Abandoned by Booklikes

Please note that I received this book via NetGally for free. This did not affect my rating or review.

This was hands down one of my favorite reads this year. I already read "Sorry Not Sorry" and was fretting about what would come next for Tansy. Ranald does such a great job of showing Tansy during her school years, present day, and in select moments during her relationship with her ex Renzo. Ranald also does a good job of working in some sub-plots dealing with Tansy's family as well as her job and her mentoring an up and coming designer.

"It's Not You It's Him" is the follow up to Ranald's "Sorry Not Sorry". I would recommend you read that book first to get a lay of the land. As readers know Tansy was dumped by her boyfriend Renzo after she told him that she used to do webcam work. Feeling devastated and not really engaged with work anymore, Tansy starts focusing on ways to get Renzo back. Since Adam (her housemate who is still a loon by the way) is now working at Renzo's company she enlists him in telling her where Renzo is going to be in order to see if she can make him remember how good they were with each other. Of course things don't always go to plan. 

I thought Ranald did a great with developing Tansy. I rooted for her the whole way through this book. She feels trapped by what is going on with her family and her job. She loves Renzo, but when we follow her memories of him, you start to wonder about that. I thought it was great to see Tansy's developing friendship with Adam (still sucks though due to actions in book #1) and her work colleague Felicity. And I think it was great to see how her old boss's son (Josh) coming to stay with her and Adam for a few months ended up bringing up things she rather would have forgot about school. 

Ranald developed the secondary characters quite well too. I thought she did a great job with making Adam the butt of jokes (his obsession with next door's cat is a hot mess) and then him getting upset when Freezer fell in bro-love with Josh. I really did like Josh though wish we had more scenes to get to know him, but honestly I thought she did very well with him. Ranald even did a great job with showcasing Renzo too I thought. 

The writing was very good and at times funny and other times sad. No spoilers, but Ranald takes a look at the very different ways you can be abused in relationships. Not only verbally, but mentally and financially too. She does a great job with you being able to hear Tansy's "voice" the whole way through and you get to see her change over time with what she thought she wanted and what she actually does need.

The flow was really good and there was no awkwardness going back and forth between present day, Tansy's relationship with Renzo, and her doing her school days. 

The setting of the book takes place in London and we do get to get out of there a bit here and there when we have Tansy remarking on trips she made with Renzo or when she goes home to see her family.

The ending was so good and now I have a feeling the third book (if there is one) is going to follow Adam. Please let it be about Felicity or someone else.