Opinions of a Wolf

Sasha’s GP prescribed three weeks off for her burnout leads her to return to the seaside resort she loved as a child in the off-season.

Summary:
Sasha has had it. She cannot bring herself to respond to another inane, “urgent” (but obviously not at all urgent) email or participate in the corporate employee joyfulness program. She hasn’t seen her friends in months. Sex? Seems like a lot of effort. Even cooking dinner takes far too much planning. Sasha has hit a wall.

Armed with good intentions to drink kale smoothies, try yoga, and find peace, she heads to the seaside resort she loved as a child. But it’s the off season, the hotel is in a dilapidated shambles, and she has to share the beach with the only other a grumpy guy named Finn, who seems as stressed as Sasha. How can she commune with nature when he’s sitting on her favorite rock, watching her? Nor can they agree on how best to alleviate their burnout ( manifesting, wild swimming; drinking whisky, getting pizza delivered to the beach).

When curious messages, seemingly addressed to Sasha and Finn, begin to appear on the beach, the two are forced to talk—about everything. How did they get so burned out? Can either of them remember something they used to love? (Answer: surfing!) And the question they try and fail to ignore: what does the energy between them—flaring even in the face of their bone-deep exhaustion—signify?

Review:
I love Sophie Kinsella’s romcoms and have read most of them (haven’t made it through the whole Shopaholic series yet). So when I saw she had a new book coming out this summer, I put it on my holds list at the library. This was a witty one with more surfing than I would have expected for a British book.

As usual for me in a Kinsella book, I was pulled in right away by the description of one of Sasha’s average days with her looming burnout. Her actual burnout breakdown scene was hysterical, but I must admit I was drawn a bit out of the world when I saw everyone’s reaction to it. She sees her GP who says she needs three weeks off of work, and he workplace just gives it. I know logically that the UK has a better work culture than here in the US, but seeing it spelled out like that was a bit jarring. I have suffered from burnout myself in the past, and there was no nice GP telling work “oh, she needs three weeks off” with work just saying “okedoke!” So the, there’s no other way to say it, jealousy, about Sasha’s culture’s way of handling her burnout kind of dampened the lightheartedness of the book for me. It’s like how sometimes people joke Breaking Bad could only happen in the US because of our healthcare system. Only it’s not actually a joke.

The setting at the seaside resort that’s kind of falling apart and poorly run was delightful. Each character was well-written, even minor ones. I especially enjoyed the Gen Z concierge who embroiders her side-business while at the desk and who reminded me of a particular Gen Z-er I know in real life. Sasha’s mother pretending to be her PA and calling in silly requests to help her meet the demands of a self-help app she installed on Sasha’s phone was hysterical, and the perfect set-up for the miscommunication trope between Sasha and the love interest, Finn. It’s easy to see how Finn dislikes Sasha at first, because she’s so bad at asking for what she actually wants that she lets herself look like a semi-demanding health nut.

The mystery at the seaside wasn’t too hard to solve, but it was just the right amount of mystery for Sasha and Finn to work on together. It gave them something to do and the book a nice subplot without detracting from either the romance or the will Sasha sort out her life plots going on.

One thing that I didn’t like is that Sasha of course makes a mistake. That’s fine. She eventually needs to own up about this to Finn. But she only discusses the issue that bubbled up as a result of it. She doesn’t confess to what she did. That soured the relationship for me, because I really felt she should have confessed fully. I love a good solid confession in a romance novel, where the other character forgives easily and it ends up not being the big deal the other character worried it would. This book had the set-up for that but then not the full follow-through. Other readers might feel differently and think Sasha has nothing she needs to confess, though.

Overall, this was an enjoyable romcom with a fun setting that was a light-hearted read.

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4 out of 5 stars

Length: 416 pages – average but on the longer side

Source: Library

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