Millennium Girl by Claire Bullimore – Book Review

AD | I was kindly gifted this book by the author in exchange for a review. All opinions are honest and my own. This post also contains affiliate links, which means if you purchase something through my link, I will earn a small commission. This does not affect the price you pay for the item. I only advertise products that I have used myself and would genuinely recommend.

I’m on a roll with my book reviews at the moment. If you haven’t already, check out my review of The Ascension Series by Holly Pritchard. Today I’m reviewing a very different book – Millennium Girl by Claire Bullimore. Claire kindly sent me a signed paperback copy of this, her debut novel, in exchange for a review. So read on to find out what I thought of it!

About the author

Claire Bullimore is a blogger, brain tumour survivor and author from the UK. Claire has written a non-fiction book sharing her personal experience of a brain tumour diagnosis in 2008 when she was 25. Now, she has published her very first novel, Millennium Girl! She writes as a way to forget about herself and inspire others.

What is Millennium Girl about?

Here is the blurb as written on the back cover of Millennium Girl:

Fresh out of private school, and thrust into the heady world of new friendships, college, first jobs, prospective boyfriends and living in Croydon.

Re-live your 2000s with Jessica, and rewind to your teen years.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe and you’ll be reminded of how grateful you are that phones didn’t have cameras back then!

Millennium Girl is a perfect beach read for lovers of romantic comedies and chick-lit novels.

Move over Bridget Jones, there’s a new diarist in town and the boys are better looking.

My thoughts on Millennium Girl

Millennium Girl is written in the style of a diary, from the point of view of the main character, 18-year-old Jessica. She writes about her daily life, including her new job, boys, parties and a beach holiday with her friends. Jessica is a fan of making lists, so a lot of the text is made up of lists she has written. I am a list maker too so I appreciate this aspect!

As the title and description suggest, this book contains a lot of references to the early 2000s. I was still a child in that era so I couldn’t quite relate to all of the references, but I did remember some of them from my childhood. I imagine this book would be a very nostalgic read for somebody who was around the same age as Jessica (18) at the turn of the millennium.

Millennium Girl was a quick, easy and fun read. I read it across a span of 2 days, but I think you could easily read it in one sitting if you had an hour or two to spare. It moves quickly and there is a lot of juicy gossip to read about Jessica and her friends. There’s no deep plot, but it’s a casual and lighthearted read. It makes a perfect beach read!

There were a few grammatical mistakes in this book, for example, one character’s name changes spelling between Holly and Hollie. I feel inconsistencies like this could have easily been avoided with a more thorough proofread. Hopefully, this will happen for future editions.

I wasn’t sure about the ending of this book. It seems to end randomly with no conclusion of any sort – I was surprised when I turned the page and there was nothing else. It’s as though Jessica just stopped writing in her journal one day – which I suppose is quite realistic. However, I feel as though the author could have carried on this book from where it ends and made it longer since it is already a very short book. Maybe there will be a sequel. I’d love to find out what happens next to Jessica and her friends!

Final thoughts

Overall, Millennium Girl was a fun and relaxing read. If you are a fan of chick-lit novels, I think you would enjoy it, especially if you were a teenager in the early 2000s as you will understand all the references. Millennium Girl is available on Amazon in a Kindle or paperback version.

I would like to thank Claire Bullimore for giving me the opportunity to read and review her first novel. I look forward to reading more of her writing in the future!