Talk to Me is a debut novel by Jules Wake and wow, what a corker of a debut it was! While reading it I had laughed out loud, I cried, I nodded my head with understanding, I had goose bumps and actually, I haven't slept two nights because I so wanted to see what's going to happen and didn't want to put my kindle down. Sleeping? Phew. Who needs sleeping anyway.
Talk to Me tells a story of Olivia working in a PR agency. She's sharing a flat with Emily, who is in a relationship with Olivia's one of oldest and dearest friends Daniel. Why then Emily goes with Olivia to speed - dating one day is someone's guess, but well, it's Emily for you. But the girls are going to learn that speed - dating is not so innocent as it looks like. There is also the thing between Daniel and Olivia: yes, they are friends, they have been friends forever, but they also had feelings for each other although they have NEVER spoken about it with each other! Why oh why not?
As if Olivia had not enough problems, she is temporarily made a boss of Emily at work which doesn't make the things better. And then the things goes belly up.
Jules has created two very different characters here, the really good one and the really bad one. It is obvious from the beginning that our sympathy will be with Olivia and only Olivia because, let's say the truth, Emily was a real bitch. I hated her and nothing could change my feelings towards her, even the very teeny tiny act of mercy at the end of the book. She was not cute or funny, no, on the contrary, she was a nasty piece of work and there was not a single thing about her that I liked. And I couldn't understand why 1) Daniel, who was supposed to like Olivia so much allowed his girlfriend to treat her in this way and 2) why Olivia herself hasn't done anything about it. She was brilliant at work but totally helpless when it came to people. But other than that, I totally liked her, she felt very realistic, the way she behaved and did things that were not too forced or too pushed.
Daniel was okay. I can't say I loved him or I hated him but I had some issues with him. Why did he let Emily abuse Olivia so much and believe in all the things she said about Olivia without any doubt when he knew Emily for five minutes and Olivia his whole life? And in fact, how could he put up with Emily as a person?
So actually it looks like I had really some issues with the characters, didn't I? But altogether, and apart from Emily, the characters were great and written in a very good way. Perhaps not so vivid as I would wish for but all in all very enjoyable, different bunch of people.
I loved the banter between Olivia and Daniel, their will they / won't they. I wanted so much that "they will" and the lack of communication between them, or every moment that they were so close to tell about their feelings and were disrupted made me soooo desperate, really.
I had only problems when the narration suddenly switched into Daniel, because the whole book was written from Olivia's point of view in the first person and it was great, but then, from time to time, it switched into Daniel's first person's point of view and it had me a little distracted.
I know that some of the reviewers were not happy with the fact that this book seems to be a mix of contemporary romance, rom - com, chick - lit and thriller but well, to be honest, I don't have such problem. As long as the book makes me happy, and this was the case. Perhaps it's even better that it is such a mix, as we get there some unexpected things and situations which add some spice to the story.
In my opinion it only looks like a very innocent and brainless romance but there is much more to that, there is a lot of suspense and tension hidden. The thing with the stalker is introduced to us in a very slow but also hooking way and while it doesn't seem to be the main point of the story we know that it is somewhere hidden, that there is always this danger, that something is going to happen. I must say that I totally enjoyed the way Jules wrote about this, it didn't determined the story but I knew that it is there, from time to time we got the stalker or some obvious situations mentioned but it wasn't too much. Too much wouldn't be good and the tension was building till the grande finale. In between we have the scene with the cat which made me biting my nails, although to be honest, I would do also without this scene, but I understand that the story perhaps needed it to show the real danger.
The way Jules is telling the story is totally amazing, I felt as if someone sits next to me and whispers it to me, especially the bits almost at the end with our stalker. She has incredible way with words and the way she has written this bit gave me goose bumps. She offers a story with interesting plot, with twists and turns and also elements of real drama, that kept me hooked to every page and I still can't believe that it was a debut novel. I wouldn't miss it if I were you:)
Copy received from publisher in exchange for a review.