I was very kindly given an e-ARC of this book via Netgalley and Hachette Audio.

'30 Things I Love About Myself' begins with Nina in jail. She didn't plan to be there the day she turned 30. But with everything else going wrong in her life - what's a stint in the slammer? From there, she decides to go on a journey of self-love.

I felt this book didn't know what it wanted to be. Like a child, it picked up a lot of themes and began to start them - only to drop them when another, more interesting one came along. It wasn't particularly focused, and following the first couple of chapters, it seemed to change to a completely different book than what it was blurbed to be. That being said - I liked the themes that were chosen. They were interesting and contemporary - certainly not ones that are familiar in contemporary fiction. They were just weren't explored to the depth they needed to be.

The book becomes very same-y after a while, with drama happening for the sake of drama, rather than having genuine tension to play on. I felt like so much more could have been done to take Nina on her journey of self-love. Much of it seems to happen off-page, so to speak, and we get a description of what happened before the rest of the story continues. It even feels a little dated in places, despite it being released this year - the constant Harry Potter references were very off-putting and the astrology stuff was...interesting. And not always in a good way.

There was more that could have been done, but it was an easy read. There are CW's in place for mentions of depression, suicide, sexual assault, racism.

'30 Things I Love About Myself' is available now.