Review: The State We're In - Adele Parks

The State We're In by Adele Parks
Publisher: Headline Review 
Release Date: 04th July 2013
Rating: *****
The back cover blurb:  What are the odds that the stranger sitting next to you on a plane is destined to change your life? Especially when they appear to be your opposite in every way.

She's a life-long optimist, looking for her soul mate in every man she meets; he's a resolute cynic - cruel experience has taught him never to put his faith in anyone. People can surprise you. In the time it takes to fly from London to Chicago, each finds something in the other that they didn't even realise they needed.

Their pasts are such that they can never make one another happy and it's when they get off the plane that their true journey begins...


I'll cut to the chase here, I'm a huge Adele Parks fan. Ever since I read, 'Playing Away' her début novel she's had me hooked. I'm not going to lie about that fact, but I will try and make this a constructive review (and as unbiased as possible).

I'm not a general fan of book reviews where the reviewer proclaims that the book is the author's 'best yet', I'm about to throw my general disdain out of the window and proclaim, that this is most definitely Adele's best yet.

I've always admired Adele's style of writing, she is brutally honest and personally I don't view her as a 'chick lit' author, I just view her as an author, one I particularly like.

I didn't know an awful lot about the book before I started reading it, there has been an air of mystery about it. I knew it was about two people meeting on a plane, as I had read the back cover blurb before hand, but I knew very little else, and I didn't want to.

I like reading books that haven't had the story splashed all over the internet weeks before their publication date. To me, the whole point of a decent book is not to want to put it down because you NEED to know what happens next. Not put it down because you know exactly what happens next!

Adele doesn't disappoint, I finished the book in less than two days (even with working full shifts) because I couldn't wait to find out what happened. Dean really is the resolute cynic that the synopsis suggests and Jo the life-long optimist, until she discovers something that has huge significance for both of them, past, present and future.

I really don't want to give anything away, it's definitely a book that you need to read for yourself.

The ending is certainly not the ending I was expecting, all I can say is, if you've read it - #keepthesecret 

You can buy 'The State We're In' now from Amazon and all good bookshops.