Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily and it reflects my personal opinion.
The blurb states this book is all about finding an old school friend because of a pact they'd made. I read over 30% of the book before there was anything about the pact. I didn't like Anya's character, snooping in the home office of someone who'd offered her a place to live was rude and the final straw for me. The pages I'd read were all about food and recipes, it felt as though this was padding for the actual story. If I want a recipe I'll find a cookbook so I stopped reading at 35%.

I love a funny, but authentic and meaningful romcom. This one gave me Beth OLeary vibes. I really really enjoyed it and it had my laughing throughout, giving me all the fuzzy warm feelings.

I loved this! I read it in a single sitting. I really enjoyed the plot and how the story developed. I will definitely read more from this author :)

Liked the writing of this and really felt sorry for Anya straight away! Was hoping for a happy ending for her.

The Back Up Man was a fun romantic comedy which was fun and easy to read.
I kinda wanted more from the ending but maybe that was just me...

If you love rom coms I'd suggest giving this a go!

Thanks to Phoebe Luckhurst and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#TheBackUpMan #NetGalley

This book was fine. I have a phrase "it's a book that exists and I read it", and that fits perfectly here. It's rather slow and unmemorable for most of the novel. The love interest enters the story far too late for my liking, which made this book too much of a slow burn for me to enjoy it.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers and of course the author for gifting me this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have read a book by this author before which I enjoyed and the synopsis sounded good for this book.

The beginning of the book showed the FMC Anya going through quite a lot of bad situations that was really bad luck and ended with her having to move in with her cousin Clare who wasn't particularly nice and I did feel quite sorry for Anya as she had had a rough time of it. However I felt the first half of the book was quite slow and the book didn't really pick up properly until the second half when she was on the quest to fine Euan, but unfortunately lacked a lot of romance which I thought would have been present more given the plot.

It was an easy read, with some enjoyable characters but felt that there could have been more to it considering it was 400 pages long.

This is a fun and upbeat rom-com that fans of the genre will enjoy. The author shows promise with this debut, though some further development would have made it even better. Overall, it's an entertaining and enjoyable read.

This was so anticipated for me but it didn't hit the spot. I am undecided on how much I liked it.

Anya is a poor soul, the story starts off introducing her and her life... she is kind of a single woman struggling to get her life on track; homeless and jobless. Anya is trying to make a go at life and despite the comical references, they just didn't do it for me, unfortunately. I felt this book was a rom-com or comedy. It was quite a sad almost heartbreaking read.

I felt a lot of where the author could go with the story line was just left and taken in another completely direction and I wanted the author to use Anya's likes and dislikes to her advantage, take the story in that direction because I think that would've/could've made it.

It didn't hit it for me and I am so disappointed because I was buzzing for this read.

I am on the fence about this book. Overall I did enjoy it, and felt that the storyline definitely had potential. The beginning felt very tragic, and I felt sorry for our main character Anya. However, I did struggle connecting with the majority of the characters within this book.

This book was just okay.

It’s a good quick read but an average slow-burn romance. Was quite slow but the characters and the story was good.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I really liked this book, especially the surprising plot twists. It's a heartwarming story that shows how even misfortune can lead to good things.

I found Anya to be relatable and loved her relationship with Paddy and Georgie. I would have loved if Jamie was introduced into the book a bit earlier. I felt that the romantic connection between the two was slightly rushed at the end.
I did enjoy the book overall but wasn't rushing to finish it.

We all think of plan A right? We know so much about the “plan A” man, but give little to no thought about a “plan B” man. This is where the fresh look at romance comes in. It is about exactly that - The Back Up Man.

Anya is a food influencer with aspirations, so have snacks at your side. It makes you hungry. She may be doing well in that field, but her love life isn’t going quite so well. She has broken up with a man and even her best friend lives miles away. It sparks a promise made long ago, so the hunt is on to find her backup man. You really feel for Anya because she is so down on her luck as things go wrong and she tries to seize her past. As the book goes on, it becomes rather funny as certain events happen.

I know that Phoebe Luckhurst’s debut novel The Lock In was very popular a couple of years ago and although I haven’t read it, it is on the list. However, I was approved for her new release on NetGalley and thought I’d give it a go before her debut.

Anya is in her final year of her 20s but she has unexpectedly found herself single, homeless and jobless. The only spare room for her is at her cousin Claire’s house but she and Claire have never really got along and Anya has never liked Claire’s creepy fiance Richard. Soon, she has a babysitting job for two 11-year-old twins who love tormenting her but what Anya really wants is to cook for a living. While going through a pile of things from her teen years, Anya finds a contract that she made with her high school boyfriend Euan. If both of them were single at 30, they’d find each other and get married. But she hasn’t seen Euan for years and she has no idea where he is now. Then she gets a text from an old friend called Jamie and he’s looking for Euan too.

There were some glimpses of observational comedy in this book and I was so sad that they didn’t fully land and that they were so few and far between. I can tell that the author could have made this into a rom-com but instead, it was the opposite. Not a comedy and not even really quite a romance.

Sometimes Anya was really relatable and her relationship with her mum felt very true. She is a little afraid of her mother despite her mum not really being all that overbearing or scary to an outsider. It’s that fear of disappointment and disapproval that I think many daughters feel at some point.

Anya is passionate about cooking and whipping up new experiments in the kitchen. It’s clear that this is what she should be doing and she starts a catering business during the book. I am incredibly sad about the fact that this whole strand of the story was just abandoned. Yes, she is still cooking at the end but she had events booked that I was expecting to attend and then the book just ended. The twins’ birthday party and the dog birthday could have made some really lovely, potentially funny scenes but we didn’t get to see them which is tragic.

Anya’s reflections on her school days and her relationship with Euan felt very authentic to what teen first love is like. It is very delicate, magical and all-encompassing. However, I knew that she and Euan wouldn’t work out in one way or another. It would have all been a bit too fairytale-esque if they had, so I’m glad that wasn’t the ending we got. Instead, we got no ending at all and I’m not sure whether that’s better.

The Back Up Man is a very strange one to review. It wasn’t a pain to get through but it was very flat and took me longer than a contemporary usually takes me. I can’t really work out why so many things weren’t tied up at the end and why so many things that felt like they were going to be significant were just left at the side of the road. The presence of Aimee and the twins feels pointless, the drama with Claire and Richard was an anti-climax and even the search for Euan, which the title suggests is the main plot point all came to absolutely nothing. However, somehow I did enjoy certain parts of it. So, it’s a three star read but it is undeniably very forgettable and unsatisfactory.

This book was okay, an average cosy and quick read but the slow burn romance was just, well, way too slow for me. I did enjoy the characters though, and the storyline.

3.5 stars
Sadly this book just wasn't for me.
It took me a while to get into it and I think that had a lot to do with the pacing. It just felt too slow.
Not having the love interest enter the story until about a third of the way through and then it taking until about 70% in for any romance to happen, just didn't work or keep me engaged like it should have.
I definitely went into this expecting romance but it was more of a contemporary fiction story with a tiny romantic subplot.
I was also rather disappointed in the ending.
However, as a Glaswegian, I did really like the Glasgow setting.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A hug in a book! I enjoyed this thoroughly and I couldn't put it down, I just needed to know what happened next!
This book left me with such a warm feeling and a smile on my face by the end, I've even bought the paperback copy!
This book includes my favourite tropes; forced proximity, friends to lovers and slow burn!
Love, love, LOVE!

This book was sweet but nothing special. I like Anya as the main character. The other characters seemed very one dimensional and only there to cheer Anya on with her choices and give her a boost. Jamie was an okay character but I didn't have much inkling until later on what his endgame was.

It was a sweet story about personal growth in the end, but I was dying for an epilogue or something more juicy as it finished. It was lovely to read a book set in Scotland, as well.