The Idea of You: The unforgettable and addictive Richard and Judy romance about the man everyone is talking about (Cover may vary)

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I'm sure a lot will raise an eyebrow, but if there's one thing we're all looking for in a book, is originality. I'm tired of reading about the same patterns and clichés - and in this book, there are none. I was hooked on Lucy's journey in The Idea of You, feeling very closely both her ups and her downs. There are some light hearted moments in the book, to balance out all of the emotion. There are also blazing rows as tempers are high. It really is a roller coaster of feelings for all characters in this book. The plot is sexy and full-on. The pace ebbed and flowed, at times it felt so slow, then other times it felt like it was going at warp speed. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about the ending. I have mixed feelings about it too, as it felt a little short but then I didn’t see any other way for the book to end. Hayes may be young, but he's not a kid. He traveled the world and experienced a lot - but I liked that he was sometimes presented as just a 20-year-old guy, so we won't forget their gaps. By about 2/3 of the way through it was starting to drag a little, and yes, I did do a bit of skimming. But the ending was a reasonable one for the story, although it did feel a bit rushed.

Lucy is a 39-year old advertising executive who has just about given up on marriage and motherhood after her fiance left her to marry her cousin. But when she attends the christening of her godson, she meets Jonah Carpenter who immediately is smitten and so is she. They soon marry and try vigilantly to have a baby with tragic results. Life gets even more complicated when Jonah's 16-year old daughter, Camille, comes for an extended visit. When secrets come out Jonah doesn't exactly handle the situation very well and up until that point I was feeling very sorry for him being in the middle of Waring women as he literally could do nothing right!Solène Marchand, the thirty-nine-year-old owner of an art gallery in Los Angeles, is reluctant to take her daughter, Isabelle, to meet her favorite boy band. But since her divorce, she’s more eager than ever to be close to Isabelle. The last thing Solène expects is to make a connection with one of the members of the world-famous August Moon. But Hayes Campbell is clever, winning, confident, and posh, and the attraction is immediate. That he is all of twenty years old further complicates things. Her partner, Jonah, is also really likable, even though I didn’t always agree with how he acted, and at times he really messed up. However, when reading The Idea of You I felt it was really important to remember that no one knows how they’d feel in this situation until it actually happens to them (and hopefully it never will). I'd heard of Amanda Prowse prior to reading this, but didn't really know what to expect vis-a-vis style or subject-matter. A glimpse at the blurb enticed me enough to take the plunge, and at the end of the book, I was left with very mixed feelings. The reason for the 4.5 and not a full five because there were some plot points that kind of faded out without being resolved. I had expected a bigger blowup with Oliver. I expected a rift would have formed with him because of how he had been hitting on Solène and it would threaten the band. Also the book had no climax. There was no monumental moment of build up and then release. I think something with Oliver would have fulfilled that, with more to do with his weird behavior toward her and less so with the Penelope stuff. This book is pure perfection and I read it every spare second I had, and some I didn't. It's that good. Get over the age thing and go for the ride. The h's insecurities bring her down (age-wise) and the H's life experience elevates him. They meet in the middle and it works, yet there's that underlying "gap" that's always there. But the brilliance of this book is that, at its core, age isn't the issue. Celebrity is. And the question becomes, should two people who are TRULY in love, let something like that get in their way? Yes. When there's an innocent child involved.

There's sooo much in here; if this was a movie you wouldn't know where to look first! I also realllly want this to become a movie one day!!! Will I read another book by this author? Yes. If she decides to make this one into a duet, I will scream will joy. Nicholas Galitzine is joining Anne Hathaway in "The Idea of You," a movie that follows a 40-year-old divorced mother who embarks on a tryst with a musician she meets at Coachella, Prime Video announced on Sept. 19. The film will be based on the book of the same name by Robinne Lee originally published in 2017, which became a huge hit a few years later — Vogue called it the "sleeper hit of the pandemic" in 2020. Galitzine most recently starred in Netflix's "Purple Hearts," and he just wrapped filming Prime Video's "Red, White & Royal Blue" movie, based on the bestselling romance of the same name. I had seen this book starting to generate a buzz on Goodreads and I have to say that my interest was piqued as I’m always in search of a good romance between an older woman and younger man. I want to say a huge THANK YOU to my Bestie Boo for gifting this book and urging me to drop everything and read it. She was right! This book was captivating! The romance was breathtaking and oh so very heartbreaking. I know this story is going to haunt me for quite some time. It felt so real! For just a little while it was wonderful to live in the world of these two beautiful characters whose love for each other was beyond magical. After two decades in Hollywood, Lee, now 46, knew what it was like to be marginalized. Auditions waned; roles shifted. “You're no longer the hot one. You're not the girlfriend. You're not even the hot wife now. You're the mom,” she said. “It really broke my spirit, and I was angry about it, and so a lot of that went into this book.” A fictional artist at Soléne’s gallery wins raves for a video-installation “exploring how women of a certain age cease to be seen.” Soléne’s ex-husband remarries; Hollywood tropes would have had her eating Ben and Jerry’s under the covers, in mourning. Instead, she is the elder in a May-December relationship, with a youthful Botticelli angel ministering to her on a yacht in Anguilla. It’s electric, triumphant, to read.Jonah and Lucy have such a heartwarming relationship but when his daughter from a previous marriage comes to stay, Camille, it puts them through a testing time. Camille is a reminder of what it’s like to be a young sixteen year old. She could definitely be anyone of us at that age. I couldn’t help warming to Camille even though she was really testing Lucy’s patience.

Amanda Prowse has received a lot of praise from some of my reviewer contemporaries, so every time I saw one of her books on sale or in the KU library, I’d grab it, but to my knowledge this is the very first book of hers that I’ve read. Thereafter, Jonah’s daughter Camille, from his first marriage, comes to live with them and everything changes. Lucy’s life is turned upside down. Her relationship with Camille brings drama to Lucy’s life that she never anticipated having, but it also shows her that family is what you make of it. The Idea of You managed to work the ultimate book magic: It blurred the boundary between this world and that one' OPRAH MAGAZINE I've been hearing about this one for a while but haven't had the chance to read until now. And I'm still trying to process what I read and whether I liked it or not. And I will apologize in advance for going in tangents, cause I will.Like every great book, the writing is the core of its beauty. The dialogue between Solene and Hayes was superb; the playfulness, the intensity, the tension . . . their differences and their love all played out within the subtlety of their words. "It’s only been two weeks," I said.

I think I would have liked this book a whole lot more if the age difference wasn't so vast. I kept bumping into it all the way through, and I kept thinking, no, that's just wrong. Ewww. No!!! I know it's part of what creates the basic tension of this book, but for me it was too much. The characters in this novel are easy to identify with and likeable, making you actually care about what happens to them. The protagonist, Lucy, seems really great and I warmed to her instantly; she’s not always perfect in the way she handles things but she seems real , like someone you’d know and probably like. I really felt for her as things just seemed to get harder and harder, and sometimes the situations that were thrown at her with her ‘new’ step-daughter Camille were so difficult – I won’t give away any key plotlines but it just felt like things got more and more difficult for her with Camille’s behaviour and insensitive - although well-meaning - comments from family and work colleagues. Both Solene and Hayes were complicated characters individually and their relationship itself was complex as well. She’s a divorced mother to a teenaged girl and when the media gets wind of their romance, their lives are effected in a deep and profound way. Hayes was a really mature guy for a twenty year old and there was much more substance to him than I was expecting there to be. I can totally see why Solene was charmed by him! Amanda is a huge supporter of libraries and having become a proud ambassador for The Reading Agency, works tirelessly to promote reading, especially in disadvantaged areas. Amanda's ambition is to create stories that keep people from turning the bedside lamp off at night, great characters that ensure you take every step with them and tales that fill your head so you can't possibly read another book until the memory fades...Following Lucy on her struggle to have a baby was very difficult to read at times. Showing how the baby develops during certain stages of pregnancy also seemed to make it harder and I watched with a feeling of helplessness as I willed Lucy’s baby’s to hang on in there! But the most poignant part of the novel for me were the letters that were interspersed throughout providing a window into what might have been for the future and that was the saddest part of the book for me. Realising that it’s not just a baby that you lose but a whole lifetime of “firsts” . No first steps, no first day of school, the list is endless and if you are desperate for a child all you can see is that vision of a perfect family life slipping away from you, even though you know deep down that it’s an unrealistic expectation. The whole boyband dynamics, Hollywood dynamics, etc. Although the author used way to many acronyms and obscured references that might get lost if you're not completely pop-cultured, she totally got all the dynamics and the references to a T. Not surprised since she's an LA based actress. I loved all of it. Steamy and sexy, this is escapism at its absolute finest. I spent the hours in between binges fantasising about the characters and what they were up to. The three days I spent reading this were blissful Laura Jane Williams, bestselling author of Our Stop This Book! After her ex-husband changes his plans last minute, Solene Marchand agrees to take her daughter Isabelle to a concert and meet-and-greet with boy band, August Moon. What she doesn’t expect is to hit it off with lead singer, Hayes Campbell, who is 20 years old. She’s 39. ⁣ Interspersed with the chapters which are all from Lucy's point of view, there are little letters are so filled with emotion, but you aren't fully sure initially just who they are to. I loved finding out the reasoning behind them, while really feeling for the writer of the letters.