Living the Dream: A Novel Paperback – August 15, 2017

On a scale of cotton candy to Brussels sprouts, Living the Dream by Lauren Berry is the second piece of chocolate cake you know you shouldn't take. And you don't regret it.Emma is stuck in an awful London job that she hates, but she's afraid to take her talents elsewhere or branch out on the chance that she'll fail. Meanwhile, her crazy friends, Clementine and Jasmine, have their own issues. Through a series of life events, Emma has to figure out what she wants and where she's going.This over-the-top story had me chuckling darkly with its relatable themes and hilarious characters. While it was heavy on the swearing, it only sometimes felt like too much. It would be so easy to judge each of these characters for their decisions except you know that they're really trying to do their best. As a reader, I thoroughly enjoyed it. As a writer, there were moments of head-hopping. Overall though, this is that decadent read that you're almost embarrassed to admit to reading.If you enjoy chick flicks, London, and coming of age stories, Living the Dream is right up your alley.

I was very lucky to ‘win’ an ‘Advance Reader’s Edition’ of LIVING THE DREAM: A NOVEL by Lauren Berry, from Library Thing’s Early Reviewer Program.LIVING THE DREAM is due to be published July, 2017. It is Ms. Berry’s first novel.It consists of 3 Parts with 42 chapters.Two best friends, Emma Derringer and Clementine Twist are reunited after Clementine returns home (to London) after graduating from Columbia’s post-grad film program. She sees herself as a serious screenwriter. Clementine is a ‘party girl’ leaving the cocoon of her film studies and entering the huge, cruel world of London.Emma sees herself as a serious writer and is trying to ‘pitch’ her blog and articles for various publications.Both young women are a bit ‘down and out’ - Emma is constantly complaining and feeling depressed at her advertising job. They both spend money like drunken sailors. (Actually they are drunk most of the time.) They talk, work, dress, party - all in cliches, drowning in self-pity.The characters (at first glance) are only mildly likable and interesting. The story line is very chatty with a brisk pace and constant despair and self-loathing - over money, lost opportunities, friendships and relationships.Emma is introduced with the opening sentence, “The 3rd floor of of the Soho office block smelled of instant coffee and disappointment.”Clementine is introduced in her airline seat suffering from a ferocious hangover with the thought that, “Everything tastes better when it’s free.”They are not impressive characters! (Yet)Enter Yasmin - a mutual friend/best friend and planning her wedding to Adam.Enter Paul - Emma’s platonic flatmate. He seems quite level-headed.My reactions:I know advertising isn’t for everyone,but why can’t Emma make the most of it (the job is paying her bills, after all) or at least try to enrich herself in her off hours rather than getting ‘pissed’ every few days. How does she afford it? She doesn’t. A further reason for more self-loathing.On pp.155-157, I wrote in my notes, “Stop fighting! You are both selfish, immature and unrealistic.”I liked Hillary’s doctor’s advice to Emma. He was enlightened, practical and reasonable. Nothing like the U.S. medical establishment.I liked Emma’s feeling that she was on “a conveyor belt of sadness.” It was in chapter 31, when Emma was on her way to her appointment in Richmond that I began to feel a bit of likeness for her. I think that I was thinking of Virginia Wolf’s life in Richmond.I liked the London sense of place. The city felt very alive to me in a realistic, working-class way.I liked the ending with Yasmin and Adam’s wedding. All the characters began to gel and start to find their way. - an exit ramp of new identities and independence.I would recommend this book, but it took me a while to cozy up to the characters.

Emma is a writer. She knows she is; it is what feeds her soul. But she spends her days as a 'creative' at a London marketing firm where they have high hopes for her talent and intuition but where she feels she is slowly dying. Her boss is a joke whom she has to kowtow to on a daily basis and she only has one person there she considers a friend. She has a blog with a small readership and she wants to take the next step but is paralyzed by the fear of striking out on her own.Clementine has just returned to London from her college days in New York. She got her degree in theatre and has a play that was well received by her professors. She is working a dead end job in a bar while she shops her play around to various agents, hoping to make a breakthrough of all the piles of work they routinely get. Best friends from their childhood, the two women support each other in matters of love, friendship and trying to carve out a career.There are various men who come and go, are just passing encounters or desired relationships that never quite materialize. There is the common friend who is about to get married so that the women get the full Bridezilla experience as she wends her way nearer her nuptials. Above all, there is the deft touch of the author who makes these characters believable and ones that the reader is delighted to cheer on.This is the author's first novel although not her first work. She created a feminist 'zine Knockback and spends her time writing about the female experience. Her work has been featured in English newspapers and magazines. Readers will, at the end of this novel, hope that she will also continue to write novels as this first one is a delight.

What a lovely and funny book by Lauren Berry- enjoyed reading Living the Dream so much - how many of us wish we were living the dream! Emma writes a blog which while popular isn’t making her any money. Clementine is shopping her film script around. Neither is working in their chosen field, they work on their creativity in between and after work. Navigating their way through work and their full on social lives, Emma and Clem also put in the hard yards - working towards the careers they want to have. Their diverse array of family, friends and foes add up to a very entertaining book!

Emma and Clem are both young women trying to find their dreams in London. Emma works at a soul crushing advertising firm while she tries to get her writing career going. Now she writes her blog and sends articles off on Spec. Clem has just returned from New York City and is hoping to sell her screenplay that everyone loves. For both of these women the career is the dream. There is not a lot of romance. There is drinking, random hookups and friendship. I liked the characters and the book was a quick read. Enjoy this quick fun read

Although this is not the type of holiday book I would usually read, I thoroughly enjoyed it. 'Bridgit Jones for the millennial set' it most certainly is NOT. Intelligently written and fast moving I could relate to the characters and setting with ease. The book comes to quite an abrupt end ... will there be a sequel to follow the trials and tribulations of Emma and Clem as they move in to their 30's and realise that dreams can and do change?

I liked this book, it was easy reading and we'll written although I felt mostly sorry for the characters and a bit frustrated by them. Plus everyone has a drinking problem.

Funny, entertaining and easy to realte to any of the characters of the story. I think everyone has a little bit of Emma in them.

Laugh, snigger and snort funny on every page. Good solid characters. Great london vibes. Wizzed through it. Summer reading sorted. Get on it women

A sharp-witted, acutely accurate view on city life and all the struggles that come with it. This book had me laughing out loud page after page and I would strongly recommend this to anyone. 5 STARS!!!