Finding true love and your most suitable partner for life doesn’t come easy for Adam. A choice between his Australian lover twenty odd years ago, Angeline and current lover Claire. Who will it be?
A clever idea of a storyline all surrounding the world of song lyrics, some famous and popular songs of my time. There are parts of the tale where I was slightly lost and confused but soon got back on track.
A delightful ending, which sets you pondering on two points:
Does passion and raunchy sex play a vital role in true love?
Or
Does sharing the passion for the same goal and understanding of each other’s inner soul can conquer true love?

I finished this book a couple of days ago and admit to being confused about my feelings towards it, if I'm brutally honest I'm sort of pleased it's over. Firstly, it's not the Rosie Project, although that's clear from the title it does bare iteration, if, you enjoyed (and who didn't) the Rosie Project that doesn't mean you will enjoy The Best of Adam Sharp.
The book revolves around the title character, Adam Sharp, he has a well paid job that he enjoys (database consultant), a long-term relationship, he likes pub quizzes and loves music. His life, coming up to the age of 50, is OK.
Then out of the blue he get's an email from an old flame, not AN old flame, but THE old flame, the beautiful Angelina who, 22 years previously Adam had had a short affair with while he was getting his head together before committing to a more permanent relationship (there MAY be a pattern here). The email conjures up thoughts of missed opportunities and what ifs, after a few flirty emails being exchanged Angelina invites Adam to spend the week at her holiday home in France with her and her husband. Adam, who had already decided his current relationship with Claire was old and stale, agreed to go - and then the weird starts. I don't want to go into details of 'the weird' but suffice to say I wasn't comfortable with it, and it didn't really work. Many questions felt unanswered, why would he go in the first place? What did he hope to gain? Do people really walk around under the belief that if you have an affair it's ok as long as you never admit it?
So, in the end, I didn't much like Adam Sharp as a character, or Angelina either for that matter, they, for the most part behaved like spoilt children. The book was well written though, and Simsion is right, relationships are tricky, they are messy, complicated and take commitment, care and work, and even then we don't necessarily get them right. What does make the book stand out is the use of music, it threads through the narrative like a soundtrack in a movie and as does a movie soundtrack it becomes a part of the story.
Thanks to Netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Graeme Simsion – and I know this is not what authors want to hear – will always make me smile primarily because I think of the wonderful Don in The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect. I got a review copy of the first book, knew nothing about it, didn’t at all know what to expect, and completely fell in love with the story of the clever academic who sets out on a logical search for his life partner. She appears early in the book, and we all know what will happen (even though she does not match ANY of his criteria for a perfect woman) and we all hugely enjoy watching clever Don slowly catch up with us. I told everyone to read the book, gave copies out as gifts, and correctly predicted it would be a bestseller. The sequel was just as good.

So, I know this is unfair, I just miss Don in this, Simsion’s new book. Adam is much more normal than Don – he is more like a Nick Hornby character, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. He has been with his partner Claire for many years, but an email out of the blue makes him think back to 1989 and the mad love affair he had in Australia with an actress called Angie. Of course he loves his partner, but things are steady and dull now. And as he splendidly says:

What would it say about my relationship with Claire if I felt too vulnerable to respond to an innocuous query [from Angelina]?
So he replies to his old flame, and tells us the story of their original affair, which takes up a big chunk of the book, and is a nice light romantic tale. It’s very funny, and convincing. I think the passage above shows how well he writes – it’s a gentle touch, but you get a lot of info from that simple description. Adam is obsessed by music, and throughout the book he tells you what was playing and has all kinds of trivia and unlikely byways about contemporary music of the past 50 years – the author has even provided a playlist that you should listen to while reading the book, and I certainly hauled out some old tracks after reading Adam’s comments on them. 

Simsion is also very good on clothes. I particularly liked Adam buying new walking gear (hoping to fit in but failing) because it reminded me of trying to find a picture of a Gore-Tex jacket expensive enough for the first Rosie book.

In the second half of the book, Adam goes to meet up with Angelina – and her husband Charlie. Yes. They all three have a vacation together: old and new friends, meeting up, fun occasion in a beautiful house in the South of France. I would never in a million years have guessed how this was going to pan out, and I doubt any other readers will either. There were some most unexpected twists and turns, which I will not spoiler, and it certainly kept me reading, though some of it made me feel a bit sticky, queasy (can’t define it further than that).

It’s an odd, muddling book: extremely entertaining and funny, and very perceptive on various aspects of life. I love the fact that it was a book about older people, at a different stage in their life but still having strong feelings, able to make mistakes, fall in love, and make right and wrong decisions. (Rather like my recent discovery, Jane Fallon.)

So even if Don and Rosie are missing, I do recommend this one as a thoughtful but very funny look at a mid-life crisis.

This novel could easily be titled 'the best and worst of Adam Sharp' but that would be giving it away or perversely 'Adams dilemma' as this sums Simsion's latest novel. Almost fifty, Adam an IT consultant, is in a steady relationship with Claire living a rather humdrum existence. Unlike the chemistry and fire of his affair with the budding actress Angelina Brown as a 23-year-old travelling IT consultant that felt like meeting one's soul mate. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Adam still wistfully reminisces the past, pining for a different outcome. 22 years later, when Angelina gets in touch with him he faces a dilemma. As Adam's dilemma plays out it is an eye opener into his life and persona. Being shaped by ones life experiences, they govern our decisions, what one is prepared to do or not. A familiar trope used by most writers but what distinguishes Simsion's work is in the telling. His sardonic sentimentality as he explores these emotions catch one by surprise. There are no laugh out loud moments the humour is subtle and poignantly bittersweet. One can almost taste the sweet bitterness as Adam's dilemma unfolds. Hardly a racy read, yet one is mesmerised and the pages keep turning. Told in the first person POV by Adam one can imagine that Adam in one's living room narrating the tale or maybe one is driving through England with Adam as the passenger narrating his life story. A romance, though not in the conventional sense Simsion's style is matter of fact. Such indeed is Simsion's genius that an ordinary IT consultant's mundane English life is nudged to the extraordinary. From the first page, one realises that there is definitely nothing ordinary about this tale. As Adam lives out his dilemma one is mesmerised, caught unexpectedly by surprising moments and insights. One lives Adams experiences and perceptions through the pages of the novel. Simsion matter of factly weaves a magical web around commonplace elevating it to the captivating. He subtly exposes Adams failings in contrast to the blatant disclosure of his fathers, Alfred Sharp. All the characters are adroitly used by Simsion to bluntly scrutinise every aspect of Adams life, serving it up for one to read. Moreover, the novel revolves around various songs that Adam plays on the piano. It is Simsion's premise that if life is music, could songs reflect the music of our lives or as in this novel Adam's life. Though it is not essential to know the songs or their words to enjoy the novel, doubtless one would appreciate the nuances better if one did. Since this is my first book by this author, I am not able to comment on how different it may be from his Rosie Project. As one turns the final page on Simsion's novel, one cannot help but treasure 'commonplace'. Commonplace can never be the same again. There is an HEA for those addicted to HEAs, albeit with an ironic twist. Ah well, by now one will surely have realised that irony might well be another hallmark of Simsion's work. Despite being tempted, one desisted from the urge to indulge in an in depth discussion of this novel here since that would have diminished the surprise element Simsion has casually injected into the story. However, readers would have great fun dissecting it in a reading group or book club. This might well be the best of Graeme Simsion.

me. A breath of fresh air in between a couple of heavy crime novels. A really lovely story of how music can bring people together, and how a single song or lyric can stir up memories long forgotten.

Adam Sharp is an IT Consultant, forty nine going on fifty, a regular pub quiz goer with a stable long term relationship. He is happy, content, so he is shocked when he receives a message from an ex-girlfriend, Angelina out of the blue.

Adam met Angelina Brown, actually the love of his life, at the age of Twenty Six. He was playing the piano and singing in a bar in Australia whilst travelling and it was love at first sight. She was a goddess.

Sadly their relationship was doomed from the start, she was a famous Australian soap star, and his time in Oz was limited. But that didn't stop them falling head over heels for each other.

Decades later they are both with other people, Adam knows that he shouldn't respond to Angelina. But you never forget your first love...

When Angelina asks him if he dares to live dangerously, Adam sees it a challenge.

But can two people who loved each other more than Twenty Years ago really still have feelings for each other. And if they do, what should they do about it?

The Best of Adam Sharp is a perfect mid life crisis of a novel. I think there's a little of Adam in all of us, and not necessarily the good bits...

The Best of Adam Sharp is available now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

(3.5 stars rounded to 4)

I just couldn't get through this book, hard as I tried. I don't enjoy putting a book down without knowing the ending at all, but I found the constant name dropping and shoe horning in of songs and song facts like being at a never ending pub quiz with the most smug person in the world. It was such an overused conceit that none of the conversations or inner dialogues worked at all because they are all written around this persistent character trait. Instead of being endearing it quickly became nauseating for me and I simply couldn't force myself to enjoy it and carry on with the story. Disappointing, since I was a fan of the Rosie Project.

1989 and Adam Sharp is in Australia for a few months as part of a worldwide contract in database design. In a bar one evening Adam starts playing the piano, music is his passion, and he catches the eye of an attractive woman. This begins a brief but passionate affair with Angelina, a married actress with a lot of baggage. Despite falling in love Adam leaves to continue his contract and there is no contact with Angelina for 22 years. Adam has lived with Claire for the past 20 years but that relationship has reached a crisis point so when Angelina gets in touch and wants to meet Adam finds himself at a crossroads.

Having loved the 'Rosie' novels I was keen to read more of Simsion's work and this novel did not disappoint. For those expecting more of the same this is somewhat different. At times the events are incredibly uncomfortable to read and the motivations of each of the protagonists are unclear and seemingly selfish. Adam is a likeable enough hero but he is deeply flawed and Simsion explores the nature of middle age sensitively. Running through the book is a thread built around music - songs are the motif for emotions, lyrics express more than conversation. This is an incredibly satisfying book, it shows a huge leap in the maturity of the Simsion's writing and much rang true.

The Best of Adam Sharp is a book about life, relationships and the one that got away so to speak and plenty of great music.

Adam is in a long term relationship with Claire. Their relationship is just ticking along but there just doesn't seem to be a particular spark between them anymore. It's as if they are just going through the motions of everyday life.

That is until one day Adam receives an email from an Ex and it's all about to change!
Angelina is Adams "one that got away"
By hearing from her she stirs up alot of raw emotion and feelings.
He is torn in what to do as he's heart is telling him to try and rekindle he's love with Angelina.
However she is married!
She invites Adam to come and stay with her and her husband.
In he's eyes what harm could it do!

I'm just not sure I would like my long term partner to just jet off to get reacquainted with he's old flame. Even if her husband is there!
To me it was all a bit fishy! So to speak.

Do I agree with second chances?
Yes if no one gets hurt!
But to what cost will this holiday cause.

I enjoyed the style of writing and getting to know the characters.
Other readers have said they felt sorry for Adam. I'm not sure that I agree.
Why now? Why not just close that Chapter and leave well alone. He may not necessarily of been happy but Angelina is also married. Is she happy? That's for you to find out!

At the back of the book is a collection of music playlist to tantalise your senses whilst reading this book.  Graeme has put alot of thought into the playlist which is a very different aspect to the book which I enjoyed.

I'm not sure if I would recommend this book as I'm torn with my emotions.
I guess it did get me thinking a fair amount. I guess in my eyes for me it was a little controversial in the marital side of things. But that is just my opinion.
I struggled to truly relate to the characters as I wasn't sure how I was meant to be feeling. Or Maybe that was the point to the story. Maybe I was meant to feel that way. It would be interesting to see if others felt the same way.

Overall the book wasn't particularly bad it just wasn't for me.

Adam is an IT consultant, has been in a relationship with Claire for over twenty years. He admits that he is currently taking more from his bank of memories than he is putting in. Somewhere in the back of his mind lurks the unforgotten love of his life, Angelina Brown. Adam is a pianist, and there are songs irrevocably entwined with his relationship with Angelina forged in Melbourne that lasted a memorable three months. Then after all these years, Angelina who married Charlie and has three children contacts Adam by email. Amidst all the arguments that he should not be engaging with her raging in his head, he cannot help but get drawn back into the intense time of his youth.

At the same time, his relationship with Claire comes to a head after years of just treading water. It's hard to escape that this is triggered by his recent connection to Angie and all the hopes and yearnings of yesteryear bubbling over amidst thoughts of resurrecting their love. To be quite frank, I did not really engage with their obstacle ridden love affair until he spends Christmas with Angie's family. In the present, Adam gets an invitation to spend a week in France from Angie and her husband, Charlie, which puzzles him but he accepts. He finds himself in the midst of a complicated scenario with Angie and Charlie where many underlying issues in their marriage emerge amidst a revival of Adam's love upon seeing Angie.

What I really tuned into is the role music plays in their lives, the way songs are seen to underpin memories, love, loss, pain, regrets and deeply imprinting life changing events within this novel. This resonates with my experience of the role music has had in my life. Specific songs and lyrics in the book make a statement, lay bare the innermost thoughts and longings that have yet to be acknowledged consciously, lock in the connections to a particular person, a period of time and so much more. Adam connects with a father that walked out on the family through music and his playing of the piano. Music is the tool to dissect relationships, coming to understand relationships and the hidden currents that run beneath the surface. And when all is said and done, whatever happens they will always have music to console and rebuild. All hail the glory and power of music! Many thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph for an ARC.

Adam is 49 years old and an IT consultant currently living in Norwich. Although he lives with Claire his long term partner he has never truly got over Angelina Brown , a young woman he met in Australia 22 years ago. Their relationship only lasted for 3 months while Adam was under contract there but he has always wished he stayed and married her.

This is a book of two halves, the first explaining Adam’s life with Claire and his past with Angelina. The second half I found rather strange, as Adam is reunited with Angelina and her husband Charlie in France. This part of the book is most odd and definitely not for the prudish out there! With Adam deciding to leave Claire, Angelina and Charlie’s marriage crumbling, there appears to be a lot of game playing going on and it’s only a matter of time for someone to get hurt.

Adam’s life strongly revolves around music which features throughout this book and although I don’t know all the songs that are mentioned there is a playlist at the end.

This is my first read by Graeme Simsion and as I have read such good reviews of his previous novels The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect when I saw it on Net Galley I had to give it a try.

I really struggled with this book, and in the end gave up with it. The storyline seemed to go nowhere (and take a long time in getting there). I couldn't really get to like Adam, nor care where his life ended up going.

It's disappointing as I was really looking forward to this.

Having enjoyed both The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect, I was interested in reading what Graeme Simsion delivered next, stepping away from the world of Don Tillman. This time he turns his focus on Adam Sharp, an average Joe in his late 40's who appears to be embarking on a textbook mid-life crisis - reconnecting with Angelina, AKA the actress formerly known as the love of his life.
Unbeknownst to his long-term partner Claire, he forms a flirtatious cyber connection with his ex, culminating in an invitation from Angelina to come and hang out with her and her husband in rural France. There then follows a somewhat bizarre menage a trois that left me feeling a little uncomfortable - it just felt like I was intruding into one of Simsion's own sexual fantasies, and that I shouldn't be reading it. The characters, while well formed, became less and less plausible as the story progresses, culminating in an unnecessarily long and drawn out denouement.
Even the much vaunted soundtrack to the book feels like a male muso bore patronising his way through a list of artists you should listen to, rather than songs you'd actually enjoy. Maybe, as a woman, I'm not the target audience for this book. Maybe it's only targeted at nerdy IT guys having a mid-life crisis. Either way, this was a novel that started well and lost its way somewhere deep in the French countryside.

Unfortunately, I really didn't like this book, found the sex scenes off-putting (and I'm no prude).

Ever read a book where old memories were rekindled? This is one such and the storyline was familiar to me as indeed was the venue for the lover’s final meeting a couple of decades following their initial affair and break-up. All the emotions of first love, the passing of time, the stale middle years and then the reawakening of feelings suppressed are very well expressed. Music and lyrics feature heavily as a device for evoking a memory or emotion and is very cleverly weaved into the story. The week in Macon was a masterpiece in laying bare the full panoply of physical and emotional interactions between the not so private tryst and the husband. The final jigsaw piece gave credibility to the somewhat bizarre threesome. Do we look back on earlier relationships with rose tinted spectacles, has time blurred the edges? Maybe we hanker after something irrationally, where time will have inevitably taken its toll, in search of reliving our youth. The strange thing is though, that love doesn’t age, we just get more pragmatic!

Having read and very much enjoyed Simsion's Rosie books I was interested to have the opportunity to read this new book, thanks to the author, netgalley and the publisher for that, but if you are similar and expecting more of the same this book is not going to deliver on that. But although it lacks some of that humour and joy it is an equally well written read but the second half takes a jump to something that is slightly darker. Seen through his own eyes Adam Sharp's story fluctuates between his life at 26 and then him approaching fifty; the slightly dry viewpoint and lack of awareness in relationships provides some echoes with Don Tillman and may reflect the analytical 'thinking' man.
The first half of the book concentrates on his romance with young actress Angelina during a time contract working in Melbourne but also dips into his life with long-term partner Claire in Norwich. The story is intertwined with a musical soundtrack and you may well find yourself checking up lyrics as that adds to your understanding of what is going on emotionally.
In the second half he reconnects with Angelina and gets to know her husband in a very strange week in a small village in France. This second half of the book has some sex scenes with some bits that seem a little hard to credit and the conclusion didn't completely flow from all that had gone before but I was engaged enough with the story that I wanted to see what happened to all the characters.
Overall I felt it was an interesting idea to explore and knowing people who have reconnected with past loves after many years, via Facebook, that sudden frisson of excitement that starts Adam on this strange re-connection seems to ring true. I found myself lacking engagement with some of the characters, particularly Angelina, and I found myself wanting to know more about the wider cast of characters that Simsion has created: his mates at the quiz; the barman in Australia; and some family members.
I will look out for more by Simsion as I do find the stories engaging and the characters he creates intriguing even when I have slight issues with some plot twists - a 3.5* read

I'm sorry to report that I had to give in on this book after about 30 pages. I persisted as much as I could, but simply never got that 'connection' feeling I look for in a story.
I've given 2 stars as the writing was clear and I could see what the author was trying to get across, but the connection just wasn't there for me.
Sorry author, and I really expect other readers to feel different to me but I have to be honest - not one for me.

Adam sharp receives a messenger from his past, Australian, Angelina has been in touch bringing back a host of bittersweet memories of his affair years ago when he had been seconded to Australia with his job. Splitting from his lovely partner Clair due to having a mid life crisis he decides to go to France to meet his long lost love. There are some excruciating embarrassing moments and you really want to shake Adam.
I took a little while to settle into this book, perhaps not as engaging or amusing as the Rosie Project, but that said a well written romantic story, wry at times and with great references to the music of the era.
Thanks to net galley and publisher for opportunity to review this book

Adam Sharp lives a life of quiet satisfaction in Norwich - working as an IT consultant, going to pub quizzes, happily partnered to Claire. But when an email from his one lost love, Angelina, arrives out of the blue, he starts to wonder: is a life of quiet satisfaction all he can aspire to?

The Best Of Adam Sharp will hold immediate appeal for fans of Nick Hornby (comparisons to High Fidelity are inevitable) and Tony Parsons. While it's not a patch on the author blockbuster debut novel The Rosie Project, the wry wit is, aptly, quietly satisfactory.

The best of Adam Sharp is about a middle aged man (you guessed it - Adam Sharp) working in a dull but well paid IT consultancy role. His relationship with partner Claire is also dull but functional, in an I'll-cook-tonight-can-you-take-the-bins-out type way. Adam and Claire seem to be blandly plodding through life when a blast from the past gets in contact to reconnect with Adam. What happens next is possibly the most unemotional assessment of what would happen if... that I've ever read. There's some sexy bits, some intrigue and lots of game playing, which make some parts of the book interesting but ultimately... yeah. The word that springs to mind is just, you know... dull.

Let's start with the characters. Adam Sharp is a boring middle aged man. He builds IT databases. He's in a pub quiz team. He has a dull partner who is in a walking club. He says himself that he's not especially good looking. He lives in Norwich. AND YET WE ARE LED TO BELIEVE THAT HE MANAGES TO PULL AN EXTREMELY ATTRACTIVE AUSTRALIAN ACTRESS - because he can play the piano. I think the author may have wildly overestimated the effects of pub singers on women. Yes, it's not completely beyond the realms of possibility but really? We're also expected to believe that after a brief relationship in their early twenties, this glamorous, clever woman - who lives, let's not forget, half way around the world - gets back in contact to pick up where they left off. Despite having a sexy husband and three kids. And living in Australia.

Then there's the female characters themselves. There's poor dull Claire, passively letting Adam drift out of her life (after 20 odd years) because her job keeps her happy. Then there's Angelina, the sexy actress with the great life, loads of cash, husband, kids etc. And Adam gets to choose between them. In real life, I suspect both of them would have ditched him long ago. Instead, Adam selfishly meanders into a bizzare love triangle where he weighs up his options based entirely on what is best for him. There is literally no thought given to what the women are thinking or feeling - only a brief bit of guilt that he might break up a marriage and this would make him like his dad, who he hated/idolized in equal measure. This utter selfishness made me really dislike him - by the end of the book I wanted him to end up alone and living with his mother.

As far as the story goes, there's an awful lot of Adam thinking about songs that express his emotions, but literally nothing about him actually feeling anything. A lot of the songs are pretty mainstream (Beatles, Stones, Bob Dylan etc.) but I wasn't familiar with some of them so the meaning was lost on me. There's a lot of technical waffle about playing the piano in b minor or whatever which again was lost on me.

Throughout the book, the author mentions that Adam and Claire DO NOT HAVE CHILDREN at least ten times. I have no idea why this is such a massive deal, especially as we're told that they're both ok with the fact. Is the author saying you can't have a happy lasting relationship without kids? Does that somehow make it ok to go off with other women? I'm not sure.

In fairness, the middle part of the book was quite interesting. Again, there was far too much technical detail about what wine was being drunk (who cares) and nothing about emotions/thoughts/feelings but once the story finally got going I found it could be quite enjoyable. Yes, there are some bits which are so middle aged man fantasy as to be almost a pastiche (short red see through negligee anyone?) but there was at least a bit of suspense. Unfortunately, this didn't last long and concluded with a terrible ending but for a while I thought the book showed some promise. Case in point - the torrid love affair is interspersed with whole days devoted to logging on to the wi-fi to get some database building done. Whilst sat next to the woman that you're passionately in love with. Who is also working away on her own laptop. Who said romance is dead?

Overall, I found this book quite boring. It picked up in the middle (where there was some actual action) but for the most part it was just a story about a man dithering between choosing one passive woman over another, with no concerns for their emotions or the fact that they might not want him. The sex scenes were more factual than passionate, there was far too much technical detail and I didn't think the use of music to convey emotions worked particularly well. In fairness, the songs chosen were not the type that I would usually listen to so perhaps there was a layer of subtlety that was lost on me that other readers would have enjoyed - but I couldn't find it. Not terrible, but not for me, I'm afraid.

I enjoyed this book.. I think the story is so well written that it kept my attention despite it being a little far fetched. I also believed in the character, Adam. The young Adam, has a love affair whilst travelling in Australia with a not so believable character named Angelina. Adam continues his travels partly because Angelina is married. Twenty plus years later she comes back into his life but with a different husband in tow. No more of the story ,it will spoil it! The story has a continuing reference to songs/music etc, Adam being a pianist and this also added to this reader's enjoyment.