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full of warmth, humour and courage' Ruth Hogan 'I ADORED this book, it's so uplifting, original and funny' Daily Mail'Tender, full of courage and irresistibly good-hearted' Rachel Joyce''You go, girl' positivity seeps from every page . My favourite character in the book was Stanley, who Ted befriends quite by chance while he is out on a walk with his pup Lilly (named after the drag queen Lilly Savage, who I used to love watching on the TV and always thought was hilarious on Blankety Blank! Ted's growth as a person, recognizing his true worth, seeing the glimpses of his life showered in mistakes that he hid behind and eventually shedding that cover - and embracing the power to be proud of who you are.
Self improvement, change, and acceptance can be really, really hard, and the struggle that goes into being a better person, doing better things, and stepping outside your comfort zone and into yourself gets kind of dismissed by having these characters just decide to be different, and then act on it. I found the whole book really interesting, as I didn't really know much about drag queens before, and how they perform on stage. In this respect I was in a similar position to Oskar, a young Polish man, who is on his own personal journey. As a reader, this scene threw me for a loop, as I was expecting some degree of mystery or anxiety to unfold around this letter and the threat, but nope!I was absolutely thrilled to receive an advanced copy of Matt Cain's new book 𝘽𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙏𝙚𝙙 and am grateful to Matt and Headline for sending me a copy. I loved it and although I haven’t yet read Matt Cain’s previous book, The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle, this is on my reading list. I’d like to thank Joe Thomas from Headline for inviting me to take part in the blog tour and for sending me a proof copy.
Will this destroy him, or will this be an opportunity for him to grab life by the horns and be the person. With the help and support of his friends and family, he finally finds the strength and confidence to be true to himself and fulfil his lifelong dream, to become the real Ted.
This was a good choice in theory, as it allows us to get into the minds of each character and see their reasoning and perspective on events, but it is undercut by each character’s thought process not really being all that different from the others; they all talk about what is happening, remember something but refuse to go into detail right now because it is not the proper time to reveal this history to the reader, go through a bought of self doubt, and then make a remark in first person italics. The story is heartwarming, touching, funny, sassy, fiery, romantic, emotional, dramatic, delightful and eye-opening, and I recommend it highly!
Both are fabulous characters, quite different in temperament with Ted trying to find the courage to make changes to follow his life’s dream and also finding his self worth after being made to feel a support act in an apparently rather toxic relationship. Massive thank you to NetGalley and Headline publishing house for accepting me as a pre-publication reviewer. For instance, I loved that, in an effort to improve his English, he learns a new word every day including some peculiar to Lancashire.Becoming Ted is a glorious read, a story of identity and belonging, of friendship and love — it’s a touching, joyous, heartwarming hug-in-a-book. Firstly, yes they all have some flaws and nuances (except Lilly the dog - she’s perfect) but this adds to their lovableness and realness too. He keeps himself to himself, his only happiness for the moment being his bicycle rides together with his determination to learn a new English word every day. Especially, since I have this amazing Titanic calendar from 1998 with stills from the film and historical facts about the Titanic, too.
How she even didn't allow her age to define who she was and ventured the waters to find a way to give meaning to her life was nicely done; I liked how she was able to get the closure she needed. I wouldn’t say the writing is particularly outstanding but it’s very readable and there are some lovely descriptive passages.It’s never to late to follow that dream or change your life, with a bit of self belief and confidence we can do anything. Matt Cain really knows how to dish out the feel good vibes with love at factor 1000 to leave a reader glowing with happiness and romance.
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