Just Stab Me Now

De: Jill Bearup

Narrado por: Jill Bearup

A desperate mother. A dubious escort. And a deranged author who won’t leave them alone. Caroline Lindley is determined that her new romance novel will be her best one yet. Fantasy! Formal gowns! Fencing! And, of course, a twentysomething heroine to star in an enemies-to-lovers plot with all of Caroline’s favourite tropes.

But Lady Rosamund Hawkhurst is a thirty-six-year-old widow with two children, her sole focus is facilitating a peace treaty between her adopted nation and her homeland, and she flatly refuses to take the correct approach to there being only one bed. What’s an author to do?

Based on her popular Fantasy Heroine YouTube Shorts series, Jill Bearup’s debut novel brings us the best of worlds both meta- and medieval-inspired. Terry Pratchett aficionados will enjoy the political intrigue paired with convivial, tongue-in-cheek satire. And then there's the slow-burn, fade-to-black romance too…

If you loved Stranger Than Fiction and The Princess Bride, you will soon find yourself cheering on enemies-to-BFFs Rosamund and Caroline as together they learn what it means to be the hero of your own story.

©2024 Sword Lady Ltd (P)2024 Sword Lady Ltd

How good Jill is at narrating.

I was pleasantly supprised that Jill, the author, is so good at narrating. I felt so immersed in the story that I forgot where I was for an hour. Bravo! And because I follow Jill on YouTube, I realize how hard it was to record it. Again, well done. Now, how can we convince Jill to write a sequel?

Phenomenal Characters

The reader, who also happens to be the author, does a marvelous job bringing the characters to life. Each has their own accent and personality and it is easy to tell who is speaking in each scene. That helps immensely in this medium, and makes following the plot much more enjoyable. The story is fantastic as well. We all love a good trope, don’t we? Absolutely recommend this story, no matter how you get it — audio, paperback, digital, or borrowed from a friend. It’s worth every moment.

Exactly What I Wanted From This Book

As a viewer of Jill's YouTube channel, I was very happy when I recognized the dialogue and events of the story which came directly from the videos that firsted birthed this story. Very well done.

Not dumb

First time listening to a romance novel by choice. Usually when I hear them, it is my mother playing them and getting to the unmentionable parts 5 minutes after I get in the car with her... so many awkward moments...

Characters actual keep their heads and don't do stupid things to further the plot. It avoids the actual unmentionable part (which is what I suppose is what the Romance target audience is there for but I find those part in all media unnecessary, just fade to black, we get the idea now move toward the next plot point) so it can be listened to by all audiences.

The reader/author inflects and gives emotion where appropriate.

Perfectly chosen narrator

I found Jill Bearup's YouTube channel because of the video series that became this book. I am so glad the series was fleshed out into this book. I like my romance novels to be an adventure first and a romance second, so this book was right up my alley. The frosting on top was the meta-humor of an author struggling with her characters and with the real wolrd.
Despite all the technical difficulties Jill worked through to narrate her own book, I am grateful she persevered. No one could have done the narration better. 🥰

must read!!

of you haven't watched the YouTube series This book is based off of I have no to pod way of explaining the plot of this bookm if you have watched the YouTube series it is all that with even more tender and humorous details.

A Phenomenal first book for a new writer. It's Good, full stop.

I've watched Jill for her YouTube videos before this skit series started and watched through it with great anticipation. But taking my biases out and being objective about this book, it is a well rounded story that does very well to make the characters (in both "book-world" and "semi-real-world") feel as though they are complex 3-dimensional real-people.

My only significant constructive critique is to have a more defined transition between book-world and semi-real-world. Type-set and font is good to convey the change in visual books, as lighting might be used in theatre to change tone or focus, but a replacement is needed for audiobooks. The changes were so sudden and unexpected that I had to backtrack some to get my bearings. (Readers: it's manageable, just know they come up anywhere in the chapter.)

While I realize this story sounds like everything is wrapped up for Lady R and Leo, I would love to revisit them in a sequel. (Free Brainstorm for author: A third country manipulated/helped Lord MW with his doings, and now they are being more of a direct problem?)
Or perhaps a prequel seeing a younger Lady R and Heugo navigate court, noble new parenthood, and the prospects of war. (And would love to see expanded world building!)

All and all, this was a book I devoured in less than 48 hours (very unusual for me) and it gave the perfect balance of action-anxiety and cute-couple-overwhelm without going too far into detail description when not needed. I wish it was longer. Will be re-reading.
(And my theatre brain thinks there's possibilities for a stage production)

Only 1 reference to cheese?

Glad to finally be able to get a copy. I wonder what Lavender Cheese tastes like.

I wish there were more.

Since this originally was created as YouTube shorts, the only way the audiobook could be done is with Jill‘s voice. And I’m very happy that I was patient enough to wait. And I do wish there were more to the story. I think it’s quite clever in the concept of having a heroine starting in her late 30s, she’s already lived her life, and has to begin a new one.

Better than the video series

I loved the world building. Very pratchettesque. Next book please along with the video preview.