クサクサすることばっかりだけど、気を取り直して頑張っていきましょう！

We've been moping around too much. It's time to pull ourselves together and keep trying.

で、電話してみたらしいんだけど、その電話先の相手ってのが問題だったのよ。

And so it seems she tried phoning but it's who was on the other end of that phone that was the problem.

どうせ駄作だろうと思っていたのだけど、どっこいなかなかいい本だった。

I was expecting it to be a bad book, but damn me if it wasn't quite good after all.