Blog Tour Book Review – Needlemouse

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Good morning and welcome back to the blog! I apologise for going MIA over the past couple of weeks but I have had a couple of health issues that have seen me ending up in hospital and then coming down with a sickness bug. Anyone with an ileostomy will know how not fun that is with is a stoma!

Finally apologies to the author and publisher, as this should have gone up last week but as I was unwell I didn’t get chance to post it.

Needlemouse by Jane O’Connor

The Blurb

Time to come out of hibernation…

Sylvia Penton has been hibernating for years, it’s no wonder she’s a little prickly…

Sylvia lives alone, dedicating herself to her job at the local university. On weekends, she helps out at a local hedgehog sanctuary because it gives her something to talk about on Mondays – and it makes people think she’s nicer than she is.

Only Sylvia has a secret: she’s been in love with her boss, Professor Lomax, for over a decade now, and she’s sure he’s just waiting for the right time to leave his wife. Meanwhile she stores every crumb of his affection and covertly makes trouble for anyone she feels gets in his way.

But when a bright new PhD candidate catches the Professor’s eye, Sylvia’s dreams of the fairy tale ending she has craved for so long, are soon in tatters, driving her to increasingly desperate measures and an uncertain future.

Sylvia might have been sleep walking through her life but things are about to change now she’s woken up…

A quirky, charming uplifting novel perfect for fans of Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Sarah Haywood’s The Cactus. The feelgood bestseller about unrequited love, loneliness and the redemptive qualities of hedgehogs featuring the most unlikely heroine of 2019.

What I Thought

So when I read the blurb of this I immediately thought of Eleanor Oliphant and that is why I chose to read it. It also seems others have compared it to Eleanor Oliphant too!

Unfortunately, the character of Sylvia wasn’t quite as likeable as Eleanor and I wasn’t rooting for her in the same was I did for Eleanor. In fact, at times, she was downright unpleasant! What I will say about the book is that it is very realistic and Sylvia displays a variety of human character traits (as well as flaws).

Although I did not like the main character I actually think this is a credit to Jane O’Connor’s writing. I would much rather dislike than feel indifferent about a character in a book. The story as a whole was enjoyable and if you enjoy books in a similar vein to Eleanor Oliphant, I think you will like this too. Looking forward to more from this author.

Where To Buy

Available in Kindle, Audio and Paperback versions

The Author – Jane O’Connor

Jane O’Connor is a former primary school teacher turned academic and writer. She was born and brought up in Surrey and lived in London until she moved to the West Midlands in her mid-thirties. Jane’s PhD was about child stars and she is now a Reader at Birmingham City University where she researches children’s experiences of celebrity, media and everyday life. Jane lives in Sutton Coldfield with her husband and two young sons in a house full of pirates, dinosaurs, superheroes and lots of books. She really likes all animals, especially hedgehogs.

Needlemouse is her debut novel.

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I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts and let me know what you think of the book if you read it too! Thank you for your patience with the blog recently, I hope now I will be back and improving every week!

Thank you to Compulsive Readers for including me on this blog tour. I was gifted the book in return for my honest review. All opinions are my own. Affiliate links do not affect your purchase in any way but may earn the blog some extra pennies – thank you. Check out other reviews of this book at the blogs listed below