Title : Yours Truly
Author : Kirsty Greenwood
Publication date : 21 November 2013
Publisher : Pan Macmillan
Purchase eBook: Kindle
Purchase paper book: Amazon
Rating : 5 out of 5 LeeLee’s!
‘Your bum does not look big in that dress.’ ‘Mmmm, this meal is delicious!’ ‘Of course you’re better looking than Jon Hamm.’
Newly engaged Natalie Butterworth is an easy-going girl. She’ll do anything for a quiet life and if telling a few teensy white lies keeps her friends and family happy, then so what? It’s not like they’ll ever discover what she’s really thinking …
Until one night, thanks to a pub hypnotist, Natalie’s most private thoughts begin to bubble up and pop out of her mouth. Things get very messy indeed, especially when some sticky home truths offend her fiance. Natalie must track down the hypnotist before her wedding is officially cancelled. So along with bad influence bestie Meg, Natalie finds herself in the Yorkshire Parish of Little Trooley — a small village bursting with big secrets, nosy old folk and intriguing Wellington-wearing men. When the girls get stuck in the village with no means of escape and no way to break the hypnotist’s spell, Natalie is forced to face the truths she has been avoiding her whole life …
My Thoughts
If like myself you’re a fan of womens fiction then you may have come across Novelicious and their Founding Editor Kirsty Greenwood, her strong love for books lead to her writing one of her own. Initially Kirsty self published her first novel, it became so popular that she found herself signing a book deal with Pan Macmillan. The rest was history, she’s now an official published author and a blooming good one!
As a debut novel I don’t think this book could have been any better, it’s literally laugh out loud hilarious. It made me snort. Attractive I know!
Yours Truly follows Natalie Butterworth on what could only be described as a rather crazy journey of self discovery, when we meet Natalie she has just had the worst haircut imaginable and leaves the salon with a look similar to that of Garfield the cat, avoiding any form of confrontation she pays the bill tips the stylist and doesn’t say a thing. I found this very easy to relate to as I myself have done the same – sans the garfield look of course! Mine wasn’t that bad honest. – This instantly had me feeling that Natalie is a bit of a push over, it turns out I was right.
Natalie soon finds herself in a whole heap of trouble. The I’ve been hypnotised to tell absolutely nothing but the 100% truth kind of trouble. As somebody who has a habit of constantly telling lies, the sort we all tell so save face and keep the peace, this was a big problem for her! After the shocking discovery of her truth telling – Which may have been discovered by telling her future husband to be that he actually wasn’t that good in bed and that his cooking is terrible – Natalie must find the hypnotist in order to put things right, otherwise things were only going to get worse.
The mission to find ‘The Amazing Brian’ leads Natalie and best friend Meg to the very quaint village of little Trooley in north Yorkshire, this is where they meet a whole host of crazy but quirky characters. I found myself really getting into the book at this point, the characters in little Trooley were brilliant from the village OAPs to the eccentric millionaire and of course the village hottie, Riley!
Kirsty’s writing style and the amount of depth and feeling that has gone into the characters is outstanding, I particularly liked Natalie’s rather chavvy sister with her ridiculous tiny dog and Riley’s bitchy girlfriend, they brought another level of humour to the book and a host of hilarious cat fights.
Verdict
This is a fantastic laugh out loud novel, I found myself rooting for Natalie throughout like she was a friend. I happened to like the changes that were happening in her life and didn’t want her to have Brian reverse the spell. Her family are horrible and selfish while her fiancé Olly is so self centred and arrogant that I thought she really deserved better. Now you can’t choose your family but you can choose your husband!
If anything telling people the truth helped her in many ways, thats not to say we should all just start blabbing our mouths off but this taught me that in some instance its actually best to just be honest!
This is a brilliant read that will have you rolling with laughter, combined with a whole host of fabulous characters you can fall in love with over and over again its certainly one to put on your book shelf!
