Book Genre: Contemporary, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Young Adult, Young Adult Contemporary Ooo and oh my gosh, the scene where Nikki was moisturizing Mal's hair!! Ahhh i love it!! Something about acts of service is so beautiful, loving, and intimate to me! 😩❤️

And, well, it can’t. I bash my head at the system trying to find the perfect prompt, but it veers between far too curt – the equivalent of giving the rules of Monopoly as “you buy houses and hotels” – and being overly verbose when I try to encourage it to be bold and fun. Worse, the hallucinations come out. It frequently gives rules that are similar to, but not exactly the same as, the ones that have been summarised. The experience of playing a game where the host pipes up halfway through with some rules clarification that mysteriously benefits them and only them is not a good one, but it’s one that ChatGPT nearly forces on my pals. From Joya Goffney of Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry, comes a stirring YA coming-of-age, best friends-to-lovers romance about a girl named Nikki who plans to run away from small-town Texas, but ultimately finds that her oldest friend, Mal, just might be the one who’s been there for her all along. Filled with heart and humor, this novel captures complex family drama, friendship, and love. For fans of I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest and Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan. Gradually add the warmed vegetable broth, one ladleful at a time, stirring constantly and allowing the liquid to be absorbed before adding more. Continue this process until the rice is cooked through and creamy, about 18-20 minutes. I decided to spend some time with the new ChatGPT myself. Not just to find out about its risks to civilisation, but also to see what it could and couldn’t do to help me with my life. I’ve never had an assistant, a life coach, a chef or a personal trainer – could ChatGPT be all those things for me? I gave it a week to find out. Monday

Rating as a movie: PG-15 could be PG-13 with the editing of some of the profanity and underage drinking Which is true enough, though just like my interactions with real physiotherapists, I promptly forget about the exercises in the afternoon when the pain goes away and do absolutely nothing to prevent a recurrence. One improvement on a real physio, though: ChatGPT doesn’t arrange a follow-up session to scold me for my laziness. Wednesday Joya Goffney somehow always manages to mix just the right amount of drama, difficult family relationships and young love and I just eat it up every time. Nikki’s relationship with her mother is turbulent and heartbreaking but ultimately healing. I love the way it was handled, with a clear message on what’s normal and healthy, and with the mom having reasons but not excuses. Stir in the arborio rice and cook for one to two minutes, until the rice is well coated in the oil and slightly toasted. Pour in the white wine and cook until the liquid has been absorbed. The parts that were Nikki and Malachai hanging out and him trying to convince her Texas isn’t that bad were sweet and enjoyable, it’s just that unlike her previous books, the serious issues weren’t so well woven into the fun writing.

Hateful stuff. I try again, asking it to be more British, and get the same basic script read by a Hugh Grant impersonator: “Hello, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve actually kept this bench free for my chums who are in the beer queue. They’ll be with us in just a jiffy. Much obliged for your consideration!” I heard through the grapevine that Joya was quite nervous for how "My Week With Him" would be received. I totally understand why, it's a lot grittier than her previous work - a lot more swearing etc, but I found that it made it more believable. Having lived through a difficult mother/daughter relationship throughout my teens, I found "My Week With Him" so relatable & realistic. Nikki was forever in a state of limbo with her mother, never knowing where she stood with her. WOW!!! This is the first book I'm reading from this author and I am absolutely blown away!! I don't often pay much attention to the synopsis so I went into this pretty much blind; I expected a sweet YA romcom and although it wasn't quite that, it was incredible and I'm so so glad the author went in the direction she did!! I loved the time-keeping, it would've been very easy to shove too much into a week but the time-stamps and the way events unfolded was done very skilfully, which made it read like just a very busy week!! Sure enough, if I phrase the same question a different way, it tells me: “I cannot provide real-time data, and as an AI, I cannot access the internet to find specific numbers from the 2011 UK census.” Scratch that then. Tuesday

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One aspect of Goffney’s writing that I’ve always enjoyed and found to be her strength is the strength to make me feel. This book really had me emotional. Like I said, I was feeling all of Nikki’s hurt. When she felt betrayed by her sister, I was so angry and found it difficult to swallow when Nikki seemingly wasn’t as angry as me anymore. When Nikki cried, I cried. This book was an emotional journey. I like how we got to explore all aspects of Nikki’s emotions, from the hate she has for her mother (rightfully so), the love, the anger. It was so hard to see Nikki hope, and to hope along with her that things would start to be okay, and to see her hurt again. It was a complicated relationship, to put simply. I like at the end we did get some growth (I won’t spoil too much) yet not all was forgiven, nor did characters magically change overnight in to perfect versions of themselves. It was messy, but it felt real. My son is fine, by the way, and my partner spends the next day vomiting instead, which solves that mystery. Thursday

For the mint yoghurt drizzle, whisk together the yoghurt, mint, lemon juice, olive oil and salt in a small bowl until smooth. Then there’s Malachai, why would he not want Nikki to chase her dreams? While I thought her being supported financially by a music career was a long shot, you shouldn’t be making decisions on the rest of your life based on what a boy thinks you should do. Heat the oven to 200C (400F, 180C fan). Place the aubergine and red bell pepper on a baking sheet, drizzle with one tablespoon of olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and slightly caramelised. Central to the story is Nikki’s difficult relationship with her mother, who doesn’t seem to want her around and gets angry at her for no reason. Her mother just wasn’t developed enough as a character to justify her changes in mood, and this would be fine if she were a minor character but she’s a big part of the story and the ending just seemed unrealistic because of this.The romance factor did not disappoint, Nikki's love interest, Malachi, was giving all the feels. He was just 🥰. In the beginning I definitely was not sure on him, but as time progressed he showed himself as a stand up guy, one who could be relied upon at any time.

I especially loved seeing him and his parents support her in dealing with her family issues, while never overstepping. There's a lot of focus on Nikki's relationship with her mother, which I thought was given a lot of depth and nuance. The situation was never portrayed as all good or all bad, giving space to all of Nikki's complicated emotions about it. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review! Teenage homelessness is a real issue many young people with insecure living arrangements face and it would be good to see this covered in a YA story. But Nikki doesn’t seem at all that bothered that she’s at risk of homelessness, and for parts of the book is technically without a permanent residence. The whole thing hangs on her either getting a miracle dream job or living with the family of her boyfriend. Both very convenient safety nets. The odd thing about being handed a tool of unimaginable complexity and potential is that the blinking cursor stares at you just like any other, daring you to find something interesting to type. I feel as if I’m on a bad blind date where I’m expected to ask all the questions. Goffney’s ability to delve into such complex and nuanced themes to create a compelling, three dimensional story always has me in awe—and My Week With Him is no different. Taking a slightly darker tone than her previous books, the story centres around eighteen year old Nikki and the toxic relationship with her abusive mother.

Created with a synthetic voice only for early review use, this VoiceGalley advance audio edition provides another great way to get an early sneak peek of this new book! This does not reflect the audiobook, which will be voiced by a human narrator.