#Review – #BigSexyLove by Kirsty Greenwood (@KirstyBooks)

Olive Brewster is living a small, safe life. She’s happy enough with her job at the local market, it’s no big deal that doesn’t have boyfriend, she even likes that she still lives in her childhood home. No drama and no fuss means no problems! And that’s just how she likes it.

Except … Olive’s best friend in the world​, Birdie, is dying.

Birdie has one final wish. She wants to track down her first love, her epic once in a lifetime love, her “Big Sexy Love”, Chuck. And because she’s stuck in the hospital she needs Olive’s help to do it. But there’s a teeny problem: Chuck is somewhere in New York and Olive has never even left her home town, let alone roamed the crazy streets of Manhattan!

As if the big city isn’t scary enough, Olive has to contend with Seth, a cocky comedy TV writer who thinks she’s a joke; Anders, a bored socialite who’s taken a shine to her; and the fact that no matter how hard she tries to track down Chuck, he does not seem to want to be found.

Can Olive learn to overcome her fears, abandon her old safe routine and fulfil her best friend’s dying wish?  It’s going to take extra bravery, one badass attitude and a whole lot of Big Sexy Love to make it happen …

What does TWG think?

Errrrrrrrr, nobody told me I was going to end up on a spin cycle with this book!!

With a name like ‘Olive’ I half expected her to resemble a dirty martini, weird I know. But, what was even weirder, was how she didn’t resemble it AT ALL. Not dirty. If anything Olive resembled a dry martini….emphasis on the dry.

Anywhoo, good ol’ Olive likes routine. Comfort. Organisation. Knowing her next move in life. No surprises, no fuss, just rou-snoreeeeeeeee. Each to their own, obviously, BUT Olive’s best friend is the complete opposite of her! I mean come on, her best friend is called ‘Birdie’!!

Before I started reading ‘Big Sexy Love’, I had seen on social media how readers were laughing their heads off because of this book, and I straight away thought ‘BRING.IT.OANNNNN!’. Truth be told, I genuinely thought that Kirsty Greenwood’s book was just going to be that; funny. Well, smack my bum and call me Mary because it wasn’t just funny. No sireee.

With the laughter aspect in mind, I couldn’t wait to see how the author was going to make me laugh. I wanted to laugh GOOD. No pressure, really. Bearing in mind that I was reading #BigSexyLove in my bed, with my daughter sound asleep beside me, I had to be on high alert to muffle my usual hyena/clapping seal/snorting style laugh so that I didn’t wake her up. I’m sure you can guess how devastated I was when my usual laugh never materialised. Sniff. I was merely minding my own business, totally invested in Olive’s fish, when all of a sudden my body started convulsing; I was all ‘wtf!’ because it started at my toes and worked its way up. Within seconds it dawned on me exactly what I was experiencing….a laugh like a poxy fast spin on a washing machine. Yes folks, good ol’ TWG didn’t want a clapping seal, loud hyena and a snorting pig laugh, because obviously it’s ohsoboring. No. TWG wanted a laugh like a poxy WASHING MACHINE. My whole body was shuddering with laughter and it wouldn’t stop! If I had known my body was going to laugh like that, I would have stuck a wash down my neck beforehand!

Absolutely fantastic, fantastic humour throughout the entire novel.

Near the start of my review I said that Kirsty Greenwood’s novel wasn’t just funny. Olive’s best friend, Birdie, is dying. Nothing can save her, and any operations available that could prolong her life, could actually kill her quicker. Luckily, Birdie has a fantastic sense of humour and knows that if she played the ‘best friend dying’ card, Olive would be putty in her hands.

Reader; it worked.

Now, obviously I don’t wish to give away so I will be as vague as I can, BUT, what Birdie sent Olive off to do was genius. Absolute genius. I had no idea how Olive’s jaunt would play out, but lets just say that the journey itself was a classic. Olive got up to so much in such a short space of time that, weirdly enough, her antics seemed to fit her character. I didn’t expect an organised, surprise-a-phobe to have such an addictive side to her personality; but she did!

So, I’m sure you can guess that I just kept laughing as the storyline progressed. I mean, how could I not? But then all of a sudden out of nowhere, I started holding my breath with arms full of goosebumps. No longer was I laughing like a washing machine on a fast spin. Instead I was #BigSexyUGLYCRYING. Oh.my.god! I could have sworn I heard my heart break into a million pieces, as well.

Wow.

‘Big Sexy Love’ truly is an inspirational, giggle-fest, gem of a book. I’ve never read anything like it, and honestly? I don’t think I ever will. I’ve read some brilliant books so far this year, but Kirsty Greenwood’s novel has swooped right in there and given me a favourite book of all time. I absolutely LOVED every single thing about this book. It was fun. It was flirty. It was original. It was written in an ingenious manner. It was emotional. It was addictive. Most importantly though, it highlights exactly how short life is, and how valuable our times are on this planet. Life is too short to NOT to do that thing that you’ve always wanted to do. As long as you’re happy, who cares?

Give this author an Oscar (or the book equivalent) because she is an absolute genius and, if wasn’t likely to get arrested for stalking behaviour and ABH, I would kiss Kirsty Greenwood all over for writing ONE OF MY MOST FAVOURITE BOOKS EVERRRRRRRRR!

Just go and buy this, like…now, okay?

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