RoomHate by Penelope Ward

There are any number of platitudes that can be banded around to describe books, from the generic good to the simply fabulous, what is more difficult to get to grips with is when a book is just downright awesome, because somehow just saying the something is awesome doesn’t seem to be enough.

This is one of those books, finding the correct combination of words in which to convey the feeling that this left me with is not an easy task and as such this review has taken countless re-writes.

I don’t want to spoil the read, honestly you will thank me afterwards, and this is a story best left told by the characters themselves.

What I do want to get across is that this will devour you, it will demand that you read it in one sitting because try and walk away and you will be left with nothing but questions, dragging back to your comfortable chair and into the pages once more (if you don’t believe me then go on give it a go…you’ve been warned!)

The story hooks you in from the first few pages and it gently prises its way underneath your defences until it has you completely at its mercy. Really it is a sneaky little sucker, you might think you hold the upper hand, not a chance Penelope Ward is some sort of writing ninja, because she has skills that defy description!

The book allows us to take a journey with both of the main characters and to get a complete insight into not only who they are now but who they were as children, the relationship they have has spanned decades and is one you dismiss at your peril, because this history is not ready to be forgotten nor is it exactly willing to be rewritten, but what may be on the cards is a new chapter!

The author not only gave depth to them each as characters but she poured feeling onto each and every page and that managed to seep through the page, these guys were like family by the time I had calmed myself enough to be able to fully immerse myself in the fact that I was meant to take this journey with them.

The emotion, the angst, the sniping and pig-headedness was pitched to absolute perfection, Justin was the sort of character that had me in two minds for much of the initial story, I wasn’t sure which side of the fence I was going to land on, was he going to win me over or would I forever think he was a class one a$$ but like a true pro, the author nailed his colours to the mast and my heart was done for, please someone just ring the bell, this b*tch is toast – I fell for him hook, line and sinker!!

Once the book hurtled over the half way point I was like a thing possessed and for almost any other book, I would have been frantically skimming my way through, with this though…that was not an option, I was terrified that I might miss even the most minute of details, so I kept focus and ploughed on, not that it was any hardship really, this was Justin after all.

Oh and BTW…you will adore Amelia; I know I did. She was the perfect match for Justin.

So summing it up, I think you get the gist that I revelled in the story, that I enjoyed the lilt the character’s prose took and the tone with which the entire story unfolded.

This was a friends to more, via just about every emotion known to man. They were funny, they were sensitive, they were harsh and emotionally honestly, they had it all and an ending that made every single moment worthwhile.