I bailed on this book after five chapters, because I’m just not interested or invested in the main characters. Ally has just been broken up with by her girlfriend Emily, in what seems like a classic r/aita scenario of “Everybody Sucks Here”. Ally was checked out and flailing and takes the cat; Emily was sleeping around before she broke up with Ally.

Their relationship feels unsalvageable, and the opening chapters have email exchanges that make it clear Emily has moved on and Ally hasn’t. Ally writes long and emotional messages, is trying to convince Emily to change her mind, and thinks that running a half-marathon will do it – all of which seem doomed to fail. I’m sure she has redeeming features, but I’m not sufficiently interested in her after the first 80 pages.

I might return to this later, because I like Laura Kay’s other books and I know other people enjoyed this one, but this attempt was a real slog.

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