I read the first book of Holly's Spinster Club series way back in 2015. (Am I Normal Yet? reviewed here). But I've never read the others. I may own one of them! I'm not sure. But I have had the spin off novella ...And A Happy New Year? on my wishlist since forever, and then I got it from my Secret Santa. I was pleased, but I had forgotten the ins and outs of the first book. No matter, because there's enough explanation in this book to remind a reader, and probably for someone with no knowledge at all to read and enjoy the book.
So there's Evie, who was the main character in Am I Normal Yet? She has suffered from OCD and is now studying at university just a few miles away from the girls' home town. She is doing really well now. She has a boyfriend, Oli, who also has mental health problems, and unfortunately, he has relapsed. He has been unable to leave the house for several weeks and has been really clingy with Evie and asking a lot of her. She's obviously worried sick, but she knows she can't get sucked down into terrible thought patterns. She doesn't really know what to do. She feels like she can't talk to her best friends about it, so she doesn't.
Amber is doing her art foundation year at a nearby college, so she hasn't gone away to university like Lottie has. She feels a bit left behind because of that, but she has applied to an art college in America, and has been accepted. I don't know her story as I haven't read her book, but her mum lives in California and has been very absent from Amber's life. She also met a boy, Kyle, at a camp in America. Where she is going to college, in the north east, will be really close to him. She can't wait! But she hasn't told her friends yet - partly because she's worried about upsetting Evie, and partly because Lottie feels so remote from her.
Lottie is at university in London and on the face of it, she's loving it. She has a column about feminism in the paper, and she's found a political party to join. But she hates her housemates, who to her seem like proper 'basic bitches' and who seem to talk behind her back. Her boyfriend Will is also in London, at a different university, but there seems to be something wrong between the two of them, too. She feels like she's alone.
Amber is having a New Year's Eve party. Her dad and stepmum are away. Kyle is over from America, winning everyone over with games of beer pong. Lottie gets ridiculous drunk and ends up being put to bed for a bit. The novella is told from all three of their points of view, and I really liked how that worked. There's just enough info here for this to be a very cute book. I'm giving it four out of five.
I will say that as it was published in 2016 UK YA has moved on massively, and it felt a bit like reading anicent history while reading it! But it is still really good.
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