Book Review: 'Did I mention I love you?' by Estelle Maskame

I bought this book for my kindle because I had seen it among other popular Young Adult books in the bookshops and then came across it mentioned in a Facebook group I'm a part of, saying that it was a book which originated as a self-published novel on Wattpad and had inspired many girls my age to pursue dreams of writing. I finished it about a month ago but I've been really bad at blogging recently!


Brief Summary: Eden agrees to spend the whole summer at her dad's new house, finally meeting her stepmum and 3 step brothers. While at home she was battling issue of breakdown in friendships and a lack of positive self body image, at her dads she finds herself hanging out with teens who party every other night. Eden must learn to deal with all of this, on top of discovering that being the new girl automatically makes her attractive to boys, including her eldest stepbrother!


I didn't think the standard of writing in this book was particularly sophisticated, however it was perfectly well written.


Parts of the story were very relatable and realistic, such as groups of guys and girls hanging out and getting ready for parties and getting drunk!


But, without giving too much away, the sudden romance between Eden and her step brother was quite unrealistic, considering how deeply she hated him and how much of a jerk he was!


It also bothered me a little bit that Maskame hinted that Eden was obsessively exercising and perhaps even skipping meals, but never sort of came to any real conclusion on whether she was struggling with her body image or anything, which I felt gave the wrong impression about how 'normal' girls react to being made to feel overweight, and how they should be acting. I may have read far too much into it but, that's the problem, it wasn't really made clear- in fairness I didn't realise that this book was the start of a trilogy when I was reading it.


I was also a little disappointed in the ending- it was fine, but a wee bit of a let down!


That said, DIMILY was a great summer read, and had an appeal to it that made me want to keep reading and never put down my kindle! Perhaps for a slightly younger audience? Actually maybe not the issues of drugs and parties and sex are more repayable to my age group I think! Although, increasingly from 15/16 upwards....


The second book of the trilogy is to be released at the end of this month and I think I will read it, but I won't be rushing to run out and buy it on the day its released, so I guess that gives you an impression of how I enjoyed it overall, but it won't make it in my top reads of all time!


Catriona Xx