Okay, so reading the blurb of Lobsters it kinda seems like your stereotypical YA love story, guy meets girl, they fall in love, yada yada yada. But with this book I was pleasantly surprised.

First of all, although it was very inappropriate for younger readers in some places, it was definitely relatable and I could imagine having some of the conversations Hannah has with her friends with my friends, which made it feel like I knew the characters somehow. Some parts were so relatable that I could imagine doing some of the things myself and found myself laughing out loud (earning me some concerned looks from my parents!)

I loved the fact that everything that happened in the book was so frank and real compared to other YA books where finding "the one" seems perfect and reachable. The authors seemed to know that life just isn't that easy, the things you want don't just get handed to you. It comes with its ups and downs but eventually everything will work out, and I think that's an important message to be sending out to teenagers and other people reading YA. Also the fact that Sam didn't get the results he wanted but he was eventually okay with it, really put into perspective how it wasn't going to be the end of the world if I don't get the results I want in my GCSE's in under a month - surprisingly it helped me a lot with being okay with it and was kind of a stress buster (very helpful with how much I was stressing over my results this week)!

The only bits I was disappointed with were that Grace and Tilly were very much secondary characters and didn't really have separate personalities and we didn't really see much of their private lives or see behind their characters, whereas Stella's character was explored further which made us more empathetic towards her character, making her more likeable.

The beautifully frank writing styles of Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison made Lobsters an amusing and relatable read which I would recommend for anyone aged 15+ as a cute summer contemporary read.

• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop

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