Really Good, Actually

Written By Miriam Hanna

Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey

Reviewed by Mimi
📙📙📙📙

Thank you @4thestatebooks for this copy!🧡

For something written as a comedy, I found this actually hard to read and it's because it felt so realistic. We follow the story of Maggie going through the break up of a marriage after about 2 years at the grand old age of 29.

She is crestfallen and trying so hard to keep everything together, her self esteem, her friendships, her financials, but appears to be failing miserably. Rebounding with men and women doesn't work, trying to get back in touch with her ex doesn't work and eventually her friendships fall off a cliff too. The loneliness is real.

This book masterfully gets all sorts of reactions from the reader. You feel so sorry for Maggie, and then a bit annoyed at her and then sorry for her again. You can laugh in moments and be on the verge of tears at others. It's so well done and so authentic in every page. This is a really smart debut novel, its not clunky but it's rich in its story and I was fully invested in Maggie being ok. To get that kind of attachment to a character takes great writing and that is what this book is.

Miriam Hanna

Aka Mimi. I have known Linda for a very, very long time. We grew up together and you learn very quickly that when she gets an idea in her head, you would be an idiot not to back her to see it through. When the idea of the book club came up it was another lightbulb moment where I knew this wasn't only going to be a success but really fun.


I have always been a bookworm. Remember when you were little and you went shopping with your mum or dad and they gave you a toy or something to occupy yourself with whilst you were in the trolley? I used to get books to keep me quiet. They were and are my ultimate form of escapism and more and more they are about understanding who I am as a person. Books make me cry more than films and TV Shows. I can get lost for hours. I love historic fiction, political thrillers and gritty crime novels but also biographies and memoirs of people I find interesting like sportspeople. I was fortunate to be in the Harry Potter generation and if weren't for those books I don't know what I would have. Young literature was so poor at the point. To have a book that had me and my family queuing up at midnight to buy was seriously special.

Whether you listen to audio books, read off a kindle or stick to carrying around good old fashioned hard copies (that's me!) I truly believe reading is the best way to spend some time every day.


The books I would have with me on a desert island? 📚🏝Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Akzaban, Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters, The Power by Naomi Alderman, Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou, Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah and The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

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