Title: Sorry Not Sorry
Author: Sophie Ranald
Publisher: Forever (reprint)
Publication date: July 28th, 2020 (originally February 13th, 2020)
384 pages
3.5/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis
Charlotte has always been a good girl. But after discovering a motivating podcast she suddenly feels restless and sees that being good is getting boring . . .
She’s not just stuck in a rut — she’s buried in it up to her chin. The only company she has in bed is the back catalog of Netflix, and falling in love feels like the stuff of fairy tales. So when she stumbles across the popular podcast Sorry Not Sorry, which challenges women to embrace their inner bad girl, she jumps at the chance to shake things up.
Old Charlotte would never ask for a stranger’s number, go on a blind date or buy lacy lingerie . . . but New Charlotte is waving goodbye to her comfort zone (with a side order of margaritas). And it turns out that good things do happen to bad girls . . .
Review
tw: cheating, stalking
Sorry Not Sorry is a type of prequel story to No, We Can’t Be Friends. It kind of takes place during the same timeline, from different points of view. They really can be read in any order, but I read NWCBF first and then Sorry Not Sorry. Charlotte’s flatmates, Maddy and Henry, are moving out and getting married, so she’s left finding new flatmates. Two new strangers move in, while Charlotte is trying to balance a demanding job and helping to plan Maddy’s wedding. Suddenly, Maddy is mad at her, Charlotte is dating a married man (but Myles says they are separated and sleeping apart), and she’s made friends with her new flatmate Tansy. Charlotte seems to have life figured out, but when her work, personal, and romantic life implode basically at the same time – Charlotte needs to figure out what is most important.
I found this book to be very similar to Sophie’s other books, cute & easy to read. It was nice to get this side of the story from NWCBF, and see what was happening in the background that story. Charlotte as a character was good, she was interesting and well developed. I liked reading about her forays in dating and trying to be a “Bad Girl” as the podcast she listened to was teaching her to be. I got frustrated with her relationship with Maddy, because it seemed like she just let Maddy be mad at her without really trying to get to the bottom of the issues. I feel like that could’ve been resolved quicker if she had.
I would have loved to read more about the penultimate love story, and had more interaction with the guy before the last 10% of the book. Normally you can tell who the main love story will be about, but I had no idea who the guy would be until the end. I just prefer when you get to experience more of the romance and relationship in romance books.
Overall, the plot was good – even if the end climax was a smidge unbelievable. I read this book all in one go, as I usually do with Sophie’s books, which is always a good sign for me. Even better sign, I stayed up until 2am to finish it, because I just needed to know where Charlotte’s story would go.
Thank you to Forever Publishing and Netgalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
Happy reading, folks!
Baltimore Bibliophile 