Just saying by Sophie Ranald

I'm a big fan of Sophie Ranald. Her books are entertaining, romantic and impossible to put down once you start reading them. They also have very relatable realistic protagonists you can't help but root for.

Alice Carlisle is about to complete her lawyer training and has already been promised a job in an important law corporation. She also has a great family, best friend, and above all, her own Mr Right, who happens to work in the same company. Jo understands and accepts Alice like nobody else. Everything is going really well for Alice, but it only takes one day for her perfect life to change. Alice loses her job through no fault of her own, but she can't help feeling she's let everyone down. Now Joe and Alice might not be able to pay the bills or live in the flat they've liked so much. Alice stumbles into a temporary job in a local pub which might help her weather the storm. Joe aslo has a solution. His ex-girlfriend Zoe, who they recently met accidentally, is going to move in with Joe and Alice and help with the rent. Seems like a great idea. If only Alice didn't feel Zoe might still have feelings for Joe...

Alice is such a sweet character. She tries to be fair and give everybody a chance. At the end of the day, the only person she is hard on is herself. She even sees the situation from Zoe's point of view and tries to understand her feelings. There's a lot of emphasis on trust, communication and being faithful (including emotionally). I felt the book dealt really well with the issue of drawing and crossing (or not crossing) lines between being friendly and something more than that. Perhaps, Zoe's character isn't as well-developed, but I was too focused on Alice's story to mind that.

Apart from relationship issues, there are other serious and important topics in the story. Not least of which is the matter of sexual harrassment at work that partly explains Alice's insecurities and perhaps even the way she felt about her job. My heart went to Alice when she finally talked about the sexual assault she experienced and its consequences.

 Overall, this is extremely engaging and entertaining book and I'm really grateful for having been given a chance to read it. Sophie Ranald is my auto-buy author who I can rely on for a great story with unique, but relatable characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.