Wednesday 1 February 2017

Book Review - You Drive Me Crazy by Anna Premoli

Amazon UK
Title: You Drive Me Crazy
Author: Anna Premoli
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Aria
Publication Date: 1st February 2017
Rating: 4 Stars


What girl doesn’t dream of an amazing promotion working on the other side of the world?

This once in a lifetime opportunity is presented to 28 year old investment banker, Maddison Johnson and instantly fills her with abject fear.

It isn't the New York transfer she had set her heart on... she's going to South Korea, instead.

To make things worse, her boss Mark Kim doesn’t go out of his way to make it easy for her to adapt to her new environment.

Plunged into a world she knows nothing about with a man she can't stand, Maddison finds herself forced to adapt and grow up quickly. Maybe in the process she will stumble over something wonderful and quite unexpected...

As anyone that follows my reviews, may probably know by now, I absolutely love being able to travel with fiction to new and exotic settings. So when I spotted You Drive Me Crazy on Netgalley, and the blurb mentions South Korea, I gave it a whole seconds thought before requesting the book, as its not a country I've ever visited in fiction or real life. 

My conviction of picking this book definitely wasn't wrong, I really enjoyed You Drive Me Crazy, even if at times Maddison really did drive me a bit bonkers with her inability to embrace change, or even this new adventure she was going on. 

Maddison is the sort of girl who is cruising through life, doesn't know if she even likes the job that her mum told her she should qualify for, seems uninterested in much apart from shopping and possibly finding a rich husband. She thinks that one day she will work out what she wants from life but is too scared to try anything new and likes her routines. She only agreed to a foreign year abroad at work, as she was under the impression should be able to get a transfer to the shopping capital of the world, New York. 

Having explained a bit about Maddison's personality you may be able to sympathise when she learns that its actually Seoul, South Korea that she will be transferred to, and the man she will be working under, seems to have taken an instant dislike to her.  Not only that Maddison isn't really convinced about the possibility of even more responsibility at work too, being responsible for her own team. 

What I loved were Mark's attempts to show Seoul to Maddie, really taking her under his wing, and playing an informative tour guide role. Thanks to Mark  I know a lot about how the city is separated, how the subway system works, been treated to tours of some gorgeous palaces, taken to a traditional South Korean hotel, and given all sorts of tidbits about customs of the country. 

I did though agree with Maddie's thoughts on South Korean food, as a non adventurous eater myself, I feel I may have struggled as much as she did initially. 

I absolutely loved being a reader of this book, as it meant I was always aware of the underlying tension between Maddison and Mark, even if they seemed oblivious to it. 

Written in the first person, after a few chapters I really started to enjoy You Drive Me Crazy, and the writing style of Anna Premoli. It is a story of one woman's huge opportunity for personal growth, and seeing how she responds. I found myself gutted that I had to put the book down and go to bed after my first stint of reading, and my dreams that night were definitely based around South Korea, which shows how much the book was really affecting me, 

Thank you so much to Aria and Netgalley for this copy of the book which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

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