the horror movie genre where the locals say do not go onto the more, e.g., American Werewolf in London.
So, after this the novel to the equivalent of those stories and they take a break.
I am firstly going to how some people have in their reviews have classed this novel as transphobic because of a scene when Edi goes on a date via a dating app and see receives a picture of a male anatomy and she says it’s not mine.
While her date says that would be a first. As a mature male I did not find this is transphobic, on this issue it is not me to decide. However, if a novel is classed as an LGBT Novel, then more of that section of the population will read the story.
I am not saying a novel set solely around heterosexual characters, can be transphobic but I think readers may have a slightly different view on the line. Do not get me wrong I am not defending the line, I am just stating how people will read it.
So, I am now going to suggest why this novel is marked as an LGBT Novel.
While Edi is on the break, she forms a connection with a female artist known as Fred, which starts Edi down the line of trying to stay with Rowan or examining her sexuality.
While I feel that with proper writing or examining of the issues this could have been an interesting, story however with how Fred was used in the story or her character development, I think Fred could have been written as a man the story would not have changed that much.
To me this novel did not feel like a romance novel at all, more like a novel about friendship and finding out who you are, which is a universal story.
Which could have been a YA Novel or a New Adult novel which I feel this is what this books characters give it a feel as.
You could even age the characters and have them older, at other changes in their lives.
Which means this novel could have had more depth to it.
However, the way it was written makes it a light yet enjoyable story which if you go into The Break Up with this in mind then Charlotte Barnes has written an enjoyable story.

I received The Break Up by Charlotte Barnes for free on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Charlotte Barnes, NetGalley and HQ Stories for this advanced copy!

CW - I saw from some reviews that there was a transphobic comment - I didn’t see this in my version so I’m hoping that it was fixed before I was accepted for the ARC but thought I would put up a warning just in case!

The Break Up is definitely more of a self discovery book than a rom-com which I still enjoyed. It was nice to see our main character Edi gain more self confidence and realise that what she wants from life and relationships matters. I was surprised that she would stay with Rowan for so long because he is such an unlikeable character but I can also understand that it is easy to get trapped into a relationship when you’ve been in it for so long. I liked that Edi got to explore her sexuality and the chemistry between her and Fred was really good!

I think the best part about this book was her group of friends. It was really nice to see a big group of female friends that are there for each other, support and genuinely love each other! It is so important to see these kinds of friendships and the feminist twinge was cute if a little bit cheesy at times.

Let me just start with, I really wanted to like this. And I think probably the most frustrating thing about it is I almost did like it. I think in an alternate universe where there’s a slightly different draft of this book with different marketing and different expectations for it going in, I could have really liked it.
Lots of people have pointed this out on here already, but the publisher is using “Written in the Stars” and “Something to Talk About“ as comp titles for this book. That’s doing this book a spectacular disservice. That is going to attract people looking for a light, happy wlw romance. That’s not what this is at all. They are also marketing this as a rom com. I would argue it’s neither romantic, nor a comedy. This is lit fic pretending to be a rom com and it would be so, so, so much better if the author or publisher or both just leaned into the lit fic and let it happen.
This book isn’t really about romance at all. No one falls in love. Maybe 15% of the book is Edi, the main character, going on dates and having a good time with Winnefred (Fred). The rest of this book is about Edi finding herself: learning that she deserves better than okay, accepting that she’s queer, and coming to the conclusion that the relationship she thought was absolutely everything is actually not healthy. None of that says rom com that says meditative, genre-less, literary fiction. And if they’d gone that route, I would have given it 3 stars at least.

Spoilers beyond this point, but I don’t think this is the kind of book where it’s ruined for you if you know the end. Carry on at your own risk.

At the end, she ends up with no one. She does not get the girl, she instead decides to spend some time single, figuring herself out. I can’t be mad that’s the ending either! Because that’s 100% where Edi’s character arc needed to go. She shouldn’t get the girl, she’s not ready for the girl, she’s got a lot of emotional baggage to unpack first. But that’s not a rom com. (Also worth noting, there’s absolutely zero sex in this book. I don’t read romance novels for that, and I don’t think a book needs sex to be a rom com, but still, I found that surprising and I’m sure lots of other people will too.)
I will give it this, the title is extremely accurate. You spent the whole book watching and waiting for this woman to break up with her shitty, homophobic, bro-y (or lad-y, I guess, they’re in England) boyfriend. The breakup in question occurs almost 40 chapters in. FORTY. Four zero. That’s entirely too long (especially for a self-proclaimed rom com) to have to deal with this asshole and watch her be cut up about it. I was really expecting the titular breakup to happen before 50% and for the rest of the book to be a romance with Fred. Nope.
One of the reasons I say that I so almost liked it, is that the character struggles feel real and relatable. It CAN be hard to break up with someone you know isn’t quite right for you, especially if you’ve been together forever. It can be really hard to wrestle with your sexuality when you’ve made it to your 20s without really confronting it. Obviously, it can be hard at any age, but as an adult you get a completely different set of struggles than if you’re 16. At times, this story portrayed those struggles super well (at other times it did not, I’ll get there). She has a tight knit group of friends that help her deal with all of this. That felt very real, too.
And oh my god she has a lot of friends. I literally could not keep track of them all. I thought there were three at first and then I realized there are actually FIVE. When they’re all in a scene together you just have no idea who’s speaking. I tried to sort them out by personality traits and got as far as Faith, the one who’s also gay and…and after that it’s shrug emoji. There was one that was described as having a lot of casual hookups but then there was another one that also had a lot of hookups and it was just impossible to tell any of them apart. I fully gave up halfway through. You could have thrown new names in there at 60% and I would have been like “ah yes, Jane, she’s been here this whole time!” If you’re going to have 5 important side characters who travel in a pack at least give them really stand out, discerning character traits. Go the Spice Girls route and give me a Sporty, Scary, Posh, etc.
Actually, I can only pick Faith out because I’m kind of appalled with how the story and the main character treat her. I had forgotten the name of the woman in the description by the time I started reading this book and so I was fully expecting Edi to end up with Faith. The book makes a big deal about how they made out in the past and Faith literally says things like I’ve been flirting with you, and I would date you. When I realized the woman in the “romance” was going to be Fred I thought, oh the author is going to make a joke about how queer women don’t realize when other queer women want to date them…but no. Edi kind of brushes her off and the story moves on like nothing happened. What really felt like set up for a “the one you wanted has been there all along” plotline doesn’t go anywhere. Faith just kind of fades into the friend conglomerate towards the end. She doesn’t even fall in love with anyone else which I also would have thought was a fine arc for her. Nope. Just some wasted potential. Like even if the author didn’t want to make it a plot line there’s a really good joke in there somewhere! This rom com really had almost no comedy at all whatsoever! It could have used a good joke! Gah!
Here’s what really frustrated me: Every time Edi’s character felt real, anytime I wanted to sympathize with what she was going through, she’d do or think something that made me want to scream. Here’s a few of them. The way she treats Faith in the beginning reads really callous and cruel. At one point, Edi is coming out to some subset of the friend conglomerate and gets teary when they accept her. She says she thought a crisis of sexuality might be “a crisis too far.” Coming out to people really sucks. Even you know they’ll accept you. But here’s the thing, their friend group already has Faith in it and Faith has been out since she was 12. Did she think that two lesbians would cause the group to spontaneously combust? Did she think the friend conglomerate secretly hates Faith?
And then there’s bits where she and the friend conglomerate are having dinner and one of them, don’t ask me which one, is having some loud conversation about sex, mortifying a waiter. Edi’s response is “His face hadn’t quite recovered from these separate waves of shock. I’d been so embarrassed that when the card machine asked if I wanted to leave a tip I’d sincerely considered it, until I realized a) Betty could actually talk about whatever she wanted in public with her friends and b) she was definitely right about the condom thing…My tip? Be less judgmental” Okay so that sounds worse to an American than it does to the Brits. Tipping isn’t standard there, but still. Yes, your Katamari Damacy ball of friends have the right to talk about what they like at dinner, but also, you’ve clearly made a waiter massively uncomfortable in his place of work. It’s not like he can just leave, and he didn’t say anything judgmental, he just looked shocked. He probably didn’t want to hear all about your sex lives and then have to tell you the goddam soup of the day! It’s bits like this where all that sympathy I had banked for Edi melted away. I think also this is supposed to show Edi getting more comfortable with herself and willing to stand up for herself. But she does it, not to any of the people she needs to stand up to, but by not giving a waiter a tip he wasn’t expecting in the first place. What?
The book also tries really hard to make me have a little sympathy for the ex-boyfriend and to make me believe that she and him could be friends after the breakup. Except he’s a raging homophobe who tells Edi in a flashback that he wouldn’t want her to be happy, he would want her to be straight. That’s an almost direct quote. He finds out the person she’s dating is a woman and he scowls at her in a nightclub (incidentally this is accompanied by a line about how Edi didn’t know what a scowl was but this must be one? What??? She’s in her 20s and hasn’t ever seen anyone scowl?) And at the end of the book, this hasn’t changed! He feels a need to ascertain that she’s not “full gay.” (I literally screamed when I got to that line). So, um, forgive me if I’m not rooting for their friendship.
TLDR: I think this book needed at least one more round of edits, different marketing, and genre transplant.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. They probably regret it.

It starts Edi and Rowan, who've known each other since high school, who are engaged and seem happy. But everything seems to go downhill when Rowan suggests they go into an open relationship - who knows what they may find?

Edi is reluctant to do it, but her friends remind her she's got nothing to lose. The entire plot is ok, but it took a long while before we met the main character Fred.

I liked the story so far, but I didn't love it that much.

A love story that’s not a love story, would you let your partner walk all over you and give them a free pass to do it ? This book made me want to shout at Edi the main character. However her friends are there to the rescue and help her find her dignity and also find that her sexuality may not be what she always thought it was. A different kind of story that demonstrates love isn’t always found where you think it should be.

I thought this was a really sweet story, and liked Edi's exploration of her sexuality. Rowan was AWFUL though, and I think he got off far too lightly.

(full review in the link on my goodreads)
i couldn’t finish the book,
i stopped at 16%
thank you❤️

I was really excited for this book, considering it was pitched as "a funny and breathtakingly romantic read about falling in love when you least expect it" and for fans of Written In The Stars, which is one of my favorite books ever.
The thing is, this book isn't the romantic comedy that you would expect after such a description or even the cover. The title tells it well... this is a book about the events leading up to a break up. This book isn't as much about falling in love as it is about finding yourself.

I liked the highlighted importance of self love and self worth, such as the love between the friends. The writing style was good and I even liked the little before parts that gave the reader more insight.
But I had a hard time connecting with Edi and understanding all her decisions. I HATED Rowan. You can argue that you are supposed to, but he is not painted as a clear villain (which for me he was thanks to his lies, homophobia and other issues that would spoil in this review). The pacing felt off, I was never sure how much time had now passed. Winifred who is supposed to be the second love interest in this book has around like ten scenes and besides the fact that she is known to be beautiful, creative and talented it felt like we barely knew anything about her, their relationship ended up consisting more of telling rather than showing. A sign that the romance didn't work for me in this book was that I rooted more for Edi and other people than for her and Rowan or Fred. The friend group had its moments but also blurred together at points and some comments that were meant to be jokes or fun remarks didn't land right with me.

Maybe if this would have been pitched differently, I would have liked it more. But this book wasn't about falling in love. I would have preferred a book that plays after the events of this one, because everything that happened here felt flat. If you want to read a book about someone that comes to terms with the fact that they deserve better and that they are missing joy in their life this might be for you.

The Break Up seems to divide opinion if other reviews are anything to go by, however I really enjoyed it.
For me, this book felt like a breath of fresh air.
I am a self-confessed romance-lover at heart and I really root for love, but I am also very much a champion of loving yourself first and the importance of strong friendships, which is captured within The Break Up.
At the moment I can’t seem to stomach darker reads, probably because the world feels so scary right now so escaping into a light-hearted book is exactly what I am enjoying doing.
The Break Up is light-hearted and very witty, Edi’s friends are hilarious and I’d love to be in their girl gang!
Edi should be feeling elated having just got engaged to her childhood sweetheart Rowan, but after spending a few days with his rather toxic parents he comes back with an absolutely outrageous idea – a three month open relationship where they can both see and sleep with other people, while still being engaged and having date nights with each other.
Like so many of us, Edi is so obviously a people pleaser and she really buries her feelings to placate Rowan and goes along with this horrible idea.
With lots of encouragement from her friends Edi decides to embrace this new chapter and put herself out there – how does someone meet people these days?
So in the name of research and pushing herself out of her comfort zone she starts to research how to meet someone and accidentally does just that!
Throughout the book I really disliked Rowan and really rooted for Edi and when the break up does eventually happen well hallelujah and good riddance to that.
No matter what Edi was going through, she was surrounded by a loyal, charming and hilarious group of women to support her. Much like I have with my two best friends.
Their banter was fun and witty, their friendship dynamic was chaotic but relatable, and they added a whole lot of warmth to the story.
While Winifred (Fred) and Edi had a sweet relationship and great chemistry, the focus of the book was never on the romance but on Edi's own journey and the support of her friends.
This made the book a loveable, heartwarming and charming one to read.
But I can see why some people may feel let down or disappointed particularly from the LGBTQ+ community.
I really enjoyed The Break Up, just wish Edi had more self-confidence and had kicked Rowan to the kerb a lot sooner!

Thank you netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
The first half of the book was hard to get into but once I got to around 50% i started to enjoy it a lot more. I did enjoy the authors writing style as well.
3 1/2 stars

Judging by the cover and the description I fully expected a cute easygoing sapphic rom com, but unfortunately the book was quite different.

Edi’s fiancé is asking for a “break”, he wants to have more experience before settling down and Edi has no choice and agrees. While on the relationship break Edi decides to explore her bisexuality and meets Fred - whom she begins spending lots of time with.

The writing over all was okay, but the chemistry between Fred and Edi fell flat. I wish there was more tension, more potential, more of the advertised rom com feeling.
The title is very accurate. This book is about a woman finding herself after a Break Up, a story where the focus is much more on self growth, friendship and feminism (as Edi’s friends would probably add).

I think I would’ve enjoyed this book more if I knew what I was getting into. The low rating is due to me getting my hopes up for a fluffy story, but being disappointed by it instead.

Edi Parcell thought she had life all planned out, so when her childhood sweetheart proposes a three-month break to date other people, she’s shocked. Unexpectedly back on the dating scene after years with the same guy, this is the first opportunity Edi’s had to think about what she really wants from life – and love.

I was excited to read this book based on the description but it fell a bit short for me I’m afraid. The characters felt cliched and too numerous to allow any in depth character development.

I did really like the idea and the portrayal of the importance of friendships.

This book does not match the description at all. I went into this expecting one thing and got the complete opposite. This was not the cute sapphic romance it was advertised as at all.

The relationship between Edi and Fred was under-developed and bland and didn't really progress at all. Rowan was given way too much page time and far too much leniency (and what was that ending for him???) and Edi just... well she was there. I genuinely thought I'd selected the wrong arc to read on my kindle when I was about 40% through because it was not matching up to what I was expecting. The writing wasn't bad... but it wasn't amazing. This book, just, no. I feel like it tried to handle some big topics and issues and just failed. Edi's friends were cool and very solid but that's about the highlight of this novel.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an arc of this in exchange for an honest review.

Edi thought she had her life all planned out, but when her new fiancé says he would like a three-month break to see other people, she's devastated. What comes with this, however, is the time for Edi to explore her own identity and space within the world.

By reading the blurb And looking at (judging) the book cover, The Break Up may seem a sapphic romcom, which is what I expected going in. However, I think it could possibly be better described as ‘women’s fiction’ for lack of a better term. The story mostly focuses on Edi herself, with a sprinkling of romance on the side.

This was an easy, light and quick read and I truly enjoyed seeing Edi have the support of her friend group. I do wish these characters had a bit more depth to them though, as at times I found it hard to decipher the difference between them and I felt as though the focus was more on these female relationships as opposed to Edi’s new love interest.

The relationship between Edi and Fred is cute but I would have liked to have seen more of them. I understand why the focus wasn’t on them, but I think my expectations may have gotten in the way.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and HQ for providing me with an arc in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I expected a sapphic rom-com but really didn't get the feels for that!

The cover gives you the impression that the story will centre around romance however it relates more to friendships. There wasn't even much apprehension in the break-up between Rowan and Edi. I also would have hoped for a lot more chemistry between Edi and Fred.

That said, the book had me reading to the end, I did find myself rooting for Edi and Fred. I also enjoyed the friendship dynamics and felt that they was built on quite well throughout the story.

Not quite a romcom but a light read to pass some time if you're looking for something easy going.