Miss Manners

by Iman Sid

[Leah]

When Iman Sid asked me to Tweet about her novel Miss Manners, I did with pleasure and when she offered me the chance to read her novel after that I jumped at the chance because it sounded really fun. I loved Ladette to Lady when it was on TV and was disappointed when it was cancelled so I loved the idea of Miss Manners being a bit like that and I dived in eagerly.

Miss Manners is very much a Marmite novel, you’re either gonna love it or hate it and that has a lot to do with Anna, the main character. She’s rather abrupt and not everyone will like her, but I did. I find it refreshing when characters are real and honest, and I found Anna to be refreshing especially as so many Chick Lit characters are afraid to say boo to a goose. So, Anna will divide opinion, but I was with her all the way.

I loved the idea of the Miss Manners contest but I’d have liked it a lot more if a) Anna wasn’t useless at everything, I found it disingenuous, no one can be useless at absolutely everything and I didn’t like how Anna put herself down all the time and b) I wanted to see more in depth of the Miss Manners contest, I wanted it to be set in a massive stately home a la Ladette to Lady, not just having the contestants come to classes daily. It’d have worked a lot better if it was spread over a few weeks rather than all jammed in to a couple of days.

Overall though it was an ace novel and with a bit more work, I could believe it was a properly published novel as Iman is a fab writer, and I’m glad she took a punt on self-publishing it because I really enjoyed it. I absolutely loved Henry, he was by far my favourite character; he was adorable. It’s a really good novel, do give it a read, you might just find a book you’re not expecting!