An entertaining, though unremarkable contemporary romance/ chick-lit. 3/5 stars.

I finished reading Station Eleven and the next book I had lined up was The Wrath and the Dawn. I had issues with the former being a bit slow, and I had heard that latter was similarly glacial at the start. So before settling down for another slog, I decided to read something light and quick.

And that’s exactly what Johnny Be Good is. It’s entertaining, fast-paced, well-written and would do nothing to disappoint fans of the genre.

I think it would have been improved by being 100 pages shorter. It all starts to get rather repetitive about half way in. Meg loves Johnny, Johnny is a total narcissistic prat who needs a good kick up the backside. He raises her hopes, then dashes them. She dithers about. Rinse. Repeat. That said, it’s a credit to the author that you keep reading even though the book has these issues.

This is the first book by Paige Toon I’ve read, and I’d happily read more. I think I’ll keep any eye out for the sequel and perhaps get it from the library the next time I need to read something breezy. Definitely one for fans of chick-lit though, I think others might want to kill the characters for being egotistical/doormats/indecisive. You’ve been warned! 🙂

 Claire Huston / Art and Soul