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Review

From Notting Hill to New York…Actually

by Ali McNamara

The author:

by Dan Martland

Ali McNamara attributes her over active imagination to one thing - being born an only child. Time spent when she was young dreaming up adventures has left her with a head constantly bursting with stories waiting to be told.
As a child Ali suffered badly from Rheumatoid Arthritis, and as a result was unable to participate in sport at school. But more than made up for that later in life when she qualified as a Personal trainer and Fitness Instructor, with a special interest in exercise as an aid to healing medical conditions.
When stories she wrote for fun on singer Ronan’ Keating's website became so popular they were sold as a fundraising project for his cancer awareness charity, Ali realised that not only was writing something she enjoyed doing, but something others enjoyed reading too. Ali lives in Cambridgeshire with her husband and two children, and when she isn’t writing, she enjoys watching too much reality TV, eating too much chocolate, and counter-acting the results of the previous activities with plenty of exercise!

source: Goodreads

First sentence:

“Scarlett, can you get me another glass of juice, please?”

Summary:

Scarlett O’Brien, utterly addicted to romantic films, has found her leading man. She’s convinced Sean is Mr Right, but the day-to-day reality of a relationship isn’t quite like the movies. With Sean constantly away on business, Scarlett and her new best friend Oscar decide to head to New York for the holiday of a lifetime. From one famous landmark to the next, Scarlett and Oscar make many new friends during their adventure - including sailors in town for Fleet Week, a famous film star, and Jamie & Max, a TV reporter and cameraman. Scarlett finds herself strangely drawn to Jamie, they appear to have much in common: a love of films and Jamie’s search for a parent he never knew. But Scarlett has to ask herself why she is reacting like this to another man when she’s so in love with Sean …

source: Goodreads

My opinion:

I love Ali McNamara’s style of writing! She is the author of From Notting Hill with Love…Actually (read my review here) and of Breakfast at Darcy’s (read my review here) and with From Notting Hill to New York…Actually she wrote her third masterpiece.

I enjoyed revisiting Scarlett, Oscar, Sean and all the other characters that I so liked reading about in the first book and for me it felt like being at a family reunion. The book takes us the New York with Scarlett and Oscar and as always with Scarlett life isn’t boring.

I was looking forward to this book from the moment Ali announced that she will write a new book and I was psyched to hear that she would write a sequel to her first novel. The publication date was in my planner for many months now and I was counting down the days until its release and then, on Tuesday I went into my favorite bookstore and found this book on display. Yes, I did a happy dance and I think I smiled for two days straight. I started reading it right away, finished it in two days and was sucked into the story from the very beginning. Scarlett’s trip to the Big Apple is fast paced and highly entertaining – I started giggling more than once while on public transport and earned many weird looks. As always she attracts chaos, awesome people and unusual problems and I’m sure being friends with Scarlett would be super funny and never boring.

All the characters from the first novel are part of this one plus many more – all awesome, nice, lovely, loyal and fun to be with. Scarlett’s movie addiction and her rarely intended movie moments play a big part in this story too.

I could ramble on and on about how much I loved this novel but I think it would be best if you go check it out yourself. If you are looking for an entertaining book with lovely characters and a wonderful story than this is it!

From Notting Hill to New York…Actually is the sequel to From Notting Hill with Love…Actually (read my review here) and will be published on November 22^nd 2012.

For more information about Ali visit her Homepage, her Facebook or Twitter page or read the author interview I did with her.