Take A Look At Me Now

by Miranda Dickinson

[Leah]

Miranda Dickinson is one of my favourite Chick Lit authors, period. Since she burst onto the scene in 2009 with the fabulous Fairytale of New York, I’ve read and enjoyed all of her other novels as soon as I’ve been able to. She’s Chick Lit personified and manages to get us into the heads of her characters so well that you feel as if you know them personally. Her love stories are immense, and if I was to ever write a book I’d like to write one like Miranda’s books. She just has a way with words, a way that one day will mean she has tons of books to her name and sold millions of copies. As soon as I heard about her new book Take A Look At Me Now I was ridiculously excited; I always am when I know there’s a new MD book around the corner and when I was accepted for a Netgalley copy, I downloaded and started reading it immediately and all I have to say is Miranda Dickinson gets better with every book she writes.

One thing Miranda seems to do best is she consistently surprises me with her fabulous novels. Take A Look At Me Now is her most ambitious yet, and I loved how it all started so auspiciously; with a lime-green post-it note to be exact. You see, when Nell received that post-it note she thought it meant she and on/off boyfriend Aidan were going to be firmly on again. What she didn’t bank on was losing her job, along with all of her work colleagues. Finding herself out of a job, and without a boyfriend (because who wants to be with the man who sacked you??) she isn’t sure what to do next until she happens upon the travel agents and decides she’s going to use her redundancy money to head to San Francisco and spend two months with her cousin Lizzie. Two months to enjoy life, travel around San Fran, and get her head together. What Nell doesn’t count on though is San Francisco stealing her heart, along with the fabulous characters who live there, and when the time comes to return home, Nell knows only one thing: San Francisco has stolen her heart, and her time away has made her realise her dreams and by hook or by crook she’s going to make them come true.

As soon as I started Take A Look At Me Now, I knew I was going to love it. It captured me from the off; I love that Miranda sets up her plots using fate, in Nell’s instance a post it note. I was hooked. A large chunk of the novel is set in San Francisco, and all that has made me do is it has made me want to board the next plane out there because it didn’t only steal Nell (and Miranda’s) heart, it stole mine. I adore books set in San Francisco, it sounds like the coolest place to live, ever. Cooler than New York. It has the Golden Gate bridge for God’s sake, and Alcatraz. If I ever save up enough money I would love to do what Nell did and go live there for a while and visit all the wonderful places mentioned in the book. Miranda did such a good job bringing SF to life that it felt like an extra character. I wanted to go to Annie’s diner and see all the customers, meet the Alfaros and meet Annie, and meet the Frankie and Marty. I wanted to go to The Haight; have a cup of coffee at Java Crypt; visit Lizzie’s apartment; see the kids at Sacred Heart Elementary, ride the cable cars and the buses. Miranda brought it to life so beautifully that I felt as if I WAS there.

Take A Look At Me Now just blew me away, from start to finish. The setting was perfect (achingly perfect), the characters were wonderful and plentiful and kept me thoroughly entertained. You wanted to root for Nell so badly, you so wanted her to get everything she ever dreamed of. I adored Max Rossi, heck I adored everybody, especially little Eva who Nell teaches at the school I mentioned above at the SOS club. It has been absolutely ages since a book has spoke to me like this and it kept me up until midnight just so I could finish it. I cannot wait to buy myself a paperback copy of the book so I can stroke it and read it again and re-visit the amazing locations and characters. It was honestly perfect in every way. Miranda truly is a natural storyteller and she truly does get better with every book she writes. The passion in her writing was obvious and the book was made all the better by the San Francisco bits in the back; food to eat, places to visit, movies to watch that are set there (I know what I’ll be doing soon!). San Francisco sounds so wonderful and Miranda Dickinson has brought it to life in Take A Look At Me Now and she’s given me one of my favourite 2013 reads with ease. I wish I knew how she did it, because I’d bottle it and sell it. Just read it, you’ll fall in love like I did, the book stole my heart and it was fabulous in every way.