Review of ‘Begin Again’ by Kat Jackson

This was a good quality lesbian debut book. I’m a fan of reading debut novels since I love finding new authors. Bella has a good track record with debut authors so I was excited to see what Jackson had to bring to the table. I’m happy to say that I enjoyed this. The book did have a few debut bumps but I found the bumps to be in the story choices, which is more of a personal preference for each reader. When it came to the actual writing I thought it was well done and didn’t have the normal debut problems I expected.

This book is about when a long term relationship hits a real bump in the road. Do you do nothing and let things get worse? Do you fight for your relationship or do you have to move on? This is Emery’s story and she must find these answers and also answer the most important one… is she still in love with her girlfriend?

In the last few months, I have been craving lots of angst and relationship drama. I’m happy to say that this book fitted the bill for me. It’s what I have wanted to read about and I enjoyed all the relationship conflict. I also liked that I didn’t know how this book would end. I had an idea, but the book could go in a different direction so I wasn’t sure. I have been reading books that feel pretty predictable lately so I liked the feeling of not knowing for sure.

There have been some mentions, in early reviews, that the main character Emery is not the most likable. I can see why people would say that and I’m guessing Jackson will make her main a bit more likable in books to come. But for me, I didn’t really mind Emery. For one, I was really happy to be back in first person which was Emery’s point of view. So few authors write in first anymore and I’ve missed it. Two, while I didn’t like Emery’s choices and how her job is about communicating and she can’t communicate with her own girlfriend, I felt she was written correctly in a flawed way. I felt like her actions make sense with why she is in a relationship that has issues. So while Emery is not the type of personality I really click with, I thought she made sense for the story.

While I can see this book not being everyone’s cup of tea, I enjoyed this read and stayed up way too late reading last night. I needed some good relationship drama, which this delivered, so I was definitely entertained. The quality of writing for this debut was well done and I will be keeping my eye out for this author in the future. 3.50 Stars.

An ARC was given to me for an honest review.