Book Review: 'Billy and Me' by Giovanna Fletcher

I heard about this book through watching Carrie Hope Fletcher and Tom Fletcher on YouTube, and so I took it out of the library and finished it in about 2 days, completing in on Monday.

It isn't what I'd necessarily call a 'serious' read, but it was exactly what I needed after just finishing 'The Book Thief', which depressed me a little!

Brief Summary: Sophie May is a girl living in a small village, working in a teashop, her best friends an elderly lady, her mum drifts in and out of depression, her sad past has stolen her confidence and she's not really sure what she wants to do with her life. Then a new film-version of a literary classic begins filming nearby, and with it comes the film star cast, including the charming Billy Buskin. The pair fall in love, but Billy's world isn't all that Sophie expected.

For a debut novel, 'Billy and Me' is well written, I think. It was exactly the kind of light hearted story I like, but it also had underlying messages too.

I didn't love all parts of the novel, I'll be honest.

I'm a young girl who's never known the feeling of being in love, I love to read and I work in a little café in a reasonably small town. So, although I'm far from BEING Sophie, I could relate to elements of her situation. And, however much I wish I could, the idea of there whirlwind romance seem a bit too unrealistic to believe in. I know its probably just being cynical, and I did thoroughly enjoy the tale for what it was, but even if I could believe the 'famous lad falls for normal girl' part, which I suppose is possible, the speed at which they are suddenly acting like a married couple is a bit odd in my opinion, considering their only in their early twenties. But, I admit, I am being very picky.

The thing that got to me, and I cannot make up my mind if this was a fault in the writing, on Fletcher's part, or a personal thing to me as a reader that I interpreted myself, but as the book went on, I began to really really dislike main character Sophie May. I think part of it was deliberately included by Fletcher, because her aim was to delineate the paranoia Sophie feels when her boyfriend is so desirable, but I just felt as though almost the entire story was focused on Sophie's jealousy and protectiveness over a boy who isn't even cheating on her and who, lets face it, hasn't exactly known her that long. I'm not suggesting that him being a star gives him special treatment when it comes to treating his girlfriend (if only just!) with respect, but, as far as I was concerned, the character of Billy was going out of his way to please Sophie and continue his usual life.

There is one particular point, and you'll need to read the book yourself to fully understand, when I literally wanted to scream at the girl! Billy Buskin is on set performing a sexual scene and, to be fair, his co-star is his ex girlfriend and his current girlfriend, Sophie, is watching. But I was so angry at her reaction and the fact that she put all the blame on him and then blanked him. ITS HIS JOB GIRL! IF YOU'RE UNCOMFORTABLE THEN LEAVE AS HE SAID HE WOULD TOTALLY UNDERSTAND IF YOU DID!!

Haha, I read so much into it, but it's just because the character's came to life to me, which I believe indicates and excellent author. So I'm really not being disrespectful to the writing, if Giovanna Fletcher can manage to make me want to punch one of her character's into sanity, then that's some achievement. My query is, was it intentionally like that?!

To be honest, both lead character's change throughout the book, into people I didn't imagine them being when they're first introduced to the story, and I suppose, if a little disappointing for the reader, it resembles real life quite accurately, all of us change.

And so, I genuinely hope I haven't put anyone off reading this, because its an ideal teen read and I really want to read Giovanna's second book. But If you do read or have read, please comment what you thought of the character of Sophie.. I'm really curious to know if its just me that felt the need to let out my frustration at her- its quite possible that, since I read this when breaking from studying, I was just tired and stressed and a re-read would change my view!

Catriona x x