Being embarrassingly a little bit too in love with McFly for a 22-year-old, I have been envious of Tom Fletcher’s wife Giovanna for many years. Especially after that wedding speech *sigh* (if you haven’t seen Tom’s wedding speech, do yourself a favour and head over to YouTube immediately!). However, I didn’t really know that much about her. Granted, she is an extremely lucky lady with a tasty hubby to sing to her all day long, but what does she actually do? So when I heard she was releasing a book I was more than curious to find out what she had to offer. After reading a blurb of her debut novel Billy and Me online, I’d sort of decided it was a boy meets girl, celebrity tale that wouldn’t really interest me. A few days down the line and literally everyone is talking about it, it’s climbing the book charts and has had some rave reviews, so I picked up a copy to see what all the fuss is about.
It starts with the sheltered Sophie May who works in a coffee shop and is perfectly content but her life is lacking something. Cue gorgeous hotshot celeb Billy Buskin entering her life and falling head over heels in love with her, the least likely culprit to steal his heart – obviously. So far the writing standard is good and the story is cute but it all seems fairly obvious, nothing is really grabbing my attention. I push on nonetheless, and the plot unfolds. Sophie and Billy fall madly in love and we follow her struggles from coffee shop to red carpet. I can’t help but wonder if there is an aspect of personal experience niggling in the background; it can’t be easy being in a relationship with a teenage heartthrob. By this point the characters have really developed and I’m much more interested. Both Billy and Sophie have an intense personal struggle creating a rather large elephant in the room in their relationship, and I’m, surprisingly, really quite eager for the story to progress.
In the end, I am actually quite hooked. Billy and Me starts off all light and fluffy, perfect for young teenage girls, but ends in quite a mature and poignant way. I shed many a tear nearing the conclusion and the book, which I originally thought was about falling in love with a celebrity, ends up having a much more emotional foundation with a number of layers. I liked that the book both surprised and impressed me and ended up extremely satisfied with Fletcher’s debut. Girls, if you’re looking for a light, easy read which will make you shed a few tears then Billy and Me is most definitely for you. Romantic, cute, sad and surprisingly realistic for a celebrity love story, I would certainly recommend Billy and Me for anyone looking for a light summer read.
[Rating=4]
