How Hard Can Love Be?

By Holly Bourne

4.5/5

How Hard Can Love Be? Is the second book in the Normal trilogy and it follows Amber as she goes to work at an American Summer Camp to spend time with her mum.

I didn’t enjoy this book as much as Am I Normal Yet? and to be honest, I’m not really sure why because it was brilliantly written, hilarious yet also thought-provoking and a little heart-breaking. It has taken me a couple of days to read which is very unlike me as I can usually read a book this size in a day. I feel I wasn’t as engrained in the story so I found it easier to stop reading and put down for a few hours and then pick back up again. My other issue with this book is that I feel it ended a bit abruptly, I was expecting to follow Kyle and Amber on their road trip but this didn’t happen. However, I did like how the book ended, especially Kyle’s love letter.

I adore Amber’s character; she is incredibly funny and her passion for feminism is really uplifting. Despite all her crying in the book, which is understandable considering her relationship with her mum and her situation with her parents, she is incredibly brave and she has a positive outlook of the world. I also really love Whinnie, Russ and Kyle, even though we don’t see as much of Russ as I would like. Whinnie is so endearing and the kind of friend anyone would want to have. Kyle is utterly perfect and I would really like it if he could just step out of the pages of the book and become my boyfriend. He’s the perfect gentlemen; kind, understanding and chivalrous but he also deals with some self-esteem issues which I think is really nice to see because boys are often stereotyped as never having these feelings.

The setting of the American Summer Camp has really made me want to hop on a plane and fly to America to participate in camp activities despite having the biggest fear of flying. This is a perfect summer contemporary that I will definitely be picking up again next year.