Novella Review: What Does it Feel Like? By Sophie Kinsella
What Does it Feel Like?
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Published: October 8, 2024
Hardback: 133 pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: December 20-22, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
From #1 bestselling author Sophie Kinsella, an unforgettable story—by turns heartbreaking and life-affirming—of a renowned novelist facing a devastating diagnosis and learning to live and love anew.
“What Does It Feel Like? is fiction, but it is my most autobiographical work to date. Eve’s story is my story.”—Sophie Kinsella
Eve is a successful novelist who wakes up one day in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. Her husband, never far from her side, explains that she has had an operation to remove the large, malignant tumor growing in her brain.
As Eve learns to walk, talk, and write again—and as she wrestles with her diagnosis, and how and when to explain it to her beloved children—she begins to recall what’s most important to her: long walks with her husband’s hand clasped firmly around her own, family game nights, and always buying that dress when she sees it.
Recounted in brief anecdotes, each one is an attempt to answer the type of impossible questions recognizable to anyone navigating the labyrinth of grief. This short, extraordinary novel is a celebration of life, shot through with warmth and humor—it will both break your heart and put it back together again.
“Why did I write such a personal book? I have always processed my life through writing. Hiding behind my fictional characters, I have always turned my own life into a narrative. It is my version of therapy, maybe. Writing is my happy place, and writing this book, although tough going at times, was immensely satisfying and therapeutic for me.”—Sophie Kinsella
Jessica’s Review:
What Does it Feel Like? was a bittersweet read. It is fiction, but the closest we get to an autobiography of Sophie Kinsella. She passed away December 10, 2025, just two days shy of her birthday. Kinsella fought the battle of Glioblastoma for three years, longer than most patients who fight the disease. Glioblastoma is a very aggressive brain tumor and there is no cure.
I was actually not aware that she had been sick until after she passed away. I then found out she had written What Does It Feel Like? and very quickly ordered a copy off Amazon, which temporarily sold out of the book. Looks like a lot of readers wanted to read this novella.
It is a short novella under 150 pages; readers are given Eve’s story of battling cancer and working on recovering after having surgery: Having to learn to do the most basic things that anyone else takes for granted. It is a very moving and quick read. I read it in a 24-hour period over the course of two days.
Each chapter is an anecdote giving more of Eve’s experiences. This novella is a celebration of life with warmth and humor given along with the heartbreak knowing Kinsella’s ending. This is a moving novella and I did tear up towards the end. Even though this is Eve’s story, this is also Kinsella’s story. Kinsella will always carry a piece of my heart as her novel Can You Keep a Secret? is the book that helped me to fall in love with reading again, and I have yet to stop reading.
I wish I could tell her thank you for writing her novels, so many readers have come to love her over the many years she wrote. What Does it Feel Like? was the last book that I read in 2025 and it also was in my ‘Top 10’ of the year.
Cover Reveal: The Heart Shaped Box by Lucy Kaufman
Today I am helping in the cover reveal for The Heart Shaped Box by Lucy Kaufman. This is a novella at 87 pages and comes out on January 27th! The page-turning psychological thriller novella about infatuation, revenge and the lengths we will go to for love.
Novella Description:
“She pressed her nose gingerly to the glass, peering unblinking through the viscous liquid at her gift.”
Victorian, rural Sussex. When headstrong daughter of a rector, Constance Timothy, receives a flurry of gifts in pretty little boxes from the charming, smouldering student doctor Smith Williams, her whole family anticipates a future betrothal.
Yet beneath the exquisite pastel lids and satin bows lie macabre secrets that entice Constance into a private world of obsession and darkness, where morality becomes blurred, loyalties are tested and unthinkable acts are possible.
One secret will shake the genteel world she knows to the core…
The first book of The Carousel of Curiosities series, this haunting novella is perfect for readers of Sarah Waters, Laura Purcell, and Angela Carter.
Now….. What does the cover look like?????? Keep scrolling to find out!!
Almost there!!!
Here it is:
Pre-Order Your Copy Here:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
About the Author:
Lucy Kaufman is an award-winning author, playwright, audio dramatist and poet. 40 of her plays have been performed professionally around the UK and Australia, to critical acclaim. She has lectured in Playwriting and Screenwriting for Pen to Print and Canterbury Christ Church University and is a mentor at The Writing Coach. Originally from London, she now lives by the sea with her husband, sons, dogs and cats.
Contact Lucy:
Instagram @kaufmanlucy
Audiobook Review: Rebellion by Raena Rood
Rebellion
Series: The Reverence Trilogy, Book Two
Author: Raena Rood
Narrator: Brittany Goodwin
Audio Published: December 10, 2025
Audiobook: 8 hours 51 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: December 17-22, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
Kira always knew that her future in Vita Nova was a mandatory death at age sixty, just like every other citizen. But when she falls in love with Will Foster, one of the city’s revered Volunteers, and risks everything to escape the city’s iron grip, she begins to believe that a different life might be within reach.
With Will and young Teddy by her side, Kira ventures into the Unregulated Zone, desperate to find other survivors and a place free from Vita Nova’s oppressive rule—a place where freedom still exists.
Their journey brings them to Haven, a secluded community hidden deep in the Pennsylvania woods, led by the enigmatic Ghost. But Haven holds many secrets—secrets that could shatter Kira’s fragile hopes for the future and threaten the tenuous bond she’s forged with Will.
When a brutal attack shatters the fragile peace she’s found, Kira is forced into a deadly confrontation. Torn between protecting the people she loves and securing her own future, Kira must confront the true meaning of sacrifice—or risk becoming another victim of Vita Nova’s cruel justice.
Jessica’s Review:
Rebellion picks up immediately after Reverence ends. The reader along with Kira experiences more of the world outside of Vita Nova and meets new characters. This is a story about different types of love, actual family and people who become family, friendship and security. But most of all, FAITH. Rood gets her message across without being ‘overly preachy.’ Sometimes a book with Christian themes can turn readers away, especially if it is ‘overly preachy.’ This is a clean novel that would be appropriate for younger teens. Yes, characters we have become attached to over the course of these two novels die, but it is a dystopian world! The romance between Kira and Will is sweet and innocent, but does move very quickly. (Again, this is a dystopian world!). Some character deaths are more poignant than others.
We have a new character named Ghost, who is an enigma all on his own, and I liked him! I want to know more about him. The way these character’s lives are connected intertwines in just the right way. We are left with another cliffhanger at the end and I find myself wanting to find out how this story ends, which it will with Ransom as it is the final book in the trilogy.
We have a new narrator with Rebellion: Brittany Goodwin. She has a different take on Kira than the previous narrator whom I enjoyed. I had to get used to Goodwin’s narration as I had just recently finished Reverence. I ended up enjoying Goodwin’s narration. She has a good take on Kira and I could hear her growth over the course of the novel. From being naïve and a ‘sheltered city girl’ to becoming the woman she will ultimately become.
I received an Audible code from the author and enjoyed listening to Rebellion. Rood also just updated the covers, which focuses more on Kira and Will. I liked the older cover for Reverence as once I finished it, the images on the cover had more meaning for me.
I look forward to listening or reading Ransom. I want to know how this story ends. If the audiobook doesn’t come out soon, I might just have to read this one on my kindle!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK