Review: 'P.S. Olive You' by Lizzie Allen (2015)

Sun, sea . . . and a summer of endless possibilities .
From the glossy streets of Chelsea to a tiny Greek hideaway, Faith Cotton is about to have a summer that she will never forget!
Young bored housewife, Faith Cotton, escapes her stifling Chelsea life when her husband suggests they decamp to a tiny island in the Greek Cyclades for the summer. He works for the foreign office and has the inside scoop on ‘the Greek situation’. Europe is pouring money into Greece and, far from going down the plughole, Andrew believes that the island of Iraklia will soon see a tourist boom.
As Andrew flies back and forth between Greece and Brussels, he leaves Faith in charge of finding them a permanent holiday home on the island. But things don’t go to plan – over the course of a summer, Faith’s doomed marriage begins to unravel, and far from finding a house she set out for, she finally discovers the person she really is...
Last weekend I was really happy to be a quick last-minute addition to the blog tour for Lizzie Allen's novel 'P.S. Olive You' (such a great title, I love how witty it is) (click here to see my original blog tour post). The e-book was released by Maze on the 25th of August and it is author Lizzie Allen's debut novel. As soon as I first heard about the book I really liked the description and stunning blue cover, which both seemed to promise a fun and summery chick lit read. In short, the perfect read to pick up during the last days of August, not quite ready yet to leave the summer days behind!
Young housewife Faith Cotton is really excited when her husband Andrew suggests them moving from rainy Chelsea to a Greek island where the sun always shines and the beach is waiting for them. Andrew's work in Brussels means he is up-to-date on where Europe is putting its money and he just knows the island of Iraklia will be a future tourist hotspot, despite the current Greek financial troubles. Faith quickly falls in love with the gorgeous Greek island, but as Andrew is busy travelling to and from Brussels for work, Faith realises she is quite alone. While looking for a home for the two of them, Faith can't help but notice the crumbling down of her marriage and she starts to wonder whether this is really what she wants from life...
I had really hoped I would enjoy this novel, but unfortunately it just didn't manage to live up to my expectations. Based on the lovely book cover and description, I was expecting a fun and light-hearted summer chick lit read, but neither the characters nor the storyline managed to really grab me. The beginning of the book was quite promising, but soon all the Greek politics seemed to take over and I kind of lost track of the original story. While I understand the author decided to use the financial situation in Greece as a backdrop for this novel, it seemed to take over everything and this didn't influence the story in a positive way, in my opinion. 
I wish we could have gotten the chance to get to know both main character Faith and her husband Andrew a bit better. I was interested to see what would happen to the two of them and whether they would be able to save their marriage or not. I think a stronger focus on that particular part of the story would have made this story more light-hearted and a better fit for its cover and description. Unfortunately, I personally didn't enjoy 'P.S. Olive You' as much as I had hoped I would, but of course that doesn't mean there won't be other readers out there who will really like Lizzie Allen's debut novel; it just wasn't for me.

Rating:6/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.