Sex education but make it Irish with a gay MC who wants to fix everybody else's problems to avoid thinking about her own & a lesbian overachiever who's tired to carry the whole world on her shoulders.

I LOVED this one! I haven't read the Falling in Love Montage yet, but I quickly added it to my TBR after reading this one! It was funny, heartwarming, emotional and very relatable.

My favorite character was definitely Maebh, the lesbian overachiever who's convinced that everyone else is dumb and she should be in charge of the world. Like, BIG MOOD.

Some tropes I liked were: found family (the CUTEST), there's only one TUB and kinda enemies to lovers!

I highly recommend this one to anyone looking for a deep but cute LGBTQ novel about the importance of letting other people in!

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this novel. I’ve been enjoying contemporary fiction more and more recently, and with the sapphic romance side to this, combined with an undercurrent of problems that Aideen both could and couldn’t fix, it made for a brilliant novel.

I’m a big fan of the enemies to lovers trope as we might be aware as I’ve mentioned it a few times, and this was an “enemies to lovers but realistic”, as in, there were (sadly) no magic or swords in sight. It forced both Aideen and Meabh to look past their initial expectations of each other and see the person underneath, all while not realising that’s what they were doing. It was very sweet, but not in a sickening way, in a “you irritate the crap out of me but I happen to want to kiss you” kind of way, which is my kind of romantic fiction.

The character of Kavi also needs mentioning, as he plays a major role without Aideen even asking him to; somehow he just gets wound up into things, and has the sweetness of the soul to want to help. I really loved him as a character, I thought he was a brilliant friend to all involved, and was just a great big sweetheart. An absolutely cinnamon roll.

Throughout the story, while Aideen is fixing people’s problems, her own demons are jumping away at her. Falling behind in almost ever subject because of struggling to keep things at home in a precarious balance with her mum drinking and her dad making another unwanted visit before disappearing back home to his wife, even the stories she comes up with to get her out of PE aren’t helping her run far enough away from the wolf. With the support of her new found friends, she finds the strength, and has the support, to grow, and to take up the offers for help she has been so frightened to accept.

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

For Aideen Cleary, school is really for her. Her home life is a mess, and she's barely making it through her transition year, so when the class swot, and her nemesis, Maebh Kowalska, asks for her help, which includes pushing her down the stairs, she doesn't expect to become the school 'fixer'. But, in helping Maebh, she's found an unlikely friendship, alongside chatterbox Kavi, and a whole ragtag bunch of people who she helps get out of problems. But, her friendship with BFF Holly is on the outs, and her feelings for Maebh are turning from dislike to something a lot more worrying. Will Aideen be able to realise that branching out, and finding new people, may lead to her fixing her own problems?

Now, I'm going to admit that this was a bit of an impulse request on NetGalley, but I was happy to be approved, and asked to take part in the blog tour. As soon as I started the book, I was hooked, and spent the entire day devouring it - I just didn't want to put it down. Aideen is a bit of a loner, with only one real friend, Holly, and she tries to push people away so that she doesn't get hurt. Her 'father' had an affair with her mam years ago, and though he is married and has a family, he keeps sniffing around, and whenever he returns, it sets off her mam's drinking, and Aideen has to clean up the mess. She's always on edge that her mam will lose her job, and they'll be in even more trouble, so she regularly skips school to make sure her mam isn't drinking. This has her teachers on her back, and she's barely keeping her head afloat. Then that's when Maebh enters the scene. As the daughter of the head teacher, and a swotty know it all, Maebh doesn't have many friends, and puts herself under loads of pressure. She's actually that stressed, she pulled out all her eyelashes before exams last year, and has no time to herself. Asking Aideen to push her down the stairs, to break her ankle, will actually free her time, and it sets off a friendship that soon blossoms into more. I loved the dynamic between Aideen and Maebh, especially as it was somewhat of a enemies to lovers romance. Their chemistry was fantastic, as was the banter between them - and, to me, they just felt extremely real.

Aideen was a character you couldn't help but love, and I truly felt for her and her struggles throughout the book. Honestly, her mother, and her 'bff', Holly, were awful characters, and I hated them. Holly was supposed to be her friend, but she always put her down, and treated Aideen like an idiot. She was all about herself, and was not a good person to be around, so I was overjoyed when Aideen grew closer to Maebh and Kavi. And Aideen's mam, was the worst. I understood why Aideen tried to protect her, and keep the social off their backs, but it's not her job to be the parent figure, it's her mams. Aideen shouldn't be worrying about if the electricity went off, or if they had enough food in, or needed a trip to the food bank. Nor should she be missing school to babysit an adult. I'm really happy with how the book ended, though would've liked to see a little more - but I understand why it ended in this way. This was a fantastic book, and I'll be looking to get my hands of Ciara's debut, The Falling in Love Montage.

I LOVED Ciara Smyth's debut novel THE FALLING IN LOVE MONTAGE, so I was thrilled to be able to read this one early. Second novels can be tricky--it's a different ballgame compared to writing the first book, while juggling expectations following said debut novel--but I utterly adored NOT MY PROBLEM, even more than MONTAGE.

This is a contemporary YA novel with a thread of romance in it. It's much more focused on friendships, new ones and toxic ones, and the lies people tell themselves so they can pretend they have their problems under control. Aideen is fully convinced she has everything under control: her abysmal school track record, the fact that she only needs Holly as her sole friend, even if things have changed between them; that it's her and her mum against the world, except for the fear that her mum may start drinking again...

I try not to use super-popular comps for books, but this book has a real Derry Girls feel to it, in Aideen's humour and snark, and her PE teacher, Ms Devlin, has a real Sister Michael vibe about it. The characters are amazing: from anxious, spiky Aideen, to neurotic, bossy Meabh, and Kavi, who was my favourite of the secondary characters: rambling, endearing, and kind. I would very much like him.to be my friend, please.

I enjoyed that there's little romance in this one: Aideen's problems are serious, desperately so, and unlike Saoirse in MONTAGE, she can't depend on the parent she's living with, as she feels like she's the only one who can keep her mum on track. These aren't the kind of issues that a romance would easily sweep aside. I loved the focus on friendship, and Meabh and Aideen's slow change from budding friends to crushes felt very natural for their characterisation.

In short, I'm a huge fan of Ciara Smyth's work and can't wait to see what she writes next.

2.5/5 stars

I was super excited for being approved for this book after a long wait. The premises was so interesting and it had everything to be a good book. Unfortunately, it just wasn't it for me. I couldn't relate to any characters, I though a lot of them lacked development and the story was not delivered as promised. You get the idea there will be lots of favors and danger and love, but it just feels numb and like an underachievement. My rating is because I liked the way it was written and I did read it rather quickly (mostly because the editor didn’t accept me up until 5 days before the book is archived.

I loved this book to bits, I don't even know where to start! Maybe I'll just throw in at the beginning that you should definitely read it if you loved Derry Girls - and if you loved the book, definitely check out Derry Girls on Netflix! In fact, I think it would make an AMAZING TV show.

This book is a perfect balance of hilarious and a discussion of some serious issues. The MC comes from a poor family, brought up by an alcoholic mum (who she looks after more than she does for her) and occasionally visited by an absentee dad who has another family and visits only occasionally to mess up their lives and spiral the mum into yet another alcoholic episode.

Because the MC is unable to deal with the situation at home, one event leads to another and she starts solving problems of her classmates - starting with her enemy and the only other openly out-and-proud lesbian at school. That leads to so many laugh-out-loud moments and brings so many amazing people into Aideen's life.

This is the moment when I stop to sing praises for Ciara Smyth for amazing Polish (Polish-Irish) rep. It's one of very, very few books where the surnames are done right (we've got Meabh KowalskA and her dad and school principal, Mr KowalskI - see how simple it is? - though from what I see it's not fixed in the Goodreads blurb but that's another story and I believe that's out of the author's control). There are zero stereotypes about the Polish family and no one comments on Mr Kowalski's accent, ever. They aren't queerphobic. And, the thing that touched me the most - Meabh, the Polish-Irish girl, is written as the love interest (enemies-to-reluctant-allies-to-lovers, so one of the best sorts). I can't begin to convey how much it means to see a Polish character who isn't there for comic relief, isn't a villain but the love interest.

Both Meabh and Aideen are written in a very realistic way. They are full of faults, they are headstrong, they find it hard to talk about feelings - they are just sixteen, after all! And their journey of learning to trust each other (and the group of friends around them) is everything.

I don't have anything bad to say about this one. It's a fast read, it's so funny, the romance is amazing, there are so many issues brought up that you rarely see in YA. It's also great to for a change read a book set in Europe, where they use Euro and things just make sense. I loved it to bits, just as I did with the Falling in Love Montage and I can't recommend it enough.

I received a copy of this e-arc in exchange for an honest review thanks to NetGalley and Andersen Press.

I just loved this book! I loved the characters, the plot, everything!

This book contains the enemies to lovers trope with soft Irish lesbians, what more could you want from a sapphic book.

Sometimes when I read YA books, I cringe at how bratty and self-absorbed the characters are. In this, Aideen is the kid who has problems at home which impacts her work ethic. Her personality is what i’d love to have had at that age - not phased and very sassy. I just loved Meabh! Her personality is exactly me in high school!

I loved the character development between Aideen and Meabh - with each other and the other students.

The ending was just perfect - i’d actually love a follow up book showing what happens afterwards.

I was initially pulled into the idea of this book - it's an intriguing, funny, clever idea to have 'a fixer' at school - but this book is so much more than that. The characters are brilliantly drawn. You don't just get to know Aideen really well (her voice is fantastic) but all the others too. What's more, there are layers to this story, which dig into the motivation behind each characters' actions (even Holly, who we only really get to view at a distance is well drawn and rounded out). And it's a page turner! The break-in scene at school was full of drama and suspense (so well done) and the ending was perfect. I've already ordered a print copy for my daughters, and I'll be buying/recommending this book to lots of friends too.

This is such a wonderful book, and really lives up to The Falling In Love Montage.

Aideen is a wonderful main character. She has so much heart, and I loved reading about the various ways she helped her schoolmates out.

There's a romance in this book, and it's a lovely enemies to lovers story. I do think, though, that it was a little too slow burn for my liking.

This book is not just a romance story. There is also a fantastic representation of what it's like to be a child of alcoholism and of child abandonment. I loved that aspect of this book a lot.

This heartwarming, coming-of-age Contemporary YA is beautifully written and undeniably hilarious—it will literally have you laughing out loud.

“She can fix anyone’s life. Except her own.”

When Aideen reluctantly agrees to help teachers’ pet, Maebh Kowalska lighten her workload—she didn’t expect to push her down the stairs.

Now Aideen is the school’s ‘fixer’, any student with a problem be it a confiscated phone to breaking into a party, Aideen will sort it out. The only thing she asks for is a favour in return. But, her own life is a complete mess. Her mum’s back to drinking, her best friend’s avoiding her and she’s skipping school.

Now she’s spending more time with her primary school nemesis, Maebh and the lovably enthusiastic chatterbox,Kavi—Aideen wants to know. Can every problem even BE solved?

I really loved this (and it’s Sex Education meets Derry Girls premise.)
The writing was incredible—Ciara Smyth manages to expertly tackle important issues such as poverty and alcoholism,as well as the toxicity of unhealthy relationships (of both the family and friendship variety.) She also adds a unique dose of humour—with witty banter and hilarious hijinx that’s utterly captivating, I literally couldn’t stop reading.

Aideen was an amazing protagonist, her difficult home experiences coupled with her resilience (and cheeky humour) made her one of my fave characters. Some of her conversations were comedy gold (the scenes with Maehb and Ms Devlin were definitely highlights.)

I also really enjoyed the blossoming romance between Aideen and Maehb—it felt realistic (as opposed the insta love trope sometimes used in Contemporary YA) and I loved that it progressed slowly over time.

Overall this was undeniably brilliant and beautifully written with it’s hilariously relatable characters and deeply satisfying ending- you’ll be hard pressed not to love it.

I’d recommend to fans of YA contemporary and teen rom-coms, also if you loved Derry Girls (it’s a tv show for those unfamiliar with it) there’s a good chance you’re gonna enjoy this—it’s amazing!

And lastly, a huge thank you to Anderson Press and Net Galley for the ARC.

Not My Problem is a heartfelt laugh out loud funny coming of age story that also tackles family issues, alcoholism and friendship with sensitivity and nuance.

If it hadn't been for real-life responsibilities, I would have devoured Not My Problem in a single sitting. There wasn't a single dull moment, every chapter earned its place and I kept turning the pages to see how it would all turn out. Additionally, I didn't feel like the story was rushing in any way either!

Ciara Smyth tackles a lot of issues with humour and sensitivity and I loved how it all came together. Seriously, this book manages to be both an exploration of complicated parental relationships, alcoholism, friendships and loneliness while also delivering the excitement of a heist story

Aideen and her slowly growing gang of co-conspirators get up to some delightful adventures. However, all the problems that Aideen ends up solving felt real and relevant. Yes, this is a book where the teenage main characters actually feel like teenagers!

I am a big fan of how the different plot threads are resolved in the end, it was satisfying but not cheesy.

Finally, and your mileage may vary with this, I liked that it wasn't too heavy on the romance. There is definitely an enemies to lovers subplot, but it takes a backseat over the main plot. So if you're expecting big romantic moments, you won't find them here. Instead, you'll get gut-wrenching moments where you just want to hug Aideen and those where you'll want to high five her because she's brilliant

Speaking of Aideen, what a character! I fell in love with her on page one. She's witty, smart and wonderfully complex. When she thinks about getting rich and famous, marrying Kristen Stewart and returning to her school reunion all cool...I knew she was my kind of girl. Additionally, her character development was so so wonderful. It's not linear or easy. It's messy and painful as she comes to reassess her life and her struggles. I was rooting for her so hard because damn, someone give this girl a hug!

I loved the juxtaposition of Aideen and Meabh. What a fun character combination with so much tension! Seeing their relationship develop was one of my favourite parts of the book. Nothing gets me like the "you're annoying...but also kind of cute" vibes they had.

And finally, Not My Problem also manages to examine a somewhat toxic friendship. Aideen's best friend Holly isn't a great friend. But neither is Aideen, some of the time. The story creates room for both love and hurt to coexist and leads Aideen to come to her own conclusion about her friendship with Holly. That resolution was incredibly well done and I was glad that Ciara Smyth decided to go this route.

What can I say, the expanding friend group in this story made my heart all fuzzy. Really, it's characters you'll laugh and groan at and fall in love with by the end.

Overall, Not My Problem is the perfect book for a rainy day when you want to have a good laugh without missing out on a heartfelt and complex plot.

This book was very enjoyable! It took me a while to get into it, which is often the case for me with books, but once I was, I was hooked !!! I have never read a book based in Ireland before, and honestly I don’t much about it so it was a nice surprise to see that it was based in Ireland. I learnt a lot!

The storyline itself was very great. The idea behind it, a favour for a favour, was really interesting and I liked it more than I expected. The friendship part of the story was great too, Kavi is definitely a personal favourite in this book. He was just everything. The lil bits of romance also added to the book, and it fit so perfectly - a very subtle kind of enemies to lovers?

The more difficult aspects of the storyline were tackled so brilliantly and the ending rounded up the story so well!! Thank you for talking about things that aren’t often talked about - using a food bank, alcoholic parents, caring for your parent, divorce.

I received this e-arc in exchange for an honest review, thank you NetGalley and Andersen Press.

Aideen has more than enough of problems of her own, but when she's talked into helping Meabh-who she generally cannot stand, she finds a way to distract herself-by fixing everyone else's problems and maybe even finding new love and friendships along the way.

This book was beautifully written with the perfect balance of sincerity and humour to deal with its subject matter in an approachable and engaging manner without diminishing the gravity of the issues at hand. The story hooked me from the beginning-both with its engaging narrative voice and by starting in media res. This book has a variety of well developed and nuanced characters, all with dynamic relationships with one another, but not only that- we also get to see them learn and grow throughout. The ending was beautiful and satisfying, and truly showed the characters' development from the beginning.

If you like heartwarming coming-of-age stories, strong female characters, queer representation (and a hint of Sex Education on Netflix vibes) you need to read this book, seriously.

Sweet Flubberygiblets, this book is amazing! Often, books promise to make you laugh out loud - finally, a book delivers the hilarity in spades, balancing the spot-on humour with a tough portrayal of parental alcohol abuse. We follow sixteen year old Aideen as she starts up a "social enterprise" trading favours. It all starts with pushing her greatest enemy down the stairs... and everything just escalates from there with hilarious consequences.

Aideen doesn't start off as a particularly sympathetic hero as she mouths-off to teachers, refuse to do homework and fake her way out of PE. However, Smyth takes us on an amazing journey with Aideen, both as she discovers what friendship truly means, falls in love and tries to balance school-life and trying to keep her mother on the straight and narrow. The portrayal of Aideen's home life, and the reason for the way she acts in school, is truly heartbreaking. Her visit to a food bank is the most affecting and well-written section as Aideen faces the reality of being poor in a school of privileged classmates.

I need to dedicate a couple of sentences of this review to assert how much I HATE Holly. Every time she spoke down to Aideen and made her feel stupid or rejected, my fury towards her continued to grow. I wish she got more of a comeuppance than she did.

Overall, this book is fantastic. Hilarious, heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure - go and read Aideen's story. You will not regret it. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked The Falling In Love Montage, Smyth’s first book. I think I was a little harder on it at the time -in my head, because I didn’t review it on the blog- than I am in retrospect. When I read it originally I wanted a pure squishy romance, and it certainly was that, but it was a bunch of other stuff, too. At the time I felt the other stuff kind of got in the way of what I was looking for. My issue, not the book’s.

Well, I’m in a less frantically missing my partner headspace right now, and am ready for other stuff. This is all to the good, because Not My Problem is very much more of the same but better.

We’ve all been there, right? One person asks us for a favour, and out of the goodness of our hearts we break someone’s ankle for them. Then one thing leads to another and we find ourselves breaking into our school, and bustung a passing acquaintance out of his bedroom. No? Just me? Okay… Well either way, that’s where Aideen finds herself. All the while dealing with her alcoholic mother, less than stellar academic performance and a slight crush on the school tryhard.

Ciara Smyth has it. So many writers don’t. So often you read a book, and if it weren’t for the name on the front you wouldn’t be able to tell who wrote it. If you were reading a Samantha Shannon book or a Holly Bourne book, you stand a good chance of knowing it, even without looking at the name on the cover, and no just because in the former’s case you could bludgeon a lion into submission with the hardback. Ciara Smyth is the same. The characters and the place feel authentic, the voice and style are unique and sharp as a tack. The relationships are messy in the way that Ciara Smyth does best.

The parental relationship in Not My Problem was messy, but we already knew Smyth could do that well from her previous book. One of my favourite aspects of this book was the messy friendship. One of Aideen’s friendships is pretty toxic, and it’s done so well, and especially how Aideen comes to realise it and confront it. We’re shown the effect it’s had on her in the way her new friendships grow and develop. Slowly, and not painlessly it turns out.

The romance was satisfyingly built and felt real and is the best kind of enemies to lovers. Where it wasn’t so much that they were enemies at all, but they didn’t know each other, all they had were preconceived ideas of each other. It’s not my favourite trope, because often it’s done badly. Here, like everything else Smyth does, it’s done extremely well.

On a personal note, I loved, truly madly loved, how working class Aideen was. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick to the back teeth of car owning, stuff doing, money having privileged gits in YA. More working class protagonists in YA, please!

Ciara Smyth is an exceptionally talented writer. Her sentences are sharp, her characters feel real, voice oozes from her prose. And she likes Taylor Swift. She’s at the top of not just her game, but most other people’s as well. I can’t recommend Not My Problem enough.

This was wonderful. I had no idea a book could make me cry, laugh and roll my eyes lovingly, all at the same time. I loved Aideen as a character and Kavi and Meabh were two of the best supporting characters I could’ve asked for. I feel like this book is exactly what I needed when I was 16, and so many people around that age group will benefit from what this book has to say. The only reason I’m rating this book slightly lower is because I just don’t think it’s aimed at my age range, but I still think this was fantastic.

This book blew me completely away! I requested this book on Netgalley on a total whim and how fortunate it turned out to be for me!

Our main character Aideen is lovable as hell and extremely funny. I swear to God, some of the dialogue made me crack up so hard. The other characters are great as well - thank God, they don't suffer from the usual fate of a side character being one-dimensional and forgettable. Kavi has got to be the most precious cinnamon roll.
I loved getting to see how Aideen forms new relationships with her classmates, slowly leaving her loner status behind.

We also get a deeper look into Aideen's life at home, her rather complicated and at time strained relationship with her mother and what kind of effect it has on Aideen. Though those bits were hard to read about, they were done well.

All in all, this book is an absolute recommendation.

Not My Problem is a YA contemporary novel following 16 year old Aideen Cleary as she navigates her new role as the school 'fixer'. Aideen has a whale of a time doing favours for her classmates, but still can't seem to manage or fix the struggles in her own life. It's such a simple concept but it works so incredibly well.
Reading from Aideen's perpective was a delight, she's insanely witty and snarky which makes for a hilarious lens through which you view all the other characters and their interactions. Aideen is a fully realised character, her voice is natural and familiar and so are her values, priorities and motives.
Kavi and Maebh are equally fleshed out characters, with endearing qualities given to both (which resulted in me crying every time one of them was even midly inconvenienced). The entire cast are all people you've met before, all so real and nuanced that their dialogue jumps off the page and feels more like a memory than fiction.
The pacing was fabulous, consistently hitting important beats to keep you compulsively turning the pages. This book does a great job of showing the reader the implications of the plot developments on the characters, rather than just telling you. The writing in general is immaculate, no words were wasted and yet I felt everything Aideen felt so deeply and was enthralled by the story throughout.
Finally, the themes of this book were very well presented and discussed. The whole point of this book is that Aideen can solve everyone else's problems with ease, and she uses her 'fixer' role to get some reprieve from her own struggles. This is conveyed so well without diminishing the constant stress of situations like Aideen's. Also this book has excellent lesbian representation without it being the one and only focus of the book and WHAT MORE COULD I ASK FOR?
As you can Cleary see (lol, get it?), I have no qualms with this book and I think it is flawless. That is all.

Thank you so much to Andersen Press and NetGalley for the e-arc, I'm very grateful.

A delightful LGBT YA book - it warms the heart. I'd really recommend! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

It was to no surprise to me that I really liked this book, since I loved The Falling in Love Montage as well! It was hilarious, hysterical, ADORABLE but also heartbreaking. Aideen does not have a great home situation and she kind of deals with that by being a sarcastic little shit who pretends not to care about anything. I loved reading everything she said and was up to throughout the book, but I also wanted to SHAKE HER so many times because she just refused to get help 🙈 That being said, I did really enjoy this and I really liked her as a main character. The friendships she made throughout the book were also so incredibly fun and precious to read about 🥺❤️

The book won't be out for another month or so, but I highly recommend you pick this up if you're looking for a wholesome (but also heartbreaking) YA contemporary!