For fans of Yolk by Mary HK Choi and Conversations With Friends By Sally Rooney, Ok Days follows the in-betweens of new relationships and the inevitable decline when two lives don't quite fit together, no matter how hard you try.

Counting down until breakup, the story spotlight is on Sam and Luc.

This novel is delightfully peaceful and captures the feeling of a sunny Sunday morning, when you are relaxed and calm and have leant into the weekend fully before having to go back to work. Through Jenny Mustard's writing we are able to see through both Sam and Luc's eyes and read how they feel about eachother in their own words.

Mustard explores the feelings and events that happen when you first meet someone- the slips from routine, the days that feel like jumps in time and seem to last forever but not long enough. The beautiful radiance of experiencing first time romance with a person that feels magical.

And what happens when the magic stops.

The languid, dreamy descriptions of drinking too much, doing too little and going to restaurants with warm lighting are depicted with such feeling and vividness which unravels in your mind like film tape.

Mustard is able to flick between past and present using the characters voices, making the novel feel like a discussion rather than a record and guide us into the feelings of Sam and Luc, and their sides of the events that broke them. But when the chapters that count down to their demise change, you are lead to wonder what will happen next as Sam and Luc's dynamic changes and they see other people but still feel drawn to eachother...

I really enjoyed the pace of this book as we read through Sam and Luc's relationship and I particularly enjoyed that it covered the phenomena of suspended time when you first meet someone and get together. Time seems a bit flimsy and simultaneously on pause but also not enough and you slip out of your routines to spend time with this new person. It was really enjoyable to relive in book form and I also loved that the chapter titles were countdowns to different defining moments in the pairs' relationship. Seeing their two points of views enhanced the story and have more depth to these moments and made me second guess my predictions for the ending and made it all that more satisfying to finish.

Sam is spending her summer working in London for a marketing agency before she returns back to Stockholm. There's only a few short, sweet months left before she leaves the city - and Lucas behind.

She and Lucas weren't meant to be anything when they reconnected this summer, but their passionate relationship is a perfect, beautiful distraction from the fact their lives are going nowhere. For now, life is spectacular and exciting - a haze of romance, sex and wine. But the summer is almost over and Sam is leaving, and that means they're both going back to a life that is grey and boring.

Unless they're ready to do something about it, and find something between the good and bad. Something that means something, even on the okay days.

"'So either catastrophe or quite sublime. Or both.' I fully fill my lungs.
'I mean, it's a risk.', he says. 'But consider the alterative.'
'Which is?'
'Bland. Tolerable.'"

A blinding testament to the fact that we as people are ever-changing and ever-growing, this story follows two people as their relationship is built and dismantled. They learn about each other, and themselves in tandem, as they navigate this confusing modern world and deal with reproductive issues, body image, sexuality, societal pressures, heartbreak and the simple fact that life is hard sometimes.

The narration switches between Sam and Luc, counting down the days of summer and I loved them as narrators. Sam was deeply relatable, witty, and flawed - always running from her problems and not sure how to face them head on. And as for Luc, I loved the poetic, beautiful way he saw the world despite all the difficulties he'd faced in his life. Both of them were suffering with serious Imposter Syndrome, not sure how they ended up where they are in life and with no idea how to move forward. They were magnetic and dazzling, refreshingly honest at times about both their desires and their dysfunctionality.

The setting is stifling - a sweaty, sticky summer in a burning and bustling city that's made even more intense by the passionate, exciting newness of everything in Sam's life. Together we look back at the early days years ago where they met in University, seeing a version of themselves that wasn't quite so bitter and tired yet and flowing easily from moment to moment. It wasn't exactly a linear story, instead it felt like snapshots of two lives over years and countries, dropping in and out at moments that changed their trajectories.

Honestly there were certain parts about the end of this story that left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, some of the decisions they made felt like they went beyond compromise into behaviours that were unhealthy and unsustainable - all of the amazing self-discovery and learning seemed to fall to the wayside in those last few pages which left me feeling just a bit disappointed.

Sharp, sweet and steamy - this is a beautiful story about finding and losing ourselves.

I can’t even put into words how sharp and beautifully put this book is! Sam and Lucas’s relationship is explained so perfectly, the way the friendship and relationship is explored and formed, the way everything is portrayed in this book is amazing! One of the best books I’ve read in a while!