Her TV credits include Dobby in Peep Show and Esther in Shameless , plus appearances on 8 Out of 10 Cats, Would I Lie To You? Her mental health issues make her more resilient, not more fragile and she’s charming and funny as well as troubled, easy to root for as each event takes her further and further off course. The protagonist of this novel is an ungrateful, neurotic, spoilt and self-centred middle class brat who improves very little throughout the story arc.

It all felt a little bit like I've read it already - city girl leaves her life behind and goes back to the country bumpkins where she grew up. Here, Jane can no longer be the commander of her own destiny, with interference from every quarter: meddling friends, suffocating family, terrible therapists and more.Jane is Trying is about a woman in her late thirties, desperately trying to have a baby with her husband but struggling to conceive. Beyond the battering her confidence took from the split, it’s clear Jane has other issues: she’s OCD and suffers anxious, intrusive thoughts.

I would recommend this book to All - very Entertaining and made especially so by Isy herself narrating - Isy has such an insight into All of us….To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, she keeps referring to herself as a worrier (a worrier who's not concerned about taking antidepressants, funnily enough). To begin with some positives it is well written and it is an easy read, I read it in less than 2 days, It isn’t a bad read, I just expected the book to have a more empowering undertone and focus upon Jane overcoming OCD and rebuilding her life as that was the vibe I got from the blurb but she never really did rebuild her life, she just flitted from odd decision to odd decision. The blurb read as though it would be an interesting feel-good story about a woman regaining control of her life after it had gone off the rails. To me she was just a bit too self absorbed and passive, relying on others rather than making assertive choices, though she did evolve towards the end.

A rich comedy about the joy and horror of romance, sex, family life and small towns, Jane Is Trying is one of the most delightful and rewarding first novels I've ever read. Very few characters have any redeeming features, and though Jane clearly means well, her neurotic behaviour make her a hard protagonist to root for. Other times it was downright irritating and so it was satisfying to see Jane refuse to engage with it. I literally wanted to slap the title character around the face on numerous occasions; not because of her OCD, but because at 38 she's still relying on the bank of mum and dad! The character depiction is very similar to Love Letters, which I liked, but I just couldn’t root for the main character.Suttie portrays the more honest aspects of what are usually regarded as the best parts of life - family, relationships, friends, careers - with warmth and grit ― I NEWSPAPER --This text refers to the hardcover edition. Some of Jane's musings are so relatable you'll catch yourself laughing out loud, slightly alarmed by the accuracy .