Something, Certain, Maybe by Sara Barnard

Pages: 320 

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books 

Released:  1st of July 2022 

Rosie is ready for her life to begin, because nothing says new life like going to university. After years of waiting and working hard, she's finally on the road that will secure her future.

Except university turns out to be not what she hoped or imagined, and although she's not exactly unhappy – really! – she might be a little bit worried that she doesn't really like her course much. Or her flatmates. Or really... anything? But it's normal to be homesick (right?) and everything will have settled in a month or two, and it's totally fine that her friends seem so much happier than she is, and that the doctors don’t seem to know what’s wrong with her mother.

But then she meets Jade, and everything starts to look a little brighter. At least, it does if she’s only looking at Jade. But is first love enough when everything else is falling apart? 

What I Have to Say 

I love these characters so much!! It's really nice to keep coming back to Caddy, Suze and Rosie in each of these books. Especially this one since having read Fierce Fragile Hearts, I've seen snapshots of it without knowing what happens! It was really nice to see it parallel Suze's story, while also being something that entirely stands on it's own. 

The story itself, while a little predictable, was comforting to read. I think the reader is deliberately put in the position of knowing exactly what Rosie should do and it's about the journey she takes to get there, rather than what happens next. While there is drama that I didn't see coming, the final resolution was one I could see coming a mile off and I was so glad to see Rosie finally get there. It may have felt just a little flat, but the rest of the book more than made up for it. 

I'm really glad that this book highlighted the fact that Uni is not always the right path and not everyone enjoys it, because I think it's important for young people to know that they've got options. I remember being that age and feeling that Uni is just what you did next and while that worked out well for me, it doesn't for everyone. 

All in all this was just an incredibly comforting book and I hope this isn't the last we've seen from these characters!! 

My thanks go to Macmillan and Willow Publicity for providing me with this copy for review.