"Are We Nearly There Yet" is fun, uplifting and a perfect holiday read. Recommended for fans of Sophie Kinsella and Marian Keyes.

3.5 stars ⭐️
This was a slow burner for me. I don’t know if it’s because it’s come at the end of a mega reading binge but just didn’t grip me like I thought it would.
Lead character grated on me slightly but by the end with the family reconciliations it gave me the happy buzz.
Praise for Vine’s comedy narrative though. Some real laugh out loud moments; some points where I was like “thought that was just me who thought/did that”

Overall a nice lil lighthearted read

ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET? by Lucy Vine arrived in a recent Unplugged Book Box. When I pulled a book involving social media out of my Jar of TBR, I picked this one up. I didn’t know much about this one, but the main character is writing a blog, the posts for which appear throughout the books so I knew it would perfectly fit the prompt!

Alice has just turned thirty and her birthday dinner winds up a bit of a disaster. Her friends have coupled up while she is stuck in an on again, off again relationship with kind of a jerk. Her best friend has a boyfriend that Alice hates and surprise, they announce they are pregnant at Alice’s birthday dinner. Alice gets falling down drunk and winds up sexting her boss and pretty much blowing up her life.

In trying to pick up the pieces of her life and repair her relationships, Alice decides to take her newly unemployed self on an adventure. She starts up a blog and heads for first Los Angeles and then Thailand with plans for a third destination yet to be determined. Her goals are to have fun and to refocus before moving on with being thirty.

This book left me with a lot of mixed feelings. There were absolutely laugh out loud moments that kept me entertained. On the other hand, I also found it easy to put down and walk away from for extended periods so it took me a while to get through it. I think in the end it is a book that could have stood to be a bit more edited down and tightened up so the book would have been a bit more fast paced and a bit shorter.

I did really like the way the author used Alice’s blog in the story. Each chapter begins with a new blog post detailing the glamorous adventures she is undertaking from award shows in Los Angeles with the famous to a spiritual wellness retreat in Thailand. The reality of Alice’s story is a lot less glamorous of course, which is clear from the rest of the narrative. The book includes comments on the blog post and a forum moderator in charge of keeping the peace all to great amusement.

In the end I am glad that I picked this book up to satisfy my challenge prompt as it was quite different from the rest of my March TBR and did provide some good laughs!

This book is a hilariously funny tale of Alice, who heads off on a world trip to find herself and #FindTheFun.

There have been comparisons with Bridget Jones, so I was tempted to read it but at the same time dubious that it would not live up to the comparisons, but how wrong I was! Alice really was the modern day Bridget, from her haphazard attitude towards life, to constantly getting things wrong.

The book begins with Alice's 30th birthday, a day where she gets really drunk and accidentally sends a sexually inappropriate text to her boss which causes her to lose her job, add in a newly pregnant and loved up flatmate, and Alice feels that she no longer knows where she fits in. As a result, she decides that she has reached a milestone where she needs to broaden her horizons and find herself. She sets off on her travels and sets up a travel blog to share her experiences.

I honestly cannot think of the last time I laughed out loud when reading a book, but the snappy dialogue and sheer hilarity of Alice's escapades were just so funny it was impossible not to laugh! There was also a more serious side story, which was thought-provoking and poignant, and provided the perfect balance between the humour of the present day events, with the sadness Alice carries from her childhood and early adulthood. The blog posts and comments interspersed within the story added something special to the story. Alice blogs sometimes creatively to make things sound less chaotic than they actually were, and sometimes with such a brutal honesty that I cringed at her openness. The trolls commenting on her posts, together with a funny moderator add a realism and additional level of humour that really add to make this an exceptionally funny book.

I have not read Lucy Vine's previous novels, but I will be checking them out now, because this was fantastic.

I would like to thank Lucy Vine, Orion and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Just a really fun and lighthearted beach read.

As someone that has just turned 30 I could really relate to Alice and the journey she goes on to discover herself. Wonderfully written and leaves you with a great positive outlook.

Totally honest review: I thought it was really cheesy and cringe at beginning. I stopped reading the social media posts at the beginning of each chapter.
I did enjoy it, the messages it delivers were unexpected and the journey in self development is captivating. A good read.

I love Lucy Vine’s books! I never usually read books like this but her writing is so funny. This book felt a bit relatable and also made me cry to so there’s that!

Actual rating: 2.5 stars

Well, this wasn't as fun of a book as I hoped. I didn't really find anything here to be particularly humorous (certainly not laugh out loud funny). I thought Alice was really rude and selfish, though I do appreciate how she has to confront her own behavior and grow over the book.