I was completely absorbed in Coralie’s life, I devoured it. I didn’t think I’d enjoy the realistic backdrop of politics and Covid, but it made the story relatable and real. I also always love a novel set in London, my favourite city. It would have been more rewarding if we’d had a more in depth look into Coralie’s suffering and how her and Adam get through to the other side, this felt a little rushed, but other than that it was an engaging, witty, modern look at family, love and motherhood.

Really good book that i will recommend to others.

Thanks for the opportunity to read & review it.

Loved this book! If it's something i love it's when you find a book that immerses you entirely in the lives of fictional people , one that takes you over a decade and one that you feel very sad to finish. Over 10 years we follow Coralie who arrives in London from Australia and starts to build a life . But we also follow the political scene in the UK over the time and also serves as a sort of novel about 21st century Britain . Obviously a lot happens and you will have to read it to find out more ! It's about relationships, life ,politics and just feels so real, it's going to be very popular I am sure !

I was so excited to get approved for this one after a very well known author recommended it. From the first few pages I just knew I was going to love it. I loved the storyline at the beginning and it was unlike anything I had read before. The political aspect of the book I didn’t love, whilst I remember lots of what was mentioned I did feel it was a bit over mentioned. Having said that I really enjoyed it and it was quite refreshing to read something so different.

I loved the first part of this book. It was funny, romantic, depicted the coming together of two people getting to know each other and forging a loving relationship with each other and their close families. The second part I felt was
worrying and disjointed. It seemed to flit from one character to another without continuity. Finally everything came together I. The last part -two people who truly loved each other had worked their way through the trials of everyday life and come out the other end with their relationship better for it.

A book of two halves for me. I adored the first 40/50%. It was so funny and touching and I fell in love with the characters. Coralie's voice and POV was brilliant, managing to be funny, sharp and something incorrigibly Australian-in-London that I found utterly charming. All the characters were sketched immaculately and vividly with depth and nuance.

However it started falling flat for me past the halfway mark. I'm not convinced the background of Brexit and British politics really added much to the story, apart from provide a reason for Adam's absences and an extra weight on Coralie's mental health. The charm and sparkle of the narration fizzled out; perhaps that was a deliberate device to again demonstrate Coralie's increasing floundering but I felt the pace suffered for it and it stripped back a little of the genuine genius evident in the opening chapters.

The book hooked a promise of an arc leading to Coralie leaving the family home and while it did happen, so little time was spent on the apex of the crisis and its resolution, it felt a wee bit unsatisfying.

I'm probably being a bit harsh but only because I loved parts of it sooo much I wanted to adore the rest of it. I would definitely pick up the next thing Jessica Stanley writes.

romantic comedy set across 10 years of U.K politics as aussie expat coralie falls in love with political journalist adam and builds a big, blended family in london. this is very richard curtis rich yuppie charming, it is SO hackney to the point that it's quite jarring if you live there, but in a way that ultimately i found endearing. i thought all of this was very sweet and comforting and it's nice to read a romcom that feels completely ull of life but still broadly normal and not dominated by miscommunications for the sake of tension, or dramatic reasons why people can't be together. just some normal people making it work!! i liked this a lot and would read whatever jessica stanley writes next!

I loved this sooooooooo much. Such a gentle and beautiful book, will be thinking about these characters for a long time! I fell into their lives so easily and wonderfully. Really special!

So much more than a romance it's a love story that takes in Brexit, Boris, covid, step families, toxic parents and, well, life. I adored Coralie and her family and felt her pain and despair at times, Joy at others. A delightful, refreshing and thoughtful read and also very funny.

4.5★s
Consider Yourself Kissed is the second novel by Australian-born author, Jessica Stanley. Needing to escape a hurtful break-up, the legacy of a troubled upbringing, and a demanding boss who grossly oversteps, in late 2012, twenty-nine-year-old copywriter, Coralie Bower heads to her firm’s London branch.

She’s working hard but staying under the radar, keeping to herself, because this is her chance, in her spare time, to write, to consolidate the notes, the bits written on the back of receipts, the emails to herself, the notebooks, into something worthwhile. But it’s not easy with a noisy pub next door.

Saving a cute four-year-old girl from drowning in a duck pond brings her instantly to the attention of the girl’s rather dishy father: they seem to easily connect and, soon enough, they’re dating. Within a few months, Coralie has packed up her worldly goods and moved in with Adam Whiteman, journalist, podcaster, author, political commentator, and divorced father of Zora.

It’s not too hard to gain Zora’s approval, and soon she is sharing her care with the ex and her new partner, gay grannies and, of course, Adam. Theirs is a wonderful life, but the casualty is Coralie’s writing, for which there is never the right moment, or enough of them.

And the turbulence of the coming decade in British politics seems to ensure that, again and again, Adam’s work takes priority: a book deadline, an election, Brexit; there’s always something urgent that keeps him busy and has her juggling work, home and childcare. Because it really feels, more and more often, like Zora’s other carers are taking advantage of Coralie’s generous nature.

Nonetheless, she throws herself enthusiastically into the relationship. Home renovations, two pregnancies that produce a daughter and a son but, after ten years together, there’s even less me time. “She was like a sandcastle, and Adam and the kids were like the sea, eroding her and flattening her with their proximity and demands. If she went for a walk, or listened to a podcast, she could begin rebuilding her ramparts, only to get knocked down again by wave after wave of needs.”

Complaints would bring temporary minor changes but to “Ask an ambitious show-off to refuse high-status work? She wasn’t mad.” Eventually, at crisis point, she has to ask herself is she complicit in her own situation? ”Not insisting on things she wanted. Talking herself out of complaining. She’d floated away, mentally. A ghost in her own life. She’d nearly floated away for good. She was crying.”

But what to do about it? She felt that “Something was wrong with her, it set her apart – she couldn’t be in love, but she couldn’t be out of it either. If she didn’t love, she was half a person. But if she did love, she’d never be whole.” But can she just walk away?

This is a story that will resonate strongly with working mothers, with step-parents, and those with an interest in British politics in recent decades, of which there is quite a lot. Stanley’s own experience with journalism and political campaigns gives the story authenticity and makes it wholly credible. Half a star off for the pregnant bloke, though.

Stanley populates her novel with engaging characters while her protagonist has depth and appeal. She gives the reader a topical, relatable tale that is often laugh-out-loud funny, might sometimes make the reader indignant, and occasionally brings a lump to the throat. Funny, insightful, and thoroughly enjoyable.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Random House UK.

I thoroughly enjoyed this! I am a big fan of reading novels where it spans years, decades. From the start I was hooked and wanted to learn more about Coralie and her family. It was an interesting point of view for me to see the lens of UK politics through Coralie's eyes and how they processed political news in the day to day while living through their own heartaches, joys and grief. I would recommend to anyone who loves a novel that follows a character around, enjoys learning more about how events shaped the UK in the past decade, and is always rooting for the main character. Would definitely read again!

A captivating story about trying to have it all and losing yourself along the way. Tapping into the crushing pressure women have to always manage, to succeed but never be proud, to get on with it - in the very first few pages I felt something linking us together.

Between 2013 and now, we watch a beautiful love story come to life and fall apart - before and after “the happy ever after”, seeing how real life, a changing world, responsibilities and growing up can change and morph relationships throughout the years.

An accomplished, beautifully written story but I just found the characters very distant, I could never connect to them and found their interactions quite stiff, stuck behind walls of speech and I just never found that flow with them until very late in the book.

I adored this book. It has multiple layers and complexities and feels so real. I’m looking forward to reading it again in a few months, to absorb more of the subtleties in the elegant writing.

I read this book with great anticipation, knowing the author's reference points had included The Cazalet Chronicles and I Capture the Castle. I can see the DNA of these books in this accomplished piece of fiction, that skilfully blends the domestic with bigger political events of the last decade. I loved a funny scene that saw the protagonists encounter an angry, blustering Boris Johnson when trying to leave a restaurant! This novel portrays a middle-class, occasionally smug, London lifestyle, that will feel familiar to some and alienating to others, however the themes explored, including parenthood, relationships and grief should resonate with many.

Consider Yourself Kissed follows Australian Coralie in London and her life after meeting Adam in a local park. The two then bump into each other in a pub and begin a relationship where she becomes stepmother to his daughter and they go on to have their own children. The follows Coralie’s conflict with motherhood and keeping a sense of self through work.

I really enjoyed this book and for the first two thirds found myself rationing it so I wouldn’t finish it too quickly. Coralie’s voice is convincing and well sustained and feels like hearing from a friend. I found some of the recounting of British politics over the past decade to be slightly tedious, and think the relationship between Coralie and her dad could’ve been further explored.

Consider Yourself Kissed is the story of Coralie over the course of roughly ten years. Coralie has recently arrived in London after an unexpected transfer from the company she worked for in Australia. Coralie meets Adam, a divorced father of one and the book follows their life together over the following decade set against the bizarre political background of the UK at this time ( Brexit, the numerous general elections and PM's, the threat of crashing out of the EU, pandemic and the antics of Boris J, all of which added a entertaining backdrop to this beautifully realistic love story and family drama.

Coralie's story is achingly familiar in so many ways while also being unique to her, she is a brilliant character. The book is full of brilliant characters, I cared for and was entertained by them all. Motherhood in its different forms, balancing all that life demands, hope and ambition, frustration, love, friendship and family dynamics are all captured brilliantly by the author . This book is sharp, funny, it's moving and it is a delight. I loved it. I think most people will. I predict this will be the book of the summer.

I loved it. I love a romance novel and I love LOVE. You feel yourself taking in the roles of these characters. You're invested in everything, every relationship with family and others. 10/10 would read again.

This was so cute! I loved the characterisation of Coralie and Adam, i loved their dynamic. I think this book balances gritty politics (which are done well) and the love of love. Thoroughly enjoyed this one!

I felt certain I would love this book as soon as I realized the title was a reference to The Group, but it exceeded my expectations and lifted me out of a real reading rut. I really related to Coralie even though we have very little in common on the surface, and felt drawn to and repelled by Adam with her in equal measure. It didn’t go exactly where I expected it to, but it felt real and like what the characters would really have done had they actually existed. I loved the side characters as well - I thought Zora in particular was really well done and seemed like an actual child. This book is funny, clever, romantic, and sad, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

A pleasant enough read but not really my cup of tea. I think this will really appeal to women with families/children as it may be quite relatable.

Long winded in some areas and I couldn’t connect with the characters but I would still recommend it as there is a good political backdrop and some elements are enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!