Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for review.

This was a very short novel (I read it in about 40 minutes) and until I started, I had no idea that it was semi-autobiographical. Kudos to Kinsella for writing a very personal and sensitive story about a woman going through unexpected treatment for a brain tumor. This is a difficult story to read but there is a positive ending.

It feels almost wrong to give this one a proper rating of any sort, but let's just say it was one that I unexpectedly liked and admired.

Sophie Kinsella is a beloved author I've been a fan of for over two decades and reading this short story from her felt equally familiar but not at the same time. This autobiographical piece felt like a recollection of recent memories from the author and at the same time, written with the spunk that only Kinsella can spin in her unique way. I enjoyed it for what it was and at times felt like I most related to Nick, the husband in the book. Being a caretaker is no easy feat, let alone being the patient that's spiralling while wondering if they will live or perhaps die. That's why I liked this one as it was, and the length of this story felt appropriate in a way.


Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/The Dial Press for providing a digital reviewer's copy in exchange for my honest opinions of this book!

Sophie Kinsella has long been an auto buy author for me. I consider her Shopaholic books to be required reading. They are simultaneously funny and insightful. It should be no surprise that her latest autobiographical novella uses that same humor and honesty to tell Eve’s story.

Eve is a wife, mother, and successful novelist. She’s living her best life — until she isn’t. What derailed her idyllic life? Gioblastoma stage 4 - terminal brain cancer. Except Eve wakes up with no memory of her illness and is startled to find herself confined to a hospital bed.

The story that follows is one of resilience, courage, love, and strength. It’s also one of grief, acceptance, and the choices we make about how to live in the face of death. Told with Kinsella’s trademark warmth and charm, this is a poignant, touching, and hopeful piece of writing that will remain with me. I’m left hoping for Ms. Kinsella and her family to get the happy ending she always provides her readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advance copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

A deeply emotional, brave, brilliant, and heartbreaking story. What a truly insightful, raw, and hope filled book. This book provides a beacon of hope in the midst of heartbreaking chronic illness and pain. I truly cannot recommend this autobiographical fiction novel enough for anyone who has dealt with chronic illness or chronic illness of a loved one. This is a story where I think you will laugh. cry, and feel every emotion under the sun. Truly a special book!! Thank you to Netgalley, The Dial Press, and the author for the ARC of this book! Publication date is October 8, 2024.

My only complaint about this book is that it is so short! The main character is Eve, a successful novelist who develops brain cancer and gets a terminal diagnosis. Kinsella weaves humor into a tragic situation using emails, texts, and snippets of daily dialogue. I audibly gasped at the authors note at the end of the book, revealing that the book was a fictionalized account of her own diagnosis. What a brave way to work through a situation like that!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC e-copy.

Fantastically well done! I've loved reading Sophie Kinsella books over the years, and What Does It Feel Like? is her most intimate book yet. Despite technically being a novel, it is her story. Kinsella has an amazing ability to add some positivity and light to her heartbreaking narrative about fighting glioblastoma. She opened my eyes to the physical and emotional hardships she has faced and is most likely still facing. She is honest about her challenges while treasuring and holding on to her cherished and precious time with family. I could not put it down. Thank you, Sophie Kinsella, for sharing your story through Eve. And thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/The Dial Press for the digital ARC.

Sophie Kinsella has always been an auto-buy author for me, and *What Does It Feel Like* reminded me exactly why. I had the absolute pleasure of reading this ARC, and I devoured it in one sitting. From start to finish, I was overwhelmed with emotion, crying through much of it. Kinsella has a way of creating characters with sharp, witty attitudes, something I've always loved in her books, and she didn’t disappoint with Eve in this one. Even though this story was raw, real, and heartbreakingly sad, that quirky charm still shone through. I was blown away by how she balanced those two elements so beautifully. This book will stay with me for a long time—so great to read especially if this hits close to home.

Sophie Kinsella's novels have been so fun to fall into over the years. Humor and romance always woven so beautifully together. In this, however, Kinsella shares her own personal story in a slightly fictionalized version.

Eve, a successful author, battles an incurable cancer. Told in anecdotes and vignettes, the reader follows Eve through some of her darkest days.

Despite the heaviness and personalness of the content, Kinsella still finds a way to bring in the humor and love aspects in her novel that are well adored, making this unimaginable tragedy somehow uplifting.

I only wish it wasn't so short.

My thanks to NetGalley and Dial Press.

I’ve been a fan of Ms Kinsella’s books since I discovered the first shopaholic book all those years ago. Her stories are always so real and funny and so much fun to read and while this one was definitely real and funny it was not fun to read because it broke my heart to read about her cancer story. Yes, this is a work of fiction, but it’s based on the authors life events and to know that she had to go through so much just makes me so sad. At the same time, that she was able to see the positive side of things, from the physical therapy to the plastic chairs in the waiting rooms, and you can’t help but applaud her resilience. If you’re looking for a pity party in this story, you’re not going to find it-the FMC. (And Sophie) have a great support system, especially her husband.
I loved that each chapter was a short little snippet on the various bits along the journey and a look at cancer directly from the perspective of the patient.
Thanks to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

5⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an advanced copy of What Does Ir Feel Like?

Eve is a writer and she is really struggling with her current novel. She decides to take a break and she goes shopping and finds an amazing dress and she gets the idea to write about what she would want to read. Her next novel is a huge success and she gets to wear her amazing dress on the red carpet for the movie premiere of her book with her husband and five children. Then one day she wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. Then her husband tells her the devastating news-she has brain cancer and it is incurable.

This book was very well done. It tells the story of going through cancer and what it actually feels like. The good and the bad and it does it beautifully.

I was so sad to learn of Sophie Kinsella's devastating diagnosis, which I had not heard about until I read this book.

Ms. Kinsella writes the story of "Eve", a novelist who is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. This book is noted to be semi-autographical and therefore Eve represents Ms. Kinsella. She writes of how she was out shopping on just a normal day and suddenly she wakes up in a hospital and is told she has had brain surgery. Eve remembers none of this, and the book traces how she learns to walk, talk and write again.

This book is such a heartbreaking read because you know that Ms. Kinsella is talk about herself. She tells of breaking the news of her diagnosis to her children. She tells of how she feels during certain treatments, and how some days are better than others. I laughed and cried while devouring this very special read.

I hope the best for Ms. Kinsella and pray that she is able to beat the odds and live a long happy life and write many more beautiful books.

Thank you @netgalley for the advanced copy of this beautiful novella. The author has said that this book is as close to an autobiography as she’s come in her history as an author. The retelling of Eves brain cancer feels hyper-realistic (and it clearly is) as we experience the brief moments of clarity in a regularly confusing world. Even as she starts to heal and get stronger, there are still blank spots among the many light moments in this book. I think her point is to remind us to live in that light as much as we can, even when the dark threatens to overwhelm us. This was a short and sweet novel that I read in a day, desperate to find out what happened to Eve. It is not entirely depressing but it is also not entirely cheerful either, and such is life, right?

Eve has it all. Her latest novel has been turned into a major movie. But she doesn't remember anything after the big premiere. She wakes up in the hospital and has been told that she had brain surgery. The rest of the story has Eve navigating her troubles and hardships, having to learn how to walk, talk, write, and remember.
The beginning reads like Shopaholic and you get why when you read the author's note, which I don't normally do but highly recommend in this case. This was fast paced - too fast maybe? Since it's a novella, where wasn't much choice, but it did make it feel somewhat disconnected. I loved Nick's patience and compassion. Check the content warnings, because it's not a light and easy read (although it's not completely depressing either).
I received an advance review copy of this book for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This short, sweet book is is of an autobiographical nature for the author. Although all the names are fictional it is about her life after her cancer diagnosis, surgery and rehab. She had to learn to walk again after she had surgery to remove a large, malignant brain tumor. I love that she has kept her sense of humor through it all. Thanks to @NetGalley for the ARC of this book. It was very enlightening.

Eve is an author who after changing the focus of her latest book becomes even more successful after it is made into a movie. She has everything she wants ... a loving husband, five children and a career. Then one day she wakes up in the hospital and has no idea why. It has been discovered that she had a brain tumor and it was removed. She has a long healing process and has to learn to walk again, can't remember things or conversations that happened yesterday and the survival rate is on average 12 months (hopefully longer). She's lucky that she has a supporting and loving family to help her get well.

It wasn't until I had finished this book that I discovered that "Eve" is actually the author, who was diagnosed in 2022 with a brain tumor and these are the things she has been living through since then. I liked the writing style and it's broken up in story form, emails, texts, etc. I wish the author all the best in her recovery.

This book really shook me. Sophie Kinsella has been my long time favorite and to know that she underwent this medical trauma was, well heartbreaking.

Written beautifully as a fictional tale of her hurdles, manifested in her heroine Eve, this book was sad, but knowing that there is a happy ending made it bearable.

#netgalley #WhatDoesItFeelLike

What Does it Feel Like? is a memoir book written by Sophie Kinsella. Told through the writings of Eve, it starts off with Eve trying to decide on a story to write. She decides to write a story about writing a story. Eve wakes up in the hospital after a surgery to remove a brain tumor. This is a beautifully written book documenting the trials of healing from a surgery and going through therapy. Eve is stuck in a groundhog day situation where she relearns her diagnosis daily from her husband. The struggles that Eve and her family go through shows an accurate representation of the situation. This is on the shorter side and I flew through the book needing to know what happens to Eve (Sophie).

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House | The Dial Press for an ARC of What Does it Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella for an honest review.

How do you even rate this? I had no idea of what Sophie Kinsella was going through, so I thought I was just reading another of her yearly releases. I was looking forward to it, especially after The Burnout, a favorite for me.

So you're not me: this is a short story about a writer who has finally built a beautiful family with a loving husband, and found success. Until one day, she wakes up in the hospital after a surgery to remove a mass in her brain of which she can't remember anything. She's so weak, she can hardly hold memories for a while as her body recovers.

And yes, this is inspired on the author's own experience with a few changes even though I had no idea until I reached a point in the book I couldn't ignore how real all the descriptions seemed.

Kinsella is still alive, we know the ending, but I still couldn't stop hurting from the pages. Of course, as this is fiction, we do get an ending, and it's flawless. This isn't a story about tragedy.

Still, keep in mind all the context in case it can be a trigger for you. Otherwise, I recommend it to everyone.



Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

What Does It Feel Like is a touching, heartfelt novel about Eve, a novelist recovering from brain tumor surgery. As she relearns to walk, talk, and write, Eve reflects on the importance of life’s small moments—family, love, and simple joys. Told through short, poignant anecdotes, Sophie Kinsella blends humor and heartbreak in a way that makes this novel both deeply moving and uplifting. It’s a beautiful celebration of life and resilience, sure to stay with readers long after the final page.

I did not put this book down until I finished it. I sobbed, I laughed, and I sobbed again. So many amazing feelings for so few pages. I feel so frustrated for Eve as she’s working on her memory. It’s written so well, the reader is learning so much with Eve and routing for her the whole way! I will be telling everyone who is a Sophie fan ( and even those who don’t know they’re fans yet) that this is a must read!!