Leah
Written on Jul 13, 2017
Kirsty Greenwood is one of my favourite authors, ever. I adored Yours Truly and The Vintage Guide To Love and Romance EASILY, EASILY, made its way into my Top Ten Favourite Books Ever. She just gets me, with her writing and her characters and I regularly still think about Jessica Beam and what she’s up to these days BECAUSE WE SHOULD HAVE HAD A SEQUEL ALREADY. Deep breath, do not throw a heppy skeppy. Unfortunately, that sequel has yet to come. *Weeps forever* BUT Kirsty is back! After what feels like donkeys years (literally ages) KIRSTY IS BACK WITH A NEW BOOK! CALLED BIG SEXY LOVE! And it’s amazing.
At the end of Big Sexy Love, Kirsty asks us if we liked Big Sexy Love, because it was a bit bonkers - and boy, was it. If I say to you Menace of Manhattan, you’ll have no idea what I’m talking about, but read the book and all will become clear. It was ridiculous. The whole menace thing, the whole concept even of just hopping on a plane to New York, which is literal madness to me because I could never do that!, the unicorn hair (which intrigues me so hard), all of it adds up to a pretty bizarre read, but in the best possible way, because Olive Brewster is somebody you root for. Olive Brewster could be anyone of us - moseying along, with her job at the fish market, living with her brother and his horrible girlfriend (I literally forget her name and want to punch her in the face, and I’m writing this review like two weeks after finishing but her snobby/snotty texts will forever haunt me) and doing very little with her life (which is fine, btw). Until her best friend in the entire world Birdie asks Olive to go to New York to find her Big Sexy Love (yes, all caps is required) because Birdie is dying, to put it bluntly and she wants to know what could have been! Thus follows a madcap New York adventure!
I’m such a sucker for books set in New York, even after all these years of reading. It never gets old to hear about the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty or the skyscrapers and honking cabs and weather that can be on both ends of the scale. So Olive’s madcap adventure in New York was brilliant. And it started before she was even on the plane! Or, rather, it started *on* the plane, when she asks a random stranger to take her to the toilet, because she doesn’t like flying. *Dies laughing remembering that scene* And she asks none other than a Sunday Night Live writer, WHO IMMORTALISES HER ON TV. Because Seth, the writer, thought Olive wanted to join the mile high club, whereas Olive just really needed a wee. COMEDY GOLD.
I honestly loved this book so hard. Kirsty Greenwood is so under-appreciated with her books, you seriously need to read her books if you have any sense in you. If you love Sophie Kinsella or Paige Toon or just BEING MADE TO LAUGH AT ALL, EVER. I loved Olive’s adventures. I loved the quirky characters - Anders, in particular, was hilarious and bizarre all at the same time, and I loved Seth and Birdie and Olive and Mrs Ramirez, they were such a random, rag-tag bunch but it sooooo worked. Even the Manhattan Menace stuff, I swear, is unforgettable. Kirsty Greenwood just KNOWS what she’s doing when it comes to writing, she kills it every single time, without fail. She makes me laugh, she makes me cry and she makes me want to go to her house so she can read me her stories over and over and over again. Big Sexy Love was a triumph and I am so excited for what the future holds for Kirsty, because if anybody deserves to become a big writing star (to me, she’s already there mind), it’s Kirsty Greenwood. No one writes like her and she’ll make you laugh for days, I promise.