Every girl should read How Do You Like Me Now? Holly Bourne is brutally honest and doesn’t mince words while talking about all the compromises women in wrong relationships make with themselves. We have all done that at least once: gave head when we weren’t in the mood, pretended not to hear sarcasm, found excuses for our partner’s behavior because he was tired, sleepy, drunk…
But how can we recognize when things like that can be justified because nobody is perfect and all of us tend to lose patience with our loved ones when under pressure since we know that they will forgive us? Or when such behavior is a pattern and our relationship is a chart with almost as many downs as ups? Whatever the reason for that repeating pattern, it can’t be justified. And no matter how afraid of loneliness a girl is, she should never stay in a relationship that is making her unhappy.
Holly’s charming main character, Tori Bailey, will have to find out in which category her boyfriend’s behavior falls. She is a self-help bestseller author who inspires millions of women and lives a perfect life with a perfect boyfriend in a perfect apartment. Tori should be so f*cking happy. (Did I say that Tori loves to use the F-word so much that it became her trademark? My kind of girl since I think that three good curses can sometimes be more helpful than a session with a psychiatrist.) Yet, she is living a lie. Not everything is as it seems on Instagram or Facebook. And many girls would rather be unhappy than admit that they aren’t happy because the truth is hard ‒ and they don’t want others to see through the lies they were carefully weaving.
Tori is also finding it hard to accept that she is thirty. As she puts it, Turning thirty is like playing musical chairs. The music stops, and everyone just marries whoever they happen to be sitting on. And, It’s hard enough, feeling the clock ticking and yet life not obliging to give you the things others have. To feel defunct and left behind and scared as hell about it — and the more nervous you get about it, the more you give off some smell that makes it less likely to happen.
Tori’s journey is captivating, alternating between sorrow and laughter. She is very relatable, and every girl can identify with at least one situation from her seemingly perfect life. I love the way Holly depicted her quest for self-love and self-respect throughout nine months. And I admire the hilarious way she talks about serious things as integrity and mental health. If you have any doubts about your choices or just want to have a good laugh along with some food for thought, How Do You Like Me Now? is the right book for you.
Favorite quotes:
You can build a relationship for so many years. You can grow it and nurture it, give it foundations and walls, and tinker with how you want it decorated. Then in just one moment, you can blow at it gently by telling the truth and the relationship collapses like a teetering house of cards. Years of careful craftsmanship. One conversation to undo it all.
But it takes strength to reject all the things the world tells you to be.
Genre: Contemporary, Fiction, Chick-Lit
Describe this book with one word: Self-love
The perfect beverage to sip while reading this book: Red wine
This book’s best musical buddy: Total Eclipse of the Heart ‒ Bonnie Tyler
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