Michelle Kalus

After accidentally ruining her lifelong best friend’s marriage, a mere hour or so after the wedding, Beatrix Babbage moves from Perth to Melbourne looking for a fresh start, but it’s more difficult than she envisioned. The only respite from her loneliness is provided by The Nook, where barista/slam poet Grover ‘Dino’ Dinopoli, scribbles book quotes on her coffee cup, and pastry chef, Sunday, occasionally lets her lick the spoon.

Until, one evening while exploring the city, Bea, a self show more confessed bibliophile, wonders into a bookstore where she discovers a second-hand book. While the blurb piques her interest, it’s the handwritten notations in it’s margins that captures her imagination, and Bea grows increasingly convinced that finding the ‘Mystery Writer’ will be the catalyst that will change her life.

While You Were Reading is a likeable, modern contemporary romance, the second book from co-writer’s Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus, who are also cofounders of the fabulous Books on the Rail project.

Instagram posts (complete with photo’s, follower comments and likes), texts, instant messages, email’s and notes (left for her cleaner) helps tell Bea’s story as her obsession with the ‘Mystery Writer’ leads her in surprising directions.

I mostly liked Bea, and had some sympathy for the awkward situations she found herself in. Her level of self esteem is awfully low though, and she makes some immature assumptions, and decisions. It takes her quite some time for her to find her feet, but I was glad she did.

I did enjoy the romantic plot developed by the authors. I like a friends to lovers trope, and though the obstacles were mostly predictable, there were some interesting elements, particularly surrounding the identity of the ‘Mystery Writer’. I also enjoyed the mini romance plot that played out through Bea’s Instagram comments.

Supporting characters, Ruth, with her pet ferret, and Bea’s sister, Ex-bachelorette star, with her Instagram obsession, add a touch of absurdity. I liked the odd start to Bea’s friendship with Martha, and the supportive relationships Bea formed with them.

I would love to attend a literary pub crawl like that which Bea attends, and the event she organises, Next Chapter: speed dating for books. There are dozens of references to classic and modern books, from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott to The Sunday Girl by Pip Drysdale, including a cheeky mention of the authors’ first novel The Book Ninja, throughout While You Were Reading. It’s a fun addition to the story for book lovers, and handily the authors provide a list of every title at the end of the book, which I appreciated (quite a few I’ve either read, or are on my TBR).

When You Were Reading is an engaging romance, particularly if you are a bibliophile. I do feel I need to add however, that despite Bea’s age (she turns 30 early on in the story), While You Were Reading, overall feels like it’s probably more suited to a younger barely ‘adulting’ demographic. show less

Oh, The Book Ninja. How desperately I wanted to like you, love you. Such a brilliant idea for a story, dropping favourite books on public transport in a hunt for Mr Right. Bookish dialogue abounding, in-jokes about plots and reminiscing about the great reads of our lives. I’m sorry, but I just wasn’t that into you. Maybe you were too much for me, like eating an entire bag of salt and vinegar chips. Maybe I’m not bookish enough for you. Maybe…

The Book Ninja is a great sounding story. show more A writer, the unfortunately named Frankston (Frankie) works in a bookshop and has writer’s block. She’s single while best friend Cat is loved up with the perfect Claud (handsome and talented with a pair of knitting needles). Her ex has moved on, but Frankie is stuck. In an attempt to start writing again and find Mr Right, she starts dropping copies of her favourite books on public transport with notes to contact her at the end. It’s a perfect idea, sifting through commuters to find only the ones who are bookish. Frankie starts blogging about it and of course it’s a hit. But in the meantime Sunny Day (I kid you not) has walked into her life. Sunny is deeply into YA, which is unthinkable for a classics/literary fiction devotee like Frankie. But something clicks between them. Of course, the road to true love is never smooth when you have differing book tastes, a banana phobia and a secret dating blog.

There is a lot jammed into The Book Ninja which I felt made it lose its way somewhat. All of the characters are very quirky, which had me craving someone average. It also made for subplots that weren’t explored. Was it truly necessary to the plot for Cat to have a fling with her K-Pop dance teacher which turned into a huge drama/reveal only to fade away at the end? Claud is meant to be the handsomest, nicest man on the planet but he turns into a stooge for jokes about knitting. The background of Sunny’s ex could have been a driving force for tenderness but it turns into something Sunny does so he can meet up with Frankie at random times. I understand that the people Frankie dates should be odd for the blog’s sake but when everyone is so unique it got a bit old for me.

There are also a ton of book references here, which Cat, Frankie and Sunny trade off frequently. At first it’s cool, like sharing a secret joke. But it tended to grate on me after a while. Yep, I get the characters are bookish. But I bet they have other hobbies, right? Sometimes it seemed like the characters were a bit confused themselves. Frankie runs off in multiple directions, confused about life, love, parents, writing, fidelity etc. Cat could have been a great character but the reasons for her infidelity and lies were never explained. She was languishing at the back, a target for pregnancy jokes, book references and sly comments on Frankie’s love life. Are we meant to hate her? Likewise, Frankie’s mum seemed to be there for jokes only about new age changes, spontaneous youth and being clueless about her daughter. And Seb? His declaration at the end of the book was weird and didn’t fit in with what we knew about him. Then it was brushed off and not discussed again.

One thing that made me start a lunchtime rant was the medical stuff. I understand that not everyone is a medical expert, but there were some errors here that really should have been picked up. For example, Frankie meets Sunny at The Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne. In the lift is a male patient. It’s a women’s hospital. The second is Sunny’s description of Hazel. She is in accident where her ‘kidneys are crushed’. Sunny states she dies because of the lack of kidney donors. She appears to die within hours of the crash. If Hazel’s kidneys were too damaged to function, she could have been put on dialysis. It’s likely she would have been critically ill, so continuous veno-venous haemo dialysis/filtration would have been an option initially, available at any tertiary hospital. She could then have been put on haemodialysis to await transplant – some people stay this way for years. Plus, it’s not like donors grow on trees or hospitals keep a supply of organs in a fridge. Not everyone can be a donor, even if they want to – the way someone dies is important, as are their comorbidities which may render some/all organs unusable. Organs are also not a one size fits all – there must be the best compatibility between blood typing, tissue typing and cross matching otherwise the recipient’s body will reject the donor organ, despite immunosuppressants.

In the end, I just couldn’t get past these. Great idea, just not so well executed for me.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the ARC. My review is honest.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com show less

Mmm...I loved the premise of this book - Leave books on trains and perhaps you’ll meet a kindred spirit. But...this very light-weight chick lit mostly made me cringe. I’m obviously not the target demographic for this book - probably aimed at late teens/twenty somethings. The two main characters are immature, self-absorbed cheaters who still get their Pride and Prejudice conclusion. I wouldn’t like a male character with this traits, so why would it be acceptable for the female ones?

Beatrix Babbage has just accidentally destroyed her best friends marriage. After this humiliating incident, she flees to Melbourne for a fresh start, but after a few months her life is more lacklustre than ever. She has hardly any friends apart from her barista & his biscuit baking side kick & her love life is dead in the water. Then she stumbles across a book in a second hand shop with the most poetic annotations & ramblings she's ever read & decides to find the person who wrote them & ends show more up in the middle of a love triangle.
I enjoyed this book but I don't think it was this duo's best. These two while also being the founders of the 'Books on the Rail' movement have made a name for themselves writing 'bookish' themed literature. The Book Ninja was brilliant, Fancy Seeing You Here was lots of fun & while I enjoyed this one as well sometimes it just seemed a little too predictable & overdone. It still had the duo's characteristic wit & humour & I loved the book quotations this one had but yeah, not my favourite from this duo. show less