Don’t Stop Me Now by Colleen Coleman

📖📖📖📖

Synopsis

Poppy Bloom has her future mapped out.  After completing her PhD in Psychology she is expected to get a fellowship to stay at Banbridge University, and move into one of the little cottages on site with her boyfriend.  However, she now finds herself unemployed, living back at home with her mum and step-dad, sleeping in her childhood bedroom, and questioning her future.

After Poppy meets her old childhood friend, Leanne, and her brother Tom her life begins to change; she joins Leanne’s netball team, gets an internship at the local radio station, and realises there is more to life than academia; and spending time with Tom is a bonus.

As Poppy negotiates her way through her new life she has to consider where her priorities lie, and can she juggle new friends, romance and a new career or will she end up back where she starred, unemployed and back living at home.

 

Review

After having a bad time with my spondylosis I needed a book that was light hearted, easy to read, had a good plot and had humour and a feel good factor;  Don’t Stop Me Now ticked all those boxes.  I really enjoyed following Poppy’s story, as she negotiated life away from university and deals with the ‘real’ world that she has been sheltered from.

Colleen Coleman’s writing brings the characters and their dilemmas to life.  I would imagine that there are, and have been, may people who have had Poppy’s problem of leaving the world of academia at the age of twenty nine, and having to navigate their way through every day life, unemployment, living back at home and realising that whilst they have been studying their old friends are now married with children, have been working for ten years and own their own homes.  I really admired Leanne’s strength of character, she has so much  motivation and is the tour de force of the netball team, whose camaraderie help Poppy find her feet and encourage her to move forward and have the confidence to move forward with her life.  As a reader you find yourself willing Poppy to make the right decisions, and take some of the advice she gives out to others as a psychologist.  There is a great cast of supporting characters as well, Poppy’s rock-star father, the ex cons who work with her mum at the hair salon, the diverse characters of the net ball team and the not so nice Harriet, her friend from university.  Poppy’s character is given a chance to shine in her interaction with these characters.

This is a well written novel, with a fast moving plot that is engaging and attention grabbing; you feel invested in Poppy’s story and are compelled to keep reading to see where the plot is taking her. There are a lot of laugh out loud moments in this book, but also some poignant moments as well.  Don’t Stop Me Now is a witty and heartwarming tale of self-belief, friendship, love and strong women.  An uplifting and inspiring read that will keep you entertained from start to finish.