Big Feelings by Australian author Amy Lovat is a delightful fiction romantic comedy that expertly blends family secrets, self-discovery, and the complex nature of modern relationships.
Written in the first-person narrative, we meet twenty-six-year-old Sadie Thomas living in Bellingen on the mid-north coast of NSW. She is obsessed with love, not a practical love, but the kind of love her parents had and what you read about and see in the movies. An unconditional selfless love with a happily ever after. Thus far, she has yet to have it as she is a cynical love addict with commitment issues.
Celebrating New Year’s Eve 2018 at The Bello Brewery, Sadie first laid eyes on Chase Anderson, who was performing on stage. It was an inconvenient time falling for the girl with the guitar as Sadie was moving to Portland, Oregon, for a one-year exchange with her work’s partner agency. When everyone had gone home, Sadie stayed behind to see the guitar player in the flesh. After spending a magical night with Chase, she suddenly didn’t want to go overseas.
The story is intriguing, and the smooth flow of the narrative captures the complexities of love and loss with subtle realism, drawing readers into Sadie’s world. The vivid, descriptive prose and authentic emotion conveyed in speech and thought allow readers to see every high and low and her reactions and processing.
Sadie is a truly flawed and relatable character with many quirks. She is a little scatter-brained but with plenty of sass. Her interactions with friends are funny and wholesome, so you get the sense you’ve met her in real life. I especially enjoyed the strong relationship she had with her father Sebastian, since her mother’s passing, it had been them against the world. The warmth of their relationship oozed through the pages.
There are some difficult themes, including family secrets, self-sabotage, and breakups. But, also a reflection on resilience, friendship, and the unpredictability of life’s challenges, what we need to focus on to achieve growth in life. Amy has woven these beautifully into the story so that the reader is aware of them, and the emotional responses they cause, but not so intensely that it detracts from the story itself.
This is my first time reading a work by Amy Lovat, and she certainly sets the bar high when it comes to writing LGBTQ fiction. Her gift lies not so much in the fact that she writes a story about same-sex romance, but more in telling it in what many would consider a study of differing personalities to bring through authenticity and connection.
The open-heartedness of the story dishes up a meaty girl-meets-girl story where every page will make you forget the time and resonate long after the book is finished.
While the cover and title didn’t immediately grab my attention, the synopsis is what pulled me in, and I’m sure glad it did. The charming and witty effect of Big Feelings will have you laughing, shaking your head in frustration, crying, and smiling. It is what sets it apart as a must-read and a story that will stimulate book club discussions. I highly recommend.
A selection of our Beauty and Lace Club members are reading Big Feelings by Amy Lovat. You can read their comments below, or add your own review.
My love of books started at a very young age. My mum has always been a reader and encouraged me to read, buying me endless book from classic fairy tales advancing to the world of Enid Blyton, CS Lewis, Louisa May Alcott, Kathryn Kenny, Carolyn Keene, Francine Pascal. In my adult years the list of authors is endless and every room in my house is filled with books.
One of my favourite novels is Narnia which has always has a special place in my heart. I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in 1978 and when I was given this book to read it let me escape to another world where I felt like I was in the book with all the characters, it wasfun and exciting to escape from reality and eased the ups and downs of the disease at such a young age.
In books nothing is impossible and there is endless potential and hundreds of places to explore or being taken to places that are only made up from the authors’ great minds, the past and future to navigate, characters lives you step into taking you on an emotional rollercoaster ride or being scared out of your wits. I can experience things that I can’t in real life because they’re not possible or real. It challenges my perspective and mindset expanding my worldview.
I find joy, comfort and peace with books, many people may not get it, but I know bookworms like me truly understand. Reading makes my heart happy.
Big Feelings by Amy Lovat
Thanks to Beauty and Lace and Pan Macmillan for my copy to read and review.
Sadie is trying to find her perfect love story to match her parents love story. Sadie goes on a love journey to chase her dream of happily ever after but no one is perfect and she has to come to terms with this.
This book covers loss and grief as well as having a comical view about life. I thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in the pages of this book. It was easy to read and I loved the characters, especially Sadie.
I love the quote on the cover- An anti-romantic comedy.
I would recommend this book and would definitely read another Amy Lovat story.
Big Feelings: An Anti – romantic Comedy by talented author Amy Lovat is a standout read of epic proportions for me so far this year. Sadie seems to drift along and takes life as it comes with no real emotion like she is emotionally constipated (as mentioned in the book) until her emotions finally reach the surface in such dramatic ways – nose bleeds etc. There are so many what ifs and if Only’s throughout her both her life and the book overall. She seems to just go through the motions and runs away when things in her life and any relationship gets too hard.
She benchmarks her relationship with any partners against that of her parents based on what her father has told her as she had grown up – he said it was love at first sight with her mother, a whirlwind romance, happy couple and baby (Sadie) on the way. Sadie’s relationships seem to fall short in comparison – until she meets Chase.
Thanks to Beauty and Lace and Pan Macmillan for my copy to read and review.
Big Feelings
By Amy Lovat
Sadie Thomas has always been obsessed with love stories, hoping for her own perfect “Happily Ever After.”
Then she meets Chase at a new year’s Eve party in there local brewery she playing in the band and Sadie thinks she’s finally found it.
But as their relationship deepens, Sadie’s insecurities and self-sabotaging tendencies begin to creep in, threatening to unravel everything.
Alongside the romance, she navigates a colourful, unconventional family, buried truths, and the messy reality .
I love this quote
“I’ve always believed in love at first sight — until I realised it can end just as suddenly. Turns out, the hardest person to stay in love with is yourself.”
I loved the story it is bittersweet, wry and self aware . It left me smiling and sad ,Maybe Sadie didn’t get the love story she wanted but she got the truth .
A very funny,romantic and messy book .
A great read for anyone who has big Feelings.
Thankyou Beauty and lace for the chance to read this anti romantic comedy .
Thanks to Beauty and Lace and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read and review Big Feelings by Amy Lovat.
This story follows Sadie and her aspiration to find a love that meets the standard of love set by stories from her dad about her parents love. It explores friendships, love and family alongside the decisions that get made along the way and the impact of these on people involved.
Through rom-coms that Sadie watches on Friday nights with her dad, through to the influence hearing her parents love story, these become the compass to which Sadie navigates her own love and what love means to her.
Pegged as an anti-romance, the reader gets to question their own definition of love.
Big Feelings, an anti romantic comedy, by Amy Lovat is so much more. It is a story of family, growth, love, breakups and about looking for “The One” and for that happily ever after.
Sadie is obsessed with love stories. Her idea of love is based on watching Rom Coms and the story of her parents love at first sight.
Sadie has met Chase, and it was love at first sight. Now, after they have broken up Sadie reminiscences on her past relationships and break ups.
All around her people meet “The One”, commit and have lives. Sadie questions, how do you know if they are the one.
Learning some hard truths and family secrets Sadie discovers herself.
However, if she decides to get back with Chase will it be too late.
I is a very enjoyable story of happiness, sadness with likeable characters dealing with the dramas of life.
You know the feeling when a book comes along that surprises you, it is different – full of soul, heart, hurt, love and laughter.
I will be totally honest, when I started it, I did have that feeling of mmmmm not sure if this one’s for me but then something happened, and it was like Amy Lovat created a spell that had me turning those pages right into the night and I was finished this book by the next morning. I liked that it was so different, it felt real, the main character Sadie Thomas was flawed and all over the place at times – I think most could relate to her and this is where the magic of the book lies.
The book tells the story of Sadie and her many loves – family, friends and beautiful Chase, a girl who caught her heart New Years Eve 2018 on stage at the Bello Brewery. It is not your normal romantic novel – in fact on the cover it states an anti-romantic comedy, so we do see the ups and downs of Sadie’s love life when all she wants is a love like her parent’s love story. I loved the surrounding characters they added to the storyline in a beautiful way that helped us understand Sadie.
Highly recommend this book published by Pan Macmillan in July 2025 – thank you for allowing me to read and review this beautiful book.
Thank you Beauty and Lace for the opportunity to read Amy Lovatt’s Big Feelings. I loved this book that follows Sadie Thomas and her obsession with rom-coms and her search for her perfect love story.
Sadie meets Chase and the story takes us on the ups and downs of their love story during the horrific bushfires of 2019 and also the 2 years of lockdowns due to Covid.
Sadie’s life with her dad is picture perfect but all is not as it seems and family secrets are revealed.
A great read which I highly recommend.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Big Feelings by Amy Lovat is a great story of finding love, breaking up, grief and loss. It’s ability to pull on the heartstrings while also bringing laughter and joy is what makes it so special.
I loved that every character in this anti-romantic comedy was written well and with purpose. It was a pleasure to meet them all.
I was also an huge fan of the lists, especially when they include some of my favourite rom-coms! Speaking of which, the references to these sprinkled throughout, has had me create a list of rim-cons I can’t wait to watch again.
I found the occasional going to and fro between chapters confusing at times and I had to reread them before I realised that the events preceded the previous pages. Once I worked out the context, this was much less of a problem.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this great book.