Wake Up, Wanda Wiley

3.5 stars.

This was an enjoyable quick read. Hannah is a self aware character in an author's mind. She's essentially locked away at a farmhouse since the author doesn't know what to do with her. Trevor is very much not self aware and your stereotypical action here. Picture Gerard Butler in the Fallen movie series (absolutely no shad to Mr. Butler or those movies. I love them LOL). Wanda is a very real person who is quite depressed and her life seems to be spiraling.
The parts with Hannah and Trevor are quite funny. The parts with Wanda were a bit sad. Yes, she's a published author but she's kind of cranking out books using the same formula so they've lost their shine. Her boyfriend is the douche bag to end all douche bags. She's supposed to be ghost writing for another series ( that's where Trevor comes in) but she's stuck in a pot induced fog.
All in all a pretty original story. I initially wanted to read it because it started off funny but got a bit of a serious read too. I think I'm going to have to check out the rest of Andrew Diamonds work.

Wanda Wiley is an author, and she's stuck. Stuck in a dead-end relationship with narcissistic Dirk, stuck in her writing, stuck in a pot-induced fog.

Hannah Sharpe is a runaway character. She's never really fit in any of Wanda's books, so she's been stuck in an abandoned farmhouse for years. Nothing ever changes in the farmhouse, until the day Trevor Dunwoody appears. Trevor is the one-dimensional, bang all the girls, shoot first and ask questions later action hero from a political thriller that Wanda has been tasked with ghostwriting. He's ended up in the farmhouse because Wanda is just as stuck on his novel as she is on her own writing. He has no idea he's a book character, so Hannah has to help him see how things are in their world. She enlists Trevor's help to break Wanda out of the fog, so that they can move on as characters and Wanda can - hopefully - move on in her life.

This is a pretty creative plot idea, or at least it's one I've never seen before. It was a quick read - I devoured it in one sitting, about an hour or so. The writing is clever, and there are moments of humor and moments where I just felt sad for Wanda's inability to break free of the jerkface Dirk. (Does she break free? I'm not telling. Read the book.) I wouldn't really call it a romantic comedy, because I'm pretty sure a comedy wouldn't feature a narcissistic abusive boyfriend, and that's what Dirk is. Is it great, lofty literature? No. Is it an enjoyable book that I'm glad I picked up? Absolutely. I'd like to read more of Mr. Diamond's work now.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bookish First. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books that I don't like.