Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling by Emer McLysaght & Sarah Breen @EmerTheScreamer @SarahjayBee @MichaelJBooks @JennyPlatt90 #OMGWACA #OhMyGodWhatACompleteAisling #BlogTour #BookReview

Michael Joseph 3rd May 2018

Book Description

Aisling is twenty-eight and lives in her hometown, with her parents.  She loves going Out Out (but is secretly scared of liquid eyeliner), she’ll happily drink the bar dry(but will bring her own coaster if necessary, she’s not an animal), she loves a shumper (a jumper with a handy shirt collar sewn in), and would rather die than miss a free hotel breakfast buffet.

She’s patiently waiting for her boyfriend of seven years to pop the question.  her life is in order, and she knows exactly how it’ll go – she’s such a ‘complete Aisling.’  Well, until a surprise break-up leads her to drop everything and move to the Big Smoke (after wailing her way through Adele’s Greatest Hits, that is).  But can the Big Smoke handle Aisling?

My Thoughts

Having read a lot of crime fiction recently I was  keen to read something different and lucky for me found myself on the #OMGWACA Blog Tour.

‘There aren’t enough words for how much I love it’ Marian Keyes

Those words reeled me in, good enough for Marian Keyes, definitely good enough for me!  This book, visually is spot on, it will appeal to fans of Marian Keyes and the cover, the font, the title are all perfect indicators of what to expect, in this case you can judge a book by its cover and trust me if this book appeals to you, then buy it because I think you will love it.

Aisling is fabulous, a girl’s girl, from the country with her life mapped out, the weddings have started, the babies will be next, the pretty country girls and the rugged men folk working the land.  Its a given…isn’t it?  A move to the city is an eye opener for Aisling, she’s been there of course, she even moved out of home before, but only in the way Aislings do, before they return home for marriage.  Written in the first person, we get the full Aishling experience, her outward persona and her personal thoughts –  the ones she would never share.  She’s warm, she’s likeable, she’s unique, she’s accepting but doesn’t fully understand the trends of city life – brunch and avocado to name a few.

This book was witty and entertaining throughout, it bought a smile to my face many times over but don’t be mistaken, this isn’t all gloss and shine.  Aishling moves through her life, in the snapshot we are with her, struggling with her breakup, with loss being a theme.  Her friendships are strong and the support from the women in her life is empowering.  This is a book of survival, moving on and changing, not necessarily following the path you thought was for you but seeing what comes and it is about the bonds we share and the bonds we make which keep up afloat in tough times.  Very well written capturing the quirks of Aisling, hearing her outer and inner voice, embedding you briefly in her world.

And a quick note on genre, this book is women’s fiction, chick lit maybe… what do we think?  My feeling is that this genre wrongly has the effect of narrowing the appeal of certain books, books about women, just for women?  This book will fit well on my shelf next to Marian Keyes and Liane Moriaty but all of these female authors are terrific writers, with strong female characters dealing with what life throws at them, to varying degrees they tackle series issues and challenges faced by people from a female perspective.  All highly recommended reading, as is this one!

About the Authors

Authors Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen are Aislings.  Maybe not complete Aislings but about 42%.  The Aisling character was conceived in their sitting room in 2008, when they began to observe the many traits, characteristics and quirks of a very particular type of Irish girl; one they identified around them and one they identified with.

@EmerTheScreamer @Sarahjaybee

This is a Blog Tour so do check out the rest of this tour.  Many thanks to publishers Michael Joseph for my copy of the book.