While You Were Reading - Ali Berg & Michelle Klaus Review

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This book follows Bea as she moves to Melbourne to get a new start after ruining her best friend's wedding. Friendless and working at a job she hates, the highlights of her day are her books and getting her daily coffee fix until she discovers a second hand book with beautiful annotations and poems littered throughout. She falls in love with the writing and decides to track down the owner of the book.

 When I heard that this book is about books, I knew I had to read it! I love reading and finding a book with gorgeous annotations and poetry is every bibliophiles dream. However this did not live up to my expectations. It is in no way a bad book by any means but to me it was just average.

 I initially loved all the book references in this novel but it quickly got to be too much. It kinda felt like this book was trying too hard. If you are not a BIG reader then this book is probably not for you as some of the references can go over your head. Kinda like someone quoting a movie or TV series you have never seen. However I did like that all the books that were mentioned in this novel were listed at the back of the book so if you do want to go back and read them to understand the references then you can.

 This novel is very on trend at the moment with its instagram posts which I found quite enjoyable especially the comments on the pictures. I love bookstagram so it was fun seeing that in a novel. Also love that Bea's account name is an actual account on instagram (yes I checked).

 I don't often read novels set in Australia so it's always fun to come across one set in the country you live in and I loved all the descriptions of Melbourne cafes and day to day life. Made me want to book a flight to visit.

 I didn't have a favourite character in this novel as I honestly found most of them quite annoying or just average. Dino was an interesting character though and I did really enjoy Phillip the ferret.

 The annotations in the book that Bea discovers were my favourite, however I wish the book that Bea had discovered was an actual real life book and not one made up for the story. The entire book is littered with real book titles and quotes but the main book mentioned in this novel isn't real. I would have loved to be able to have bought my own real copy and annotate it myself. It honestly would have made a fantastic bookstagram post that Bea would approve of.

 Definitely not my favourite book of the year but definitely worth the read if you are a book lover!

 Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

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