Freshers Review

By Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivision

Rating: 5/5

Source: Waterstones

Uni beckons. Phoebe can't wait to be a fresher - especially since her crush from school will be there too. She'll be totally different at Uni: cooler, prettier, smarter ... the perfect potential girlfriend. She'll reinvent herself completely. But Luke's oblivious, still reeling from the fallout of the break-up with his ex. Thrown head first into a world of new friends, parties and social media disasters - can Phoebe and Luke survive the year, let alone find each other?

Since freshers week is under way now for a lot of universities in the UK, I thought now would be the perfect time to share my review of this book. 

My university experience wasn't the best and I know a lot of the people I have spoke to on Twitter had similar bad memories of university life, but this book made me relive the good memories while also realising that no one really has a perfect uni experience. There is always a bad breakup, a rotten hangover or a lecture that just sucks the life from you -and that's okay. 

It isn't all doom and gloom, Tom and Lucy do a great job at showing both ends of the spectrum, while there's the the drama, there's all the good things too, friends, new experiences and learning from your mistakes. For anyone out there who really didn't enjoy university, at least it's over now and we never have to go back. 

The characters that Lucy and Tom brought to life were brilliant and my faves are probably Arthur and Frankie because Arthur is that guy I wish I'd known and Frankie is the girl I wish I'd been -I sort of am in a more reserved, self conscious way. Dream boat of the novel doesn't go to main character Luke Taylor Quidditch Bailer however (more on the nickname soon). Josh, the second year rep helping Phoebe and her friends navigate there first semester at uni is THE GUY. I fell for him immediately and I guarantee you will too. 

So Quidditch, that's a thing my university didn't have and I'm actually really upset about that. Phoebe, flatmate Negin meet Frankie at the Quidditch Societies first meeting and form a strong bond from then on. Nothing like Harry Potter to bring people together. Except when Phoebe gets her first taste of university disappoint when Luke doesn't join in the fun, and it does seem like fun, playing Quidditch is pretty much top of my bucket list right now so I loved this feature of the book.

I'd especially recommend this book if you're a student returning to uni then this book will bring back memories, if you're currently experiencing freshers week for the first time then give this book a read next week and see how it measures up to your own experience. If you aren't familiar with university culture then you might not be able to connect with this book the ways others might. For me this book was so familiar in the best of ways. 

Thanks for reading!