Review: The Worst Girlfriend in the World by Sarra Manning

It takes a talented writer to get into the mind of the modern teenage girl, but Sarra Manning never seems to have a problem succeeding.

Her latest, The Worst Girlfriend in the World, is a tale of friendship, fighting and figuring out who you are. And boys.

Franny Barker, known as Franny B, is off to college to pursue her dream of being a fashion designer. Yes, her mum is depressed, no one at college likes her, and she has to retake her maths and English GCSEs, but as long as she's got best friend Alice, she'll be okay. Only Alice, feeling like she's being left behind, sets her sight on Louis, the boy Franny B has had a crush on for two years.

Manning knows the recipe for a good book, and taking the elements of growing up and putting them in a mixer, she's able to tell a readable, thoroughly enjoyable story. I loved both female protagonists, even though most of the time Alice was breaking friendship rules left, right and centre, and being a right cow. Still, she's a teenage girl and when you're in the midst of feeling insecure and hurt, you think anything goes.

Franny B's home life was interesting as well, with Manning tackling depression in a forthright way. I thought Franny's mum was sensitively handled, while at the same time Franny B's interactions with her were realistic - it was great to see that Franny B was conflicted by her mum's illness, unsure of how to help her, unable to understand how her mum was feeling and why, as that added depth.

The cast of supporting characters in Worst Girlfriend really made the book. I thought Franny B's fashion student peers and tutor were a varied bunch - Manning took the stereoptypes of goth girl, ornery old teacher and so on and gave them a fresh twist. And I loved Louis and his band Thee Desperadoes, they provided a lot of laughs. And of course, Francis, Louis' friend and feel Thee Deperado, was a sweetheart.

It's easy to assume that Worst Girlfriend is going to be a story about boys, and while the central conflict between Franny B and Alice manifests itself in a fight over a boy and there is some romance, this is really a book about friendship and family - the kind you're born with and the kind you make. If you approach the book realising that, you won't be disappointed. I adore Manning's work anyway, and Worst Girlfriend made me laugh, and get annoyed at times, and all the angst made tears well up in my eyes (not good for a train journey), and overall made me wish I was still a teenager and simultaneously thankful that I'm not.

How I got this book: From the room of spare books at work.

Review: It Felt Like a Kiss by Sarra Manning

Sometimes what you need to read is some good old-fashioned romance, and few people do it better than Sarra Manning.

From Diary of a Crush through Guitar Girl and now her new novel It Felt Like a Kiss, I've never read anything by Manning I didn't love.

Ellie Cohen seems to have it all - a great job at an art gallery (even though her boss can be demanding), great friends (even if they don't always get on they love her), an amazing mum (who can be a bit too hip), and a boyfriend. He's not so great. And neither is her dad, rock star Billy Kay, who doesn't acknowledge her existence.

When her boyfriend who turns into an ex tells the papers Ellie is Billy Kay's daughter, her life turns upside down. Suddenly, the nation thinks she's everything she's not, and the hot guy she bumped into at a festival turns out to work for her dad.

It Felt Like a Kiss is a great, fun, funny, and sometimes sad novel. The narrative flits between Ellie in the present day, and her mum's romance with Billy Kay. The latter is filled with tension, since as readers we know from the beginning that the relationship is doomed, so every step Manning moves closer to that conclusion had me filled with the kind of dread you only experience when you know it's going to end badly.

Meanwhile Ellie's story almost fulfils the opposite trajectory - she too, is falling in love, like her mum did, but I had much more hope for her that it would end well, even if it seemed to be falling apart most of the time.

Ellie is a great character. She might be the daughter of a rock star, but I found it easy to relate to her, with her stresses over her job, her experiences of London and her fun friends. Importantly, Ellie wasn't perfect, even when she tried to be. She acts irrationally at times, loses her temper, and jumps to conclusions without knowing the full story, things we all do.

Her mum, Ari, is super cool, but has her faults too. I found myself wishing for one kind of ending for her, which didn't happen. What did happen was better though, and I wanted to whoop and cheer for her during her big scene at the end.

And then there's David. Lovely, lovely David, who is exactly the kind of romantic lead you want in a book. He's a bit Mr Darcy, a bit Mr Bingley, a bit Mr Wickham (only the best bits of the latter). And he's also a bit of a mess. Guys like David don't exist in real life, but that doesn't matter in the pages of a book.

I won't tell you how it ends, but I will say that the final scene reminds me of the ending of one of the greatest rom coms ever made. That ending isn't the only film-like bit of It Felt Like a Kiss - in fact, I'd love to see this book realised on screen.

If you're looking for great characters, a fun story and a teensy bit of angst, It Felt Like a Kiss is for you (and me).

How I got this book: From the publicist (thanks @madstoy)

•It Felt Like a Kiss is released on January 30.

The Sunday Post (#31) and Showcase Sunday (#17)

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer, and Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea and inspired by Pop Culture Junkie and the Story Siren. They're a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog, highlight our newest books and see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, or bought.

Added to my shelves

I've acquired a lot of books over the past few weeks, but am in the midst of a massive tidy-up, so they're scattered around the house! Here are the ones I could find:

Very British Problems by Rob Temple
It Felt Like a Kiss by Sarra Manning
The Collector by Nora Roberts
The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey
The Verdict by Nick Stone
The Martian by Andy Weir

Thanks to the guys at Transworld, Ebury, and Little, Brown for all of these.

What have you added to your shelves?

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer, and Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea and inspired by Pop Culture Junkie and the Story Siren. They're a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog, highlight our newest books and see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, or bought. - See more at: http://girlreporter.blogspot.co.uk/#sthash.Y0TdX99S.dpuf