I’ve had a great day but I feel weird and out of sorts.

Why?  Because I’ve spent the past four hours reading an excellent but highly depressing novel!

And aside from the depressing story-line that I lived in as I read, getting so absorbed in a book to the exception of all else meant that I did nothing productive with my evening.

I didn’t even clean the kitchen or post a social media update for the business, never mind half the other jobs I’d hoped to get done today.

To be fair, before I sound like I did nothing all day but read, the first half of the day was highly productive.  I went out early for breakfast and wrote a few short and interesting blog-posts for the business.  Once home I scrubbed the kitchen and hoovered and tidied because the parents are home tomorrow.

I also got lots of laundry done and lay out in the gorgeous hot sunshine for a couple hours in the late afternoon, even eating my lunch – healthy avocado on sourdough toast – with Alex when he arrived back from the market.

Having begun the book around 3 pm, I took a break from it to run to the supermarket and buy in some groceries followed by some last minute house-hold chores, after which I sat in the living room with the book and read and read and read.

There was a brief reprieve when Alex brought me in a delicious tomato, mushroom and onion omelette for dinner, but then I dove right back into the story.  And it gave me serious indigestion.

It’s one of those stories where you’re rooting for the character as she makes the most awful mistakes and digs herself a hole so deep you don’t know if there’s any way she can get back out of it.

It’s called “Ever Only Yours” by Louise O’Neill and it’s a truly gripping read, if not quite the kind of story-line I’d normally go for; slightly sci-fi but with a lot of normal stuff too.  I’m not going to give anything else away except to say that the author is exceptional, this is the third book by her that I’ve read and for her to have hooked me so deeply in this book, is testament to her skills as a writer.

However, my brain currently feels warped as a result of inhabiting said book’s rather odd world and as such, I need to now go and watch some TV and chat to Alex to return to earth and this reality.

Man I love books.  I hope some day I can write such a compelling story.  But perhaps one not quite so bleak (a few puppy cuddles here and there should lighten the tone sufficiently).

Ciao darlings!

Lizzie xxxx