The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman #Review #CWIPShadowPanel #CWIPShortList

Meet Nina Hill: A young woman supremely confident in her own. . . shell.

Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, an excellent trivia team and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.

So when the father she never knew existed dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! She’ll have to Speak. To. Strangers.

And if that wasn’t enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny and interested in getting to know her…

It’s time for Nina to turn her own fresh page, and find out if real life can ever live up to fiction.

Review

I am going to start off my review by proudly declaring myself as a Nina Hill super fan! I absolutely love her! From the first page to the last word, every sentence made me smile, laugh and sigh with happiness. Nina is in one word perfection.

It is the ultimate book for our troubled times, any time in fact, funny, warm and uplifting. When I was spending time with Nina I forgot about the tensions and anxieties that have plagued me in recent month sand the story is in one precise word, splendid.

The story focus is on bookworm Nina who lives her life through a series of daily to do lists. She is very precise, very bookish and works in a bookshop, but then her world is turned upside down. She discovers a whole family she never new existed. What comes next is a journey of discovery, of allowing people to love her for who she is and most importantly of all, learning to love herself.

One of the joys of The Bookish Life Of Nina Hill is Nina herself, she is quirky, funny and is surrounded by equally wonderful characters. I love her so much that she has vaulted into my list of all time favourite characters. I identified with her so much because I to set aside parts of the day to read and love making lists I often don’t follow. But it’s not just Nina that makes this book special, writer Abbi Waxman surrounds her with a supporting cast of characters who are all individually wonderful.

The humour is gentle and warm, which I found  immensely comforting, with the laughter comes from many different moments. Sometimes from Nina’s devotion to her to do lists, yet this also made me feel emotional, that feeling that I get, that making lists sometimes calms me and gives me some modicum of control, just as it does for her.  Humour also comes from her friends, food fights and a turf war over her beloved bookshop.  It all makes the story feel richer and gives it an emotional depth that made it all the more special. You laugh with her and never at her and I liked that very much.

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman ticked every box for me and it made me feel content when I was cwtched within her world.

This is definitely going to feature in my favourite reads this year!

You can purchase this book from Amazon , Waterstones.

Why not also consider ordering it directly from your local Indie Bookshop who need all our support at the moment.

About the author

ABBI WAXMAN is a chocolate-loving, dog-loving woman, who lives in Los Angeles and lies down as much as possible. She worked in advertising for many years, which is how she learned to write fiction. She has three daughters, two dogs, three cats, six chickens, two guinea pigs and one very patient husband.

I Was Told it Would Get Easier is Abbi’s fourth novel. Her previous books are The Garden of Small Beginnings, Other People’s Houses and The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

You can keep in touch with Abbi through her website www.abbiwaxman.com, or on Twitter at @amplecat