When Polly Met Olly

2 stars: This book is hard to rate. For the positives: I loved the main character. This book is more like a Sophie Kinsella/Mhairi McFarlane "General Fiction with a side of Romance" than a true romance book. Yes, romance is a big subject in it, but the actual romance between two characters is more of an (awkward) side-plot. But I loved Polly, and I think May captured really well that feeling of being lost at 25, of constantly feeling like you're not living up to expectations, of wanting more but not knowing how to get it. She felt very really to me and could see her in the countless 25 year olds pursuing their dreams in New York. Now the negatives: Olly is another story--we never really get a sense of Olly. He's the handsome, cool, romantic lead but has no substance to him. Honestly, I found him majorly suspect and was put off by a lot of his actions. And the pacing! One minute we've spent three pages describing what Polly did all day, and in the next three pages A LOT happens. A lot of the plot decisions also seemed to come out of nowhere, and so it made it really hard for me to get really into the book. There were chapters that seemed to drag, and then chapters that were crammed with action but not in a good way, because there was no build up to that action. Bottom line, I enjoyed reading about Polly, but the rest of the book was sub-par. There's better general fiction out there! **Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ecopy in exchange for an honest review.**

This has a really cute start. Now, it is totally a British story, because I had to look up what an aubergine emoji would be, it is in fact an eggplant emoji. And throughout the story there were a lot of things that were totally British sayings or names for things. This was an issue for me because the book takes place in New York City, and most of the people are not British. I feel like the story was good in a lot of ways though. The way people behaved towards each other was pretty real. The way they reacted to others was realistic in my opinion. I liked that when we got some bad news about the love interest, it was actually true, for the most part, and Olly owned up to his part in it. I enjoyed Polly's foray into the world of dating apps, even as she was using them to help other people find dates. Like her, I really feel like I want to meet someone in real life. Why can't that happen for me? And also like her, I find that when I do get on an app, like Tinder, etc., I spend a lot of time swiping left and right, and it almost becomes like a video game in a way. So I really connected with her on that aspect. The story was really witty and a very quick read, even if the true romance didn't really get started other than a crush until about halfway through.

This book was very cute and adorable :) It was beautifully written, heart-warming story, perfect to take with you on a vacation or snuggle with it in cosy blanket in your bed. I immediately fell in love with the characters and the writing and reading this book made my day brighter and better.

This is such a fun and engaging novel with unexpected twists, a little office to office spying and several cute anecdotes relating to the people in the story that try match maker dating. There is a ton of soul searching that the characters engage in that add to the plot and to the relationships. It is a thoroughly enjoyable novel!