Review: The Burnout by Sophie Kinsella

 Discover the joy that awaits when you set yourself free...

Sasha is well and truly over it all: work (all-consuming), friendships (on the back burner), sex-life (non-existent). Sasha has hit a brick wall (literally).

Armed with good intentions to drink kale smoothies, try yoga and find solitude, she heads to the Devon resort she loved as a child. But it's off-season, the hotel is falling apart and now she has to share the beach with someone else: a grumpy, stressed-out guy called Finn. How can she commune with nature when he's sitting on a rock, watching her? Especially when they don't agree on burnout cures. (Sasha: manifesting, wild swimming, secret chocolate bars; Finn: drinking whisky.)

But when curious messages start appearing on the beach, Sasha and Finn are forced to begin talking - about everything. What's the mystery? Why are they both burned out? What exactly is 'manifesting', anyway?

They might discover that they have more in common than they think...

Review: I’m not going to lie, the start of this book where we meet Sasha and experience her burnout did have me a little stressed out. I think I just related to her so much that my heart rate went up and I was a little short of breath because each and every email and interaction that she experienced, I experienced for her as well and I could just empathise with the way she was feeling. So if you’ve ever felt somewhat overwhelmed at work or felt like there weren’t enough people to make doing your job possible then this book is most definitely for you!

This book isn’t all about burnout though. This book has some classic Sophie Kinsella elements that we know and love. As already mentioned, Sasha is extremely relatable and easy to get along with. I love the fact that she can be silly and serious all at the same time but she pretends that she has it all together because that’s what society expects of women her age. But then there’s this massive nostalgia element for her as well as she heads to the holiday resort she went to as a child for some much needed R and R. 

I enjoyed travelling to an ‘off season’ British holiday resort with Sasha. It was a great location for this story because it really does put her and her needs at the forefront. There is no sunshine and holiday makers to distract her and we don’t have to imagine packed beaches. In fact the opposite meant that you could clear your mind with Sasha looking at the waves, feeling the cold sand and the sweeping winds. I really enjoyed the fact that Sahsha got to rediscover this setting through very different eyes and in a very different way to how she went there as a child. 

Then we do have to have the romance aspect of a Sophie Kinsella romcom. Finn is a great antidote to Sasha’s hopefulness. They are equally burned out (or so they think) and so they have this in common but don’t seem to be able to find any other common ground until a mystery from their past starts to become prevalent in their present, particularly through mysterious messages on the beach. I liked Finn because he was honest and I think that is a rarity these days. I also loved the rest of the cast of the novel, the hotel staff, the Devon locals and of course Sasha’s mum-they were great antidotes when things in Sasah’s world start to get a bit dark. 

I really enjoyed this novel, it felt very classic Sophie Kinsella and I would definitely recommend cosying up with it this autumn and being whisked away to a Devonshire beach for some therapy of your own! 

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