About books #95: A Question of Us

I feel like everyone probably has that one friend. You know, the one that might have been. The one that theoretically, you wouldn’t mind dating – but never would, because it’s not really worth risking your friendship? Or is it? Really, it’s all A Question of Us.

I was offered an ARC by Netgalley in exchange for a review. All opinions are strictly my own.

The story

Two best friends. Eight pub quizzes. One shot at love…

There are some people who seem like they have all the answers in life. Clarrie Midwinter isn’t one of them.

At the age of 26, tomboy Clarrie is still struggling to become a ‘proper’ grown-up. She’s eternally strapped for cash, she hasn’t had a date in nearly a year and her attempts to quit smoking tend to take a nosedive after the second pint. Most annoyingly of all, her ladykiller best friend Simon just won’t stop asking her out. The only thing keeping her sane is her pub quiz team, the Mighty Morphin Flower Arrangers.

But when Simon bets her a date their team will win the quiz league, Clarrie is forced to confront what she really wants out of life – and love. Is it finally time for her to grow up?

The opinion

Honestly, as soon as I started reading A Question of Us, I knew it would hit close to home. Just how much it would do so, though? How absolutely real it would be? To what extent it would feel as if I wasn’t reading these events, but rather almost seeing them? I wasn’t prepared for any of that.

Mary Jayne Baker’s writing manages to hit that perfect balance between show and tell, and she depicts the emotions, which this book is largely driven by, perfectly. You know how sometimes, when you’re reading, you get that little twist in your stomach, from the anticipation of what is almost about to happen? That was me – this entire book.

If there’s one thing I liked less about this book, it would have to be that it felt as if Clarrie’s anxiety was sort of used whenever that helped to move the plot along, only to then be forgotten about. It felt kind of unresolved, within the story. Then again – that too, is probably true to life for quite a lot of people…

The rating: 4/5

All in all, A Question of Us was a really pleasant discovery. It’s made me want to go and read the rest of this authors oeuvre – and then go back and reread this one! (Goodreads)

-Saar