This was an enjoyable laugh out loud book. My only issue was it felt slightly long and could have been cut back. I will definitely look for other books by this author in the future

Maggie and Jon were together for almost a decade, ever since college. But shy of 2 years of marriage they are calling it quits. What follows is Maggie's almost diary like entries. We hear about how they met, fell in love and seemingly now just drifted apart.

She's trying to embrace her new found singlehood and get back into being on her own. However, her posse of friends are all interfering - giving her advice, nightmares of their own dating history and potential blind dates.

There are laughs and groans throughout but I sadly just didn't find it a funny as I thout it'd be. I was thinking it was more of a romcom and this was less LOL than that. Maggie is a sarcastic gem but ever so occasionally I felt her slipping into the "woe is me" category and I wanted to slap her!

Her friendship group is great and very diverse and that allows for a lot of sane, and zany, advice from a collection of viewpoints and experiences. Maggie's google search i must admit were hilarious!

I did feel it was a bit longer than it need to be and could have been chapters shorter. However, as I'm a Scot and a creaky gen x-er, I'm probably not this books target audience!

A sharp, witty and laugh out loud funny novel. A fantastic story of heart-break and how to pick yourself up again when everyone else already has it together. I loved this!

I feel seen! Really enjoyable read about being a female in this day and age.

Funny, relatable and easy to read. Perfect holiday read for this summer.

A debut novel by Monica Heisey

Maggie has been married 608 days and the marriage is over.

We see Maggie become a divorcee at 29 and how she handles it and her new life

This is an easy read that I enjoyed

Really Good Actually by Monica Heisey

I received an advanced copy of the debut offering from Monica Healey (‘Really Good Actually’) via NetGalley and the publishers, 4th Estate, in exchange for an honest review.

Blurb

Maggie’s marriage has ended just 608 days after it started, but she’s fine – she’s doing really good, actually. Sure, she’s alone for the first time in her life, can’t afford her rent and her obscure PhD is going nowhere . . . but at the age of twenty-nine, Maggie is determined to embrace her new status as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée™.

Soon she’s taking up ‘sadness hobbies’ and getting back out there, sex-wise, oversharing in the group chat and drinking with her high-intensity new divorced friend Amy. As Maggie throws herself headlong into the chaos of her first year of divorce, she finds herself questioning everything, including: Why do we still get married? Did I fail before I even got started? How many Night Burgers until I’m happy?

My Thoughts
When I heard Monica Heisey was involved in the making of Schitt’s Creek, I knew I had to get my hands on her debut novel ‘Really Good Actually’ and - I can honestly say after reading this in October last year - I’m glad I did.

Now, Heisey doesn’t pick the lightest of topics for her first novel but - as you course through the main character Maggie’s journey from struggling divorcee to not-struggling-so-much-divorcee - there are moments you find yourself laughing in spite of yourself and the absolute mess the lead character is going through. As much as I love a love story, I actually enjoyed this out of love story more than I thought.

Maggie isn’t a perfect protagonist by any means. She’s self-centred, self-destructive and never too far from the wrong choices (or a takeaway burger!). However, it’s nice to read a story where the protagonist feels like an actual human.

I’ll put my hands up straight away - I’m the wrong demographic for this book in so many ways; not my usual genre, I’m happily married, way over the target age group & enjoying early retirement. That being said, I requested this book because I adored Schitt’s Creek & the author had a hand in that, so I entered Maggie’s world unsure of what I was about to read.

I enjoyed this as a book but not a novel. Does that make sense? Maggie finds herself unexpectedly single after a brief marriage & this book meanders through the various situations she finds herself in. Plenty of humour & some pathos but not a cohesive story.
Maggie is not Really Good, Actually - it’s a front & I would imagine that if you find yourself in this situation you won’t want to read this. However, if you need a lightish read then go for it & discover if Maggie mends her broken heart.

Maggie and Jon's marriage hit the rocks just short of two years together- 608 days to be precise. At 29 years old, Maggie finds that being single and the road to healing heartbreak is messy. Where is she going to live? How did her marriage fail and why won't Jon return her calls and emails? How will she start dating again after a decade of being in a relationship? What follows is a chaotic year of Maggie navigating all these issues

While Maggie may be relatable at times, she is also a bit grating and whiney and downright horrible at times, which was never properly addressed. Yes, she was going through a time but it shouldn't be a free pass to be nasty. I felt like I never rooted for Maggie. Coupled with the length of the book (my attention drifted once or twice), the book felt long and at times a bit of slog. If it was a bit shorter, I think I would have enjoyed it more.

That said, Heisey highlights the importance of having a support group when your life is turned upside down: friends, family, new people in your life. And I thought the author did a good job at picking things that Maggie would realistically deal with after a marriage breaking down. The book is witty too, I especially liked the sections that were just a list of Maggie's recent Google searches. 2.5 stars

I think I might have missed the point of this book, which is from the perspective of a young women whose husband has left her and is filing for divorce. She is heartbroken and isn't handing the situation well at all. I got very tired of her wallowing in her misery and wished she would just get over herself. I lost sympathy quite quickly. She behaved appauling ly to her friends and was then shocked when they were not sympatheci to her after she treats then poorly. It was awel written and I did finish the book but can't really recommend it.

This was a somewhat entertaining read in places but I felt little or no empathy for the main character, I actually felt sympathy for her husband (ex)
I think with the right casting this could actually make a good film, but on the page it was a lacking. Maybe it’s the generational gap but her selfishness and lack of awareness was extremely frustrating. She was the cliché “hot mess” and although it started okay, nothing really happened, apart from treating people badly and spending money she didn’t have.

Maggie is a Grad Student, married, renting an apartment and owning a rescue cat - until suddenly she is on her own. When her husband leaves her Maggie believes her life is over, aged 28. She wallows in sadness and self-pity, throws herself into various activities, overspends and indulges in lots of sex with lots of people. However sympathy for Maggie is growing thin and Maggie needs to face up to herself.

I am not the demographic that this book is intended for and I found it hard to read at first, simply because of the graphic sexual references and the Millennial vibe. However once I got into the rhythm of the book I started to find it very funny and very clever. OK, Maggie is a deeply unsympathetic character to me but the hilarity of the 'woke' activities and actions, the utter selfishness and the self-help got me hooked!

Okay Read 🤔

Overall this book for me was an okay read, not a laugh out loud read I was hoping for. Told in one continuous read until the epilogue.

Maggie thinks her life is sorted, she's married, has a job in academia and has her life together. But when her marriage ends, Maggie realises she doesn't have a clue how to be herself in the world.

Heartbreaking, poignant and funny, this is a great book from a very funny author. Maggie is self-destructive and incredibly annoying, making all the wrong choices and alienating herself from the people who really love her, but as someone who has recently been in a similar situation, she is a heart-breakingly true character. Maggie might not be Really good, actually, but the book is!

I did enjoy this book very much as it was funny and relatable. It wasn't anything special but it doesn't have to be. I definitely recommend it if you want to have a good time reading.

There's some great material here but it doesn't really add up to a novel. Heisey is one of those snappy, comic, self-deprecating writers who uses wit in her narrator to distance herself from pain - that's fine but it does run the risk of the book feeling a bit facile and glib, more chick lit than Meg Mason's 'Sorrow and Bliss', say. Without much pull-through this starts to feel repetitive, whiny and narcissistic - yes, we know that the narrator is going through a painful divorce, I just would have liked more direct emotion on the page and less of the self-pity. I suspect the material would have worked better in short essay-style pieces: as a novel it feels laboured and lacks dynamic forward movement.

I love an endearingly flawed narrator who is sad and a bit bonkers so this was right up my street. Unflinchingly honest, raw and fresh.

Riotously funny, and at times incredibly sad - this book was an absolute joy to read.

Monica Heisey speaks about divorce in such a frank, humorous and clever way that it's impossible not to relate to Maggie, even if you've never been divorced. It's very fresh and modern, and though I was sceptical reading a few reviews that declared it 'laugh out loud funny' - are they ever really? - Heisey proved me wrong. I lost count of the number of times I laughed reading this - one of Maggie's fantasies involving a famous boyband member where so funny that I'd recommend people buy it for those two pages alone.

Laughs aside, this book also manages to sneak in a large amount of heart. Maggie's relationship with her elderly landlord and boss was one of my favourite aspects, and by the time the novel's over you've laughed with Maggie, cried a little with her, and really hope that her future's on the up.

I've lost count of how many times I've seen people praise this book on bookstagram so I was thrilled for this request to be approved - thank you very much NetGalley and 4th Estate!

A very likable novel about a very unlikable person. If you like the author’s television shows, you’ll love this book.

Decent comedies are rare these days, but I laughed out loud during this one. I wasn’t surprised to see that this author worked on the left-field shows Schitt’s Creek and Workin’ Moms as this was sweet, funny and interesting- and very Canadian. Adorable, ‘soft-butted’ Maggie breaks up with her husband embarrassingly soon after they get hitched. She navigates the breakup about as well as the heroine of Bridesmaids (and most women, if they’re being honest). The lines about hole pics, hired dresses and the heroine’s deranged Google searches had me roaring with laughter but there’s a very recognisable grief here too.

I’d like to thank 4th Estate & William Collins and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Really Good, Actually’ by Monica Heisey in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

This is a debut novel about Maggie aged 29 who’s been married to Jon for 608 days before deciding they’ve grown apart and divorcing. After reading the introduction I so wanted to like ‘Really Good, Actually’ but in truth I couldn’t warm to Maggie and deplored the way she treated her friends and ex-husband. The narrative was way too long and repetitive, it might have been better if it had been shortened to less than its 400 pages. Perhaps it’s an age thing and will attract younger readers but although I got part of the way through I couldn’t endure another five-and-a-half hours of reading about this woman and her opinions. It’s the type of book that you either love or hate, I was in the latter, and although I appreciate the work that goes into writing a book I’m afraid I disliked it from the start and could not finish it.