I started this book thinking I wasn't going to like it very much but by the end I couldn't put it down. Bittersweet and complex, Luc and Sam's relationship is a rollercoaster of high highs and low lows, but none the less relatable and realistic. It's a romance exactly how I like them, edged with bitterness and faults but ultimately sweet.

Okay Days follows the story of Sam and Luc, two recent grad students spending a summer together in London before Sam has to move back to her native Sweden. With a countdown at the start of the novel and following throughout we are precisely aware of Sam and Luc’s finite time together, and how the summer fling they both intended it to be may be progressing into something more.

Beyond that, Sam and Luc are total opposites. Sam is blunt, witty and ready to run at a moments notice whereas Luc is reliable, steady and slow paced. Which raises the question, if they had more than a summer together - would the relationship last?

I read this book in one sitting and would definitely recommend it to friends. If you like Sally Rooney books, specifically Normal People, I have a feeling that you will love this.

Thank you Net Galley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed Okay Days but felt the first half was a little slow paced for me and not a lot happened until 50%. However during the second half I felt much more invested in the main characters and the storyline.

The book tells the relationship of Sam and Luc from both sides in great detail, counting down the days until two major events happen. As well as dual POV there is also a dual timeline which works well.

I would recommend this to anyone who loves realistic novels about love and relationships. I picked up similar vibes to Sally Rooney and Gabrielle Zevin. There are also some TWs to be aware of. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book!

Huge thanks to Netgalley! Saw a couple reviews on insta and wanted to get my hands on this book immediately. I LOVED THIS BOOK. I've recently been digging the no plot just vibes thing in books and the vibes in this book were immaculate ✨. Sam is in London only for a short time and then she'll go back to Sweden, her job and her life. In London she meets Luc, and she falls for him, the way he makes her feel, and the way he treats her. They are both very much attracted to each other and are sad about the fact that it's going to be a short lived relationship but decide not to be too smart about it and just live life as it is, with their little him and her traditions/routines. This book had Cleo and Frank/Alone with you in the ether vibes and that is exactly the kind of romance I've been liking lately.

This could quite possibly be one of the best books I've read this year. The characterization involved is simply superb. Quirky, brilliantly written. I loved every word.

4.5 stars!

"She pulls back and gives me a smack kiss. 'There. Better?' 'Do it again,' I say and kiss her hard and she laughs through her nose. My lips now taste of grapefruit and oil, and her lip balm is added to the smells my brain will associate with her. Another day, wanting to be transported back to this tube ride, I will only have to buy a grapefruit."

When I heard that Jenny Mustard was releasing her own novel, I knew I HAD to read it.

'Okay Days' follows Sam and Lucas, who meet at a party in London and find an instant connection. Ten years later, despite complications between them, all they want is to be together and we follow their paths to fight the expectations set before them. Mustard's use of environmental descriptions allows us to be transported to sweltering summer days in London and icy autumn nights in Stockholm.

For lovers of Gabrielle Zevin's 'Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow', 'Okay Days' depicts complex and flawed characters that may not often make the right decisions. I really enjoyed the use of the first-person p.o.v. that would switch between Sam and Luc so we are able to experience both sides of their story. The romance is not overly-fluffy, and I found it to be very realistic, as imperfect traits from both Sam and Luc are exposed. It's a truly brilliant summer read to get lost in!

Content Warnings: abortion, drugs

Read via Netgalley, and thank you to Hodder & Stoughton for providing an advanced copy in exchange for a review.

At first I found the writing style of "Okay Days" pretentious. Even though the author chose to switch narrative POV from one protagonist to the other, not much differentiated them in terms of sentence construction. Knowing a bit of Jenny Mustard's online presence, I couldn't also shake the feeling that there was a lot of self-insert when it came to experiences and promoting certain ideas. Understandable, but not perspective-broadening.

The story was slow-paced and organised around count downs. What at first seemed like a story leading to a break up, then became a story of rejoin, which was a bit confusing, yet interesting and also surprising.

What disappointed me the most was that even though Mustard did her best to portray an experience of a first-generation Swedish immigrant, it came out inauthentic and lacking nuance.

Overall, it was just an okay novel and just an okay debut.

I LOVED this book! Such a great modern love story with great characters, I especially loved Luc! At the beginning I thought I’d exactly know where this story would be going, and what the countdown was leading up to, but I was wrong. There was so much more going on and I really loved the past and present timeline. I feel like the book itself was to long for the story, if that makes sense. Shortening it would’ve made it even stronger. The writing style reminded me a lot of Sally Rooney, I really enjoyed it and already preorders a physical copy for my collection!

Sam and Luc are both struggling to find their way. The story centres on their relationship and the ups and downs. The descriptions of London are spot on. I could really feel the heat of a hot summer and picture exactly what it was like.
I can't say I warmed to Sam. She annoyed me a little bit. She seems quite self centered. The chapters switch between the two main characters and I preferred the Luc ones.
I thought the book was written quite cleverly in that I often felt it was going in one direction and then it changed.
I don't like to compare authors to others but it did give off strong Sally Rooney vibes.

Jenny Mustard's Okay Days is a refreshing, modern take on love and relationships. The book tells the story of Sam, a 28-year-old Swedish woman working for a marketing agency in London, and her summer fling with Lucas, a man she met years ago. The book explores the challenges that young adults face as they try to navigate life, mental health struggles, and relationships in the real world.

Mustard's writing is relatable and heart-wrenching. I found myself feeling for the characters and my own experiences while reading. The book avoids the typical "happily ever after" ending, which makes the characters' love for each other all the more powerful. It's very much in the vein of Sally Rooney's work, and fans of her writing will enjoy this book.

The novel deals with a range of topics, including male body dysmorphia, women's reproductive rights, and the expectations of modern love. Mustard handles these topics with delicacy and empathy, never shying away from the difficult conversations. The author also avoids the typical miscommunication trope that plagues so many romance novels, opting instead to highlight the differences between Sam and Lucas that make their relationship so turbulent.

What I loved most about Okay Days is how peaceful and dreamy it is. Mustard's descriptions of London and its restaurants are vivid and transporting. The book captures the feeling of a sunny Sunday morning, relaxed and calm. The author's use of past and present to tell the story gives the book a feeling of discussion rather than narration.

I highly recommend Okay Days to anyone who feels lost, is struggling to find their way in life, or is looking for a realistic take on love and relationships. The book is a brilliant debut from Mustard, and I can't wait to see what she writes next.

Wow, what a piece of literary brilliance. Okay Days celebrates the mundanity of life, normalises struggling with mental health and epitomises the reality of hardships one faces when they branch out on their own as a young adult. The writing is relatable to the point where my heart broke for both the characters and my own self while reading.

I never quite understood what made a book someone’s comfort read, but in a heartbeat this became mine. I will be returning to this book many times over and recommending it far and wide.

Giving very much Swedish Sally Rooney vibes!! I loved the writing style and overall a really good read

Summary:

Okay Days tells the story of the relationship and love between Sam and Lucas.

Sam meets Luc while temporarily working a job in London at a top Marketing Agency. Their relationship has an expiry date when she returns to Sweden. But despite it all they can’t let each other go.

The story tells the highs and falls of their relationship.

Review:

‘So our working theory is that our differences would either hold us both back from the lives we want, or evolve us into calmer looser future selves? So either catastrophe or quite sublime?’

This is a refreshing, modern take on love and relationships in the real world. There is no ‘they lived happily ever after’ but the more realistic version means their love for each other means so much more.

I found Sam hard to like at first but as the book progressed, the author really brings her to life and shows the complexities of thinking that lead to some of the questionable decisions she makes.

I loved Luc and loved that he grew stronger as the story progressed. I wanted to shout at Sam to hold onto him tight and never let him go.

The side characters added to the story and I loved the friendship dynamic between them all.

An inspiring story about love, loss and maturing. I wholeheartedly recommend.

Fans of Sally Rooney will love this book.

Oh my, this one hit differently!

I was really excited when Mustard announced she was writing her debut novel and knew I had to read it. But for most things I get excited about I was equally scared it would let me down…

But Mustard delivered a brilliant debut!

Sam is a 28-year-old Swedish woman living in London and working for a top marketing agency. During her summer internship, she falls hard for Lucas (Luc) whom she initially met as a teenager. Luc is trying to break into the corporate world but struggles without any professional network. Their relationship becomes the ultimate escape from reality, but they both know it can’t last… or can it?

Relatable in so many ways. Two lost souls trying to find their purpose and way in life. Fumbling with expectations and trying to shake the things that don’t work for them. From male body dysmorphia to women’s productive rights and the expectations of modern love.

This book is the ultimate read for any 20, 30, or 40-somethings. For anyone who feels lost, struggling to find home, and love. And maybe most for the dreamers who never really land. What is your escape and how do you get back to reality?

I really enjoyed getting swept into this story and London life. There were points where I felt the writing could have been improved and some sentence structures were a bit weird. But the story and characters were strong and entertaining.
I think this would be a magnificent summer read.
Highly recommend!

4.5⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advanced e copy in exchange for an honest review.

This may be the best literary fiction novel I have ever read, and the fact that this is Jenny Mustard's debut makes it even more impressive.

Mustard removes the common miscommunication trophe and highlights that the reason why her protagonists' relationship is so turbulent is because of differences both Luc and Sam are keenly aware of. Fundamental differences which are equally understandable and justified.

This awareness accompanies a lack of pointless, unrealistic arguments and provides a refreshing will-they-wont-they situationship tale that made me dread doing any distraction from reading. While centred around a romance, this novel explores immigration imposter syndrome, the death of a parent, and male eating disorders with delicacy and empathy. These issues were not discomfortingly described or portrayed in depth, but they were frequently discussed and I found Mustard's depiction of how two people may cope with these issues to be insightful and realistic.

My one issue with this novel the colloquial writing style, which made some sentences difficult to read. While I often adored Mustard's casual descriptions and felt the first person dual narration worked excellently for this novel, how thoughts and actions were written as one would narrate them in real life sometimes did not make grammatical sense.

In short, I adored this novel, struggled to put it down, and can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy and to read more of Jenny Mustard's work in the future.

Not for me, I couldn't quite warm to Sam. Her unnatural phrasing of her thoughts.., faking a death in the family. I am sad to say I did not finish this book.

Okay Days by Jenny Mustard chronicles the various ups and downs and developments of a romantic relationship.

This is hands down one of my favourite books of this year. From page one I could not put this down, I loved every character in this book, they felt so raw and real. The writing was so beautiful and I just adored every second of it. Sam and Luc have my whole heart.

Okay Days follows Sam and Lucas, both in their late twenties, over a year beginning at the party at which they become reacquainted after ten years.
Sam is on a placement at a London marketing company thanks to a bit of networking through a friend’s mother. She’s Swedish-Romanian, from a large extended family in contrast to Lucas, an only child who lost his mother at twelve. The night they bump into other again sees the beginning of a fling they both know will end when Sam returns to Stockholm. As he heads home from saying goodbye to her, Lucas listens to Sam’s Spotify list and can’t quite bring himself to log out of her account. Neither, it seems, can quite let each other go, Sam engineering a brief reprise on a Greek island which leads to a decision, later upended by the first serious crisis in their relationship.
Alternating Sam and Lucas' narratives, Mustard cleverly structures her novel as two countdown sections so that we know we’re heading towards some kind of resolution but we’re not at all sure what it might be. Both are engaging and likeable characters, each very different from the other, yet they complement each other well. I found myself rooting for them as the novel follows the entirely believable trajectory of their relationship. An enjoyable, absorbing and ultimately cheering piece of fiction whose quiet jacket suits it well.

For fans of Yolk by Mary HK Choi and Conversations With Friends By Sally Rooney, Ok Days follows the in-betweens of new relationships and the inevitable decline when two lives don't quite fit together, no matter how hard you try.

Counting down until breakup, the story spotlight is on Sam and Luc.

This novel is delightfully peaceful and captures the feeling of a sunny Sunday morning, when you are relaxed and calm and have leant into the weekend fully before having to go back to work. Through Jenny Mustard's writing we are able to see through both Sam and Luc's eyes and read how they feel about eachother in their own words.

Mustard explores the feelings and events that happen when you first meet someone- the slips from routine, the days that feel like jumps in time and seem to last forever but not long enough. The beautiful radiance of experiencing first time romance with a person that feels magical.

And what happens when the magic stops.

The languid, dreamy descriptions of drinking too much, doing too little and going to restaurants with warm lighting are depicted with such feeling and vividness which unravels in your mind like film tape.

Mustard is able to flick between past and present using the characters voices, making the novel feel like a discussion rather than a record and guide us into the feelings of Sam and Luc, and their sides of the events that broke them. But when the chapters that count down to their demise change, you are lead to wonder what will happen next as Sam and Luc's dynamic changes and they see other people but still feel drawn to eachother...

I really enjoyed the pace of this book as we read through Sam and Luc's relationship and I particularly enjoyed that it covered the phenomena of suspended time when you first meet someone and get together. Time seems a bit flimsy and simultaneously on pause but also not enough and you slip out of your routines to spend time with this new person. It was really enjoyable to relive in book form and I also loved that the chapter titles were countdowns to different defining moments in the pairs' relationship. Seeing their two points of views enhanced the story and have more depth to these moments and made me second guess my predictions for the ending and made it all that more satisfying to finish.