Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC of this one!

I was hooked by the premise of this book - international marriage agency meets a scientist trying to save endangered snails, all set against the current invasion of Ukraine and with glimmers of metadfiction. I mean, if you’re looking for something unique, Maria Reva’s got you. There’s a lot of talk about humour as a coping mechanism in this book, not making light of the situation in Ukraine of course, but a ‘laugh or we’ll cry’. I loved the way the author slipped in some little meta sections, talking about the dissonance she feels living and working away from Ukraine at a time where the country is under attack. Hearing devastating news from your home country, only to go to a dinner party and socialise with people for whom it may well not be happening at all. How does one persevere in such a messed up limbo?

It’s a hugely readable novel, the pace barely falters, and it runs the gamut of emotions from hilarity, futility, desperation, devastation. Definitely be on the lookout for this one when it comes out in July!