...And a Happy New Year? by Holly Bourne

...And a Happy New Year? is a novella in the Spinster Club series, set around a year after What's a Girl Gotta Do? It's a short but sweet update on what the girls got up to since they left sixth form, set at what should be a New Year's party to remember that Amber is hosting. However, each of the girls is keeping a secret from the other two, and as the Spinster Club slowly begins to fall apart, can the girls open up enough to save their friendship?

I was so excited for this book to be released; after the ending of What's a Girl Gotta Do? I just had to know what Evie, Lottie and Amber were up to now. By the end of the previous book, the girls all seemed to have grown and adapted a lot more - Evie was beginning to be in control of her OCD and anxiety, Amber had gotten more self confident as well as started to fix her family relationships, and Lottie was standing up for what she believed in, and was about to have an interview at Cambridge University - not to mention the fact that all three girls seemingly had found the perfect boyfriends. A year or so later though, there are new problems arising - Evie is dealing with her boyfriend Oli relapsing with his anxiety, Amber is keeping a huge secret from her best friends related to her and her boyfriend Kyle, and Lottie is struggling at Uni (although, I won't tell you which one she chose!). The girls' problems come to a head at Amber's New Years Eve party, where they must all reveal the secrets they've been keeping from each other. I was actually so glad that the girls' lives didn't just stay as perfect as they were at the end of book three - I met each of these girls at their lowest points and showing all of their flaws, and for them to now have perfect lives just wouldn't have fit with the rest of the series.

Although I did enjoy this novella, and think it was great that I could see where the girls I'd fell so hard for were at now, I had just one problem with this book. Although I knew this was going to be a short book, I needed more than the 199 pages that the story covered. I needed a full, 350+ page novel updating me on the Spinster Club girls. Really, it all just felt a bit too rushed for me. I also just didn't like Lottie as much as I did in the three novels of the series, for some reason. However, ignoring these slight problems, it really was great to have one last Spinster Club meeting, and I truly will miss this series and these girls! 

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Have you read the final installment of The Spinster Club series?

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