I received this book in exchange for an honest review - for a full review check out my YouTube or Goodreads account

Don't know how I felt about the emphasis on Fab being Polish and how that apparently made him all that different from anyone else, and it just felt disingenuine that a grand romantic gesture needed to be done because the protagonist finally got over herself.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.

Finding freedom with her choice of college, Annie has no plans to settle down, and get a boyfriend. Free from uniforms, from expectations, from her peers knowing her as only the girl with cerebral palsy, Annie loves the train ride to sixth form, and her freedom to make her way around in whatever way she wishes. But when she is paired with Fab in English, studying Wuthering Heights, she soon realises that all Fab wants is a good old fashioned romance, and Annie is the one he has his heart on. Soon though, Annie finds that she's loving spending time with Fab, and his Polish family, and she may, just may, be falling for him in return.

Well, I'm going to hold my hands up and admit this is a book I completely forgot about on my kindle, so when I wasn't too fussed with what my next book was, I picked a random one, and this popped up. I liked Annie to a certain extent. She had faced so much in her school years, and though people weren't actively horrible to her about her disability, she still had to be strong and hide how much it hurt to be treated differently. Being at college with new people, she could make new friends, and create a new 'Annie'. Having a boyfriend is not in her plans, so when Fab appears, all eccentric and clearly falling for her, she's immediately annoyed, and can be a little hurtful too. Fab was definitely over the top, and honestly, I would not want to be friends with him in real life, but I feel like he was exactly what Annie needed to come out of her shell, and enjoy college more. A nice read about the transition from school to college, and gaining some independence.

Unfortunately I no longer wish to review this book as the first few chapters did not reel me in. Thank you for the opportunity.

I absolutely adore Jenny McLachlan. I knew Truly Wildly Deeply would be lovely and it was. Annie and Fab separately are amazing characters but something special happens when they're together. Rooting for them the entire way through this adorable story. Loved the disability representation and also the immigrant story.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Really enjoyable read. Good characters and a Good story. Well worth a read. Think others will enjoy.

An enjoyable read with well drawn characters. I found that I was quickly wrapped up in the story and really didn't want to put it down.

Funny and cute. Good to have representation of disability. Diversity is the key with kids books. The characters did sound quite young. But all in all an enjoyable read.

I have liked Jenny McLachlan other books for the longest time so when I got the opportunity to read her book I was really excited. Truly, Wildly, Deeply is a stunning book that tackles first relationships with humour and wit making it a must read.

From the off, Truly, Madly, Deeply hit me with its witty nature. I fell in love with Annie from the first moment that we meet her. Jenny is so good with her writing! She was blindly relatable and genuinely funny being the stand out of the book. Having a disability myself similar to cerebral palsy it was great to read someone similar to me except my disability is a lot milder to what Annie deals with the book. I loved she did not let this get in the way of her life and it was wonderful to read about a character with a disability, a rarity in YA.

Her relationship with other characters was also really great especially the subtle relationship between her and her Mum. Her Mum was a spark of joy was caring for her daughter which was definitely a diversion from other YA parents. Her love for Annie was also really great. I also really love her best friend in the book who was quirky and loveable in all the right ways. Also, love seeing a well-developed female friendship and this was one of them.

The main part of the plot was the relationship between her and Fab. Fab was a great character and his passion for reading and learning was really great. He was also wonderfully charming and was right for Annie in so many ways. I also enjoyed Fab being Polish and the subtleties of the book regarding language.

With Fab and Annie being great, I loved their relationship together. It was wonderful to see quite a bit of their story be focused on a book, Wuthering Heights although I have not read it myself. I still loved the enthusiasm of books in books. The arguments that they had were also humorous and highlighted the differing interpretations of a book. The also had great banter. The relationship as it progressed was cute and great and I loved every minute of it.

The only thing that I disliked about the book was the trip to Haworth. This just didn't have the same weight as it could have had for anyone who had loved Wuthering Heights. Saying this I did love how their relationship blossomed as a result so it was not all bad. There was also some tension and some really lovely moments took place that made it all worthwhile!

The Verdict:

Truly, Wildly Deeply continues to showcase my love for Jenny McLachlan and is a lovely read that everyone who loves or doesn't love YA contemporary with fall head over heels over. It is a book that is overwhelming British and has a lot of heart.

Best Character of the year award goes to...! Seriously, Annie is fantastic. She's so strong and feminist and she knows her own mind. She won't take shit from anyone about her cerebral palsy or honestly, anything else. And when it comes to romance, she doesn't want to be tied to anyone. So when discussing Wuthering Heights in English class, she and romantic Fab have some very firey debates.

The romance in this book, the struggle that Annie faces between wanting her independence and her feelings for Fab. It was beautiful watching her journey, the debate as to whether love can truly exist without giving up some of your independence. It was a book with so much to say.

And the way it ended. That perfect, adventurous journey, a wild gesture to try and win back Fab's heart. It was such a good story from start to finish.

If you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for?

This book was really cute and I loved the characters!

I loved that Annie was a wheelchair user and that the information was sort of snuck into a scene, not thrown right at us. I really enjoyed Annie's attitude about it all. The bus scene depressed me though. Legally in the UK bus drivers must make people move their pushchairs for a wheelchair user but so many still don't. Disability blogger Shona Louise has done several posts around this: Left on the pavement, Left on the pavement again and The Wheelchair Space that are all worth a read.

I liked Fab as a character and the Polish stuff was obviously well researched but his behaviour and persistence following Annie's "No" are off-putting and knock off a star. I also would have liked to get to know some of the other characters better.

I really like this book because Annie is a very strong female character. She knows what she wants, and what she doesn't want, but at the same time willing to admit when she may be wrong!
The other thing that i like about the book is that even though Annie has Cebral Palsy, it isn't a 'book about cebral palsy', that was just who she was, it isn't the purpose of the story.

I really enjoyed Jenny's novel 'Stargazing for Beginners' when it was published last year and I was interested to see what her follow up novel would be like. For me, this definitely blew it out of the water.

Annie is a brilliant protagonist.  She's very no-nonsense and straight talking, and her witty comments often had me giggling. I really liked the concept of her having a fresh start at a new college - not that she was leaving behind a sordid past or anything - it was just great to embrace all the newness with her.  Although I don't have any knowledge of cerebral palsy, it's easy to understand how she had become known as 'the girl with cerebral palsy' in her school and how she wanted a change.  I also thought the insight into life with a disability in an ableist society was very well written.

Fab is also a fantastic character.  He is so full of life - think overgrown puppy! And I particularly loved how their friendship and relationship was linked with 'Wuthering Heights', the book they were studying in English as it added another level to the story.  Coincidentally, I was also reading 'Wuthering Heights' when I started 'Truly, Wildly, Deeply' so this really resonated with me.

There was so much I loved about this book, from its gorgeous cover to its last page.  A definite five star read!

Enjoyed TRULY, WILDLY, DEEPLY alot more than Jenny McLachlan's previous books! Really bittersweet and lovely

So, my love affair with Jenny McLachlan's books continues it's reign with "Truly, Wildly, Deeply". This book is gorgeous, sweet and ridiculously funny. The humour and the heart that I fell for in "Stargazing for Beginners" was back in action in this book, and it made me so blissfully happy. Firstly, we all need a Fab in our lives. His lust for life, his enthusiasm and his optimism is inspirational, and incredibly endearing. And I absolutely love Annie. She is a girl after my own sassy heart. Her quick wit and biting tongue is something I strive for in life. All in all, this book was a winning combination of heart and hilarity, and again I say to Jenny McLachlan: more books please!

A fun, fluffy romance. Annie isn't defined by her disability as a character, in fact a significant amount of the book is devoted to exploring that particular point. It took me a while to warm up to Fab as a character (I'm not a particular fan of the 'ask a girl out multiple times until she says yes' strategy), but it was hard not to be won over by Annie and Fab's romance in the end. The two of them had a beautiful dynamic and it was clear how they brought out the best in each other. Plus framing the story with studying Wuthering Heights? YES. I also loved Annie's group of friends and the banter between them: wouldn't say no to hearing more stories about them, Hilary and the boys seemed to have so much going on outside of their interactions with Annie. I will absolutely be recommending this book to anyone looking for a new and interesting teen romance with an engaging heroine.

What Jenny MacLachlan has done here is nothing short of brilliant. Her provocative protagonist challenges us to re-think all our assumptions and misnomers about disability, friendship, and love. Annie has cerebral palsy and her brisk, exuberant attitude to life is a beautiful slap in the face to all young people who moan about how tough they have it, how much school annoys them, and about how much they don’t have.

Annie’s excitement about attending secondary college is refreshing. She wants to take advantage of every opportunity thrown her way. She makes friends like a boss, argues literature with a passion, and grabs hold of life tightly and with joy.

Let’s talk about Fab for a moment. He matches her for passion and enthusiasm. His motto, ‘life’s too short for embarrassment’ even catches Annie off guard. Yes, she is determined to be seen for herself, not her twisted legs or limps, but Fab’s flamboyant declaration that he wants her ‘to be his girl’ startles her, and she denies her mutual feelings and fobs him off.

While we accept Annie’s surface explanation of her decision to be friends, we also see how much hurt she causes. Annie’s growth as a character parallels her understanding of her selfishness, and her grand gesture is balanced perfectly with a realistic and honest discussion of relationships and expectations. When they finally begin to communicate, their feelings for each other can evolve naturally, and the open ending is welcome and strong.

While I have focused on the romantic aspect of the plot, be aware there is a lot more going on. Annie’s friends each have their own journey, and I particularly enjoyed Annie’s conversations with Jackson as they travel to and from school by train. His own love story contrasts with Annie’s, and his frankness with her is pivotal to her choices. Such a great thing to see—a plutonic boy/girl friendship.

Annie’s mother is a loving support, although her own doubts about Annie are realistic and understandable. Fab’s polish family offer a glimpse into his life—not always easy, but always loved, and Miss Caudle, their English teacher is exactly the teacher you want for this pair. I love the representations of adults and young people alike.

Truly, Wildly, Deeply is highly recommended for readers who love their contemporaries full of diversity, wit, and positive messages. Annie makes many mistakes, but she owns up to them and makes better decisions. Thanks to publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book for review which will be out in the UK on March 8, and here in Australia on April 1.

Jenny McLachlan’s Truly, Wildly, Deeply is her best book yet. I’d read her jive-tastic début Flirty Dancing and her most recent book Stargazing for Beginners but I hadn’t heard much about this latest contemporary before I started reading, so to find between the pages a standalone so warm and witty was quite a delight. I was surprised by the engaging voice, the engrossing story, the focus on friendships, and the sweet romance. If you’re looking for intelligent, heartwarming teen fiction, this is the book for you.

Truly, Wildly, Deeply's narrator Annie is candid and fiercely independent. She's an occasional troublemaker ("I did get a lot of detentions. I blame this on my fiery Mediterranean temperament") but her heart's usually in the right place. She makes for a perceptive narrator ("there's a lot of Big Laughing going on - heads thrown back, cackles, the type of laughter that seems designed to make you feel left out"). You'll be rooting for her the whole way. 

Annie's on something of a mission to make new friends for sixth form, and finds Hilary, Jim, Oli and Mal - and of course, there's Jackson, who once fell down a badger's sett and shares Annie's penchant for a bit of mischief (from Jackson's early introduction you might expect him to become the love interest, but he's in relationship with someone very sophisticated called Amelia, and while Annie wonders what on earth they talk about, her friendship with Jackson is still seen as valuable). McLachlan goes out of her way to focus on positive teenage friendships and I really liked that. You can't help but love considerate, exuberant, larger-than-life Fab, too. Annie and Fab are teenagers figuring out a teenage relationship - the self-searching, the giddy feelings, the mishaps and crossed wires, the doubt - through friendship and shared interests and trust.

There are just so many enjoyable details to the story: the different kinds of families and cultural identities, the blackberry picking, the wedding. Stand-out secondary characters include Fabian's extended family and Annie's mum. Annie's disability is also fully accounted for throughout the book. Best of all, Truly, Wildly, Deeply is very, very funny. It's some of the funniest kidlit I've read since reading Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison's or T.S. Easton's books, and I definitely wasn't expecting to laugh out loud so much while reading it. The prose itself is unshowy, but shines with the sometimes howlingly sharp humour of a writer who has really stepped up to the task of merging cheerful, chaste teen fiction with YA's penchant for tongue-in-cheek observation.

A full version of this review will appear on my blog closer to publication.

This was a quicker read then I expected.
I enjoyed that it wasn't a typical Insta love but instead took majority of the book to actually happen. Instead you have Annie realising her feelings and figuring out what to do about it.