Funny, poignant and so very millennial, Well, Actually is Mazey Eddings at her best. Eva Kitt is a would-be journalist and podcaster who feels trapped in her job hosting Sausage Talk, social media videos that centre around eating wieners (hot dogs) and chatting with B/C/D list celebrities – watch Chicken Shop Date to get the idea. Eva wants a serious career but she’s stuck with the wieners and trying to please her bosses who dangle serious journalistic opportunities just out of her reach.

One night after too many proseccos, Eva sees a podcast by her first love, Rylie Cooper, and she posts a rant online about how inadequate he was when they hooked up back in college, and how he ghosted her. To her horror, the rant goes viral, and her employers guilt her into agreeing to do a live interview with Rylie. Enter Rylie, whose podcast is about ending toxic masculinity and becoming a better man, and who is a charming, funny and genuinely sincere golden retriever type. He’s full of remorse for ghosting Eva and keen to make it up to her. She’s prickly and surly and so very hurt – to the point that she can’t be civil and can hardly look at him – but she has no choice but to participate. During the snarky interview, Rylie proposes a series of dates where he can show Eva how he’s changed. The first date goes hilariously wrong as Rylie sets up an ‘experience’ without knowing what Eva likes. These dates and their follow up interviews provide the context for their reconnection.

Rylie has got himself together. He is a similar age to Eva, but has more agency in his career by monetising his social media platform, and while this irks Eva, he’s genuinely helpful. Rylie sees Eva as the one who got away, so he’s all in for a do-over and he patiently responds to all of Eva’s bitchiness. Meanwhile, there’s a secondary plot about toxic workplaces which provides the impetus for many of Eva and Rylie’s interactions. Even though she is a journalist, Eva is clueless about her rights and what is happening right in front of her, possibly caused by the gaslighting she experiences at work.

The author is unflinching when it comes to her portrayal of Eva’s character. She’s mean, dramatic, self-absorbed, conflict avoidant, immature, grouchy and churlish, and yet vulnerable and likeable – for the most part. That said, there’s something slightly unhinged about her, a capacity for self-sabotage that had me terrified that she was going to screw things up just because she could. In fact, the first person PoV style reminded me of both Fleabag and Sorrow and Bliss (neither of which ends in an HEA), and this added to my discomfort. But my concern for Eva gave me the momentum to keep reading. Knowing this is a romance novel meant I knew she and Rylie would get together in the end but I needed Eva to be good for Rylie as well as the other way around. In the main, this happens, and Eva does eventually let down her guard with him.

A pivotal moment comes when Eva and Rylie see a couple’s therapist (while on a date!), who suggests that what happened between them all those years ago is critical to the way that Eva interacts in the present. The therapist asks Eva, “So what have you done to work on that?” Eva is immediately defensive because, of course, she hasn’t done anything except nurse her grievances. I really wanted to believe in the possibility of these two becoming a successful couple but that can only happen if they both accept responsibility for the past, and are prepared to move on without Rylie being cast as the villain.

The writing is excellent. The banter between Eva and Rylie shines, and the interactions between Eva and her bosses show how manipulation and power go together. Well, Actually would have been a DIK if I’d been able to shake my feeling that Eva has much more work to do on herself if she’s going to be good for Rylie. Still, if you like millennial leads, black-cat heroines, and banter alongside emotional depth, this is a fabulous read!