I’m Still Standing - Colleen Coleman

Reading Challenge Category: Just wanted to read

Official Blurb:

When Evelyn Dooley married her high-school sweetheart, James, she thought she was set for life. Now she’s twenty-eight, single, and fleeing to Dublin from her hometown to avoid the gossip surrounding their break-up. And all because of a test-your-relationship board game.
This was not in her five-year plan.
Then a chance encounter with gorgeous musician Danny leads to an unlikely friendship, and soon the pair are running music nights together in one of the oldest pubs in Dublin. For the first time Evelyn is following her dreams rather than someone else’s – and sparks are beginning to fly between her and Danny…
But when her savings run out and home beckons, Evelyn has to choose. The safe, comfortable life she left behind, or a new adventure with Danny? Will Evelyn flee back to the familiarity of her ex, or reach for the stars and take a leap into the unknown?

My Thoughts:

I was really looking forward to reading a light-hearted and fun book after all the crime and psych thrillers I’ve been reading lately. This book definitely delivered on the lightness but I’m not so sure about the fun. I just wasn’t feeling the characters nor the story.
We start off meeting Evelyn at a counselling session with her husband. When asked what her perfect evening and her future looked like it, it all revolved around the same life she had but with a tidy house, soaks in the bath, kids and working. Her husband, on the other hand, wanted to travel and get out of the rut. It was determined that they were incompatible and split.
However, not long after the split, Evelyn gives up everything she knows and moves to Dublin. It was just contradictory to why she split with James in the first place. If she was open to change, why couldn’t they have gone travelling together and rediscovered one another and life? It just felt like such a forced segue into the main story, that being her running a pub in Dublin.
She was a very self-righteous character with lots of affirmations and long-winded advice for everyone around. I’m sure it was supposed to be uplifting, but it just made me roll my eyes and skim read through her rants. Her whole character was too saccharine that I just couldn’t warm to her at all.
The running of the pub side of things was an exciting aspect to the story and this part of the book I did enjoy. Danny seemed really lovely, but I’m not sure where the attraction was supposed to have come from between the two. There was no significant build-up it was just like he was a handsome man in the right place at the right time.
Overall, it was a light and high-spirited read, but it didn’t quite scratch the feel-good vibe I was after.

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