Star Book Review: Sammi Ever After by Soma Helmi

First time author, Soma Helmi, wrote a fictional home-run with her debut novel, Sammi Ever After. True to the traditional format of Chick Lit novels, Sammi Ever After has readers follow one woman on her journey in search of self. When girl meets boy and they fall in love, it seems like everything is going to be happily ever after, but all too soon, he dumps her. To make matters worse, he leaves her stranded at an airport in a foreign country, in which she has no job and no place to live. Luckily, she has one true friend in the area who lets her cry and sulk on his couch for weeks on end, that is of course, until his girlfriend decides it’s time for Sammi to move on. Finally having to face the dilemma of starting over in a new city on her own, Sammi is determined to “fake it til she makes it”.

Find out what “happily ever after” means to Sammi as she travels from Indonesia to Australia to London to the Islands of Greece and then back to London in a story full of romance, friendship and travel. Join in as Sammi seeks out her own fairytale ending and story is and along the way much hilarity and humility ensue. One of the bits I absolutely adored in this novel was at the beginning when Sammi goes to dinner with Liam at the Red Lion. As her dish of chicken dinner comes out, Sammi reaches in her bag for Sambal, a sauce she never leaves home without. I imagine it must be the Indonesian version of Tabasco sauce. Little details like that can tell you so much about a character and I thought it was such a wonderful trait to add to Sammi’s character to make her a unique and unforgettable heroine.

Native Indonesian and first-time author, Soma Helmi, may already be established as a filmmaker, art director and graphic artist but I predict it won’t be long before she adds “acclaimed women’s fiction novelist” to her ongoing list of credits.

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                                                                STAR RATING: 3 STARS