One of the things I love as a reader is finding small pieces of my own life amongst the pages of someone else's. Being relatable and connecting to the audience is for me the most important thing that you can do as an author. In Lucy-Anne Holmes' Just a Girl, Standing in Front of a Boy I found the most accurate descriptions of so many personal aspects of my life I had to go back and read chapters again, just to be sure I wasn't reading my own diary.
The story follows Jenny Taylor, a 27-year-old quirky, pink haired girl in her attempt to restart her life after a childhood full of sad memories and heartbreak. When her self-confidence plummets to a new low, her best friend Phillipa invents a manifesto of things for Jenny to do every day to help her recover. Just as Jenny begins to feel comfortable with her new life, her mother appears on her doorstep with the revelation that she has left Jenny's father, her comfortable boyfriend Matt pops the question, and she meets Joe King, aspiring musician set to change Jenny's life as she knows it.
Jenny is a hysterically funny young woman and from the first page had me in stitches. As a self depreciating woman she finds humour in the darker moments in our lives and this really resonated with me. Her life is entirely ordinary in a lot of ways, she has normal friends, a normal job and an ordinary boyfriend. When she meets the loveable and rugged Joe (whom I absolutely fell in love with!) her life does a complete 180 degree turn.
This is a modern love story full of laughs, tears and sometimes anger (I threw the book down at one point!). It's witty, charming and Holmes perfectly captures how even the most ordinary person can have an extraordinary life with music, laughter and a lot of Jagerbombs.
About the reviewer
Kershia Field is a twenteen year old English student based in Leicester, with an unhealthy love for Game of Thrones and video games. She publishes her work on her poetry blog http://kershiadoespoems.blogspot.co.uk/
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