The Best Sleepover Guest: A Review of A Night in with Audrey Hepburn by Lucy Holliday

Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.

I’m coming at you this week with another great review. This time, it’s a rom-com. The only mystery this week is what am I reviewing? But if you read the title of this post then you already know what I’m talking about today. Anyway, are you ready for a rom-com featuring some Old Hollywood glamour and the one and only Audrey Hepburn? A rom-com featuring a main character who seriously needs to drop her family? A rom-com that sets up a slow burn friends-to-lovers romance?

Please give a warm round of applause to A Night in with Audrey Hepburn by Lucy Holliday.

I am a very simple girl, if a book mentions Audrey Hepburn in the title, I buy. Or in this case, I have my mother buy it for me for Christmas many years ago. A Night in with Audrey Hepburn was published in 2015 and I believe I received this book around 2016 or 2017. This book is also the first in a trilogy that I have never finished and every once in a while I think about doing so; hence today’s review. I was recently thinking about this series and thought about grabbing the other two books in the trilogy. But first I needed to reread A Night in with Audrey Hepburn to decide if it was worth it. So let’s crack in.

As always, a spoiler alert is in order. This is your one and only warning. If you’ve read any of my other reviews then you know I love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. I also must issue a quick trigger and content warning. The main character’s family is borderline abusive. The character’s mom and sister use her as free labor, a human punching bag, don’t care about her life and struggles, oh, and her sister throws ice in her face at one point and gives her a black eye. I just want to bring this up before I get to my review as this is a through line throughout the novel and can’t be escaped. With that, let’s get to the synopsis.

Actress Libby Lomax is having the worst day of her life. For the first time in five-years, Libby has a speaking role on TV but her costume leaves a lot to be desired. It is a warty, pus filled alien. Now the alien costume isn’t the bad part. The undesirable costume is actually the least of her worries. Libby burns a good chunk of her hair off, ruins the alien mask she’s wearing in the same accident, then loses her job, and embarrasses herself in front of the hottest actor ever, Dillon O’Hara, who she may or may not be crushing on.

I won't say it's love at first sight, but she's definitely charmed at first sight.

Don’t worry, cause things can only get worse from here! Libby is also in the process of moving to her brand new apartment, so after being fired, she goes straight there only to discover her landlord has cut her tiny apartment in half by making the bathroom a shared one with the other unit on the floor. Don’t worry, cause her rent is still staying the same price. The shared bathroom is actually a luxury! Anyway, things are still crashing and burning cause her friend Olly is coming over with her new furniture. Except he accidentally brought the wrong items. Now Libby has a giant, smelly Chesterfield sofa in her teeny-tiny apartment and it’s only slightly haunted.

You read that right, the Chesterfield is haunted. It’s haunted by the GOAT, the most amazing actress/philanthropist/beauty and fashion icon, the one and only Audrey Hepburn. The goddess who is Audrey Hepburn offers Libby a really bad haircut–don’t be mad at her, she tried her best and we love her for that–and some advice on fashion, life, and love.

As the days progress, and Libby feels like she’s losing her mind more and more each day, she ever so slowly begins to take Audrey’s advice. She goes out with Dillon O’Hara because why not. She comes to realize what she actually wants to do in life. She talks with her dad for the first time in years. And all thanks to Audrey and the advice she gives.

This book is a lot. First you have the questionable family, then there’s the fact our main character thinks she’s having a mental breakdown and she lowkey is, there’s the underlying supernatural aspect that’s never fully explained, and don’t forget about the love triangle. As I said, there’s a lot going on.

It’s important to note that the plot isn’t messy. The plot is coherent enough. You can follow along easily without getting lost. The writing is messy though. There are multiple grammar errors and times where words are repeated. The repeated words really took me out of the narrative and I truly question how those errors made it past an editor.

Speaking of narratives, A Night in with Audrey Hepburn is told in first person with Libby being readers’ POV character. Great. Cool. Awesome. Love it. It is Libby’s story after all so who better to tell it. But Libby breaks the fourth wall…a lot. My question is, who is she talking to? Realistically I know she’s speaking to the readers, but there is never any note or aside to mark who Libby is supposed to be speaking to. In my opinion, this aspect is the worst part of the book. Every single time Libby broke the fourth wall, I was taken out of the story even more than the grammar errors. The first person POV works, the fourth wall breaking should have been cut.

All the errors drove me mad.

Let’s continue to talk about Libby. This is her story after all, this is her slow burn romance, her no good, shitty, bad day, and her hallucinating the most famous of actresses sitting on her smelly Chesterfield sofa. Anyway, I’m on the fence about Libby. I relate to her at some points, feel sympathetic to her when she’s at her lowest, but a lot of the time she’s driving me crazy. Girl needs to get her shit together. She needs to stand up for herself to her mom and sister. There were points I wanted to scream at this fictional character for having no agency. That being said, this trilogy is about her growing a backbone and getting her life together while having a slow burn friends-to-lovers romance. I can’t be mad at the main character for not doing much growth by the end of the first book. After all, what would she do in the sequels?

It's the above point which makes me want to continue reading this series. I want to see Libby succeed and stand up for herself. I don’t want to go through all the fourth wall breaks and messy writing. I also want to know the cause of the supernatural aspect. I have many questions regarding this haunted sofa and I would like answers; although I’m not sure readers ever get those answers. Haunted sofa is just gonna do its own thing in the background.

Overall, I wish A Night in with Audrey Hepburn went through a lot more editing. I think most of this book’s issues would be solved with more editing. I feel Libby’s arc is likely a satisfying one, I just don’t know if I have it in me to read two more messy books.

With that, I shall bid you all adieu. I will see you all again next week with another great post.

Until then, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.

See y'all then, bye!