Month: December 2020

Book Review: People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd

Posted on by Libby Price

I saw this book on a list of ‘ books to look out for in 2021’ by Emma Gannon on The Bookshop (coincidentally a great place to source books if you want the convenience of online shopping, but would to avoid ‘that’ retailer and support a local bookshop at the same time). So I asked NetGalley for an advanced review copy and my wish was granted #earlyChristmaspresenttome.

I hadn’t read the blurb once I’d seen that as well as Emma, the author Clare Mackintosh had also recommended it, and wondered on the context of the potentially homophonic sentence. Did ‘People Like Her’ mean ‘People Love Her’ or ‘People Similar To Her’. It would appear it could mean both, as here’s the blurb:

“People like Emmy Jackson. They always have. Especially online, where she is Instagram sensation Mamabare, famous for always telling the unvarnished truth about modern parenthood.
But Emmy isn’t as honest as she’d like the fans to believe. She may think she has her followers fooled, but someone out there knows the truth and plans to make her pay. Because people like her have no idea what pain careless words can cause. Because people like her need to learn what it feels like to lose everything.”

I also, then, checked out the author – and it’s a combined husband and wife writing team – which I thought could be very interesting.

When I had my first kids, Instagram wasn’t a thing at all (shocking, I know!) and in fact ‘Mummy blogs’ were only just a thing. I remember being super impressed when one of the school Mums in our village was featured in Red Magazine as one of these new fangled Mummy bloggers in probably 2008ish. In the subsequent decade those sharing an opinion – and making a living from this opinion – on parenting has ballooned – particularly on Instagram, and that is the whole premise of this book.

Emmy has contrived to be an InstaMum – with her posse of fellow InstaMums, selling their views on parenthood. Emmy brands herself as being ‘honest’ – but this is definitely for the Mamabare brand – and not what really goes on behind closed doors. Her husband, Dan, is an author – although his last published success was many years before – and so, whilst he doesn’t necessarily agree with all of Emmy’s actions, he also recognises that it pays the mortgage for them.

The book is told from the point of view of Emmy, Dan and a third person who is obsessed with Emmy and blames her for something awful. (I did wonder if the husband and wife author team wrote as Dan and Emmy respectively – and who wrote the third voice? Who knows!)

There are also other characters – Emmy and Dan’s children, Coco and Bear (such Instagram friendly names – you can imagine them up in lights already). Emmy’s mother – who has branded herself as an InstaGran (yep, there are loads!). Emmy’s best friend, then her agent, their new nanny, Emmy’s new PA and, of course, her ‘pod’ of fellow InstaMums. All of the characters are very different – and very well written – many could be someone you know (or someone you follow and feel like you know!).

I have to say that none of the main characters were particularly likeable – I thought I was Team Dan for a while – but not 100%! However this lack of likeability wasn’t an issue – and kind of drove the story forward.

There are some huge twists and turns, and some great red herrings – and there is a real pace to the book – I devoured it really quickly. It’s a thriller – but also a fabulous social commentary. It’s very clever, very well written and a great read.

I have a feeling it will be a little too close to the bone for some in the InstaMum community – but for mere mortals, is a great read. And I LOVED the epilogue and ending.

A massive thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my advance review copy – and I would highly recommend you pre order it for when it’s released in January 2021 – we all need something to look forward to. Let’s hope for more #yaydays than #greydays in 2021!! #injoke

Book Review: A Wedding In The Country by Katie Fforde

Posted on by Libby Price

In these stressful times, a nice, gentle book can be called for – and this sounded like just that!
Here’s the blurb:

“Lizzie has just arrived in London, determined to make the best of her new life.
Her mother may be keen that she should have a nice wedding in the country to a Suitable Man chosen by her. And Lizzie may be going to cookery school to help her become a Good Wife.
But she definitely wants to have some fun first.
It is 1963 and London is beginning to swing as Lizzie cuts her hair, buys a new dress with a fashionably short hemline, and moves in with two of her best friends, one of whom lives in a grand but rundown house in Belgravia which has plenty of room for a lodger.
Soon Lizzie’s life is so exciting that she has forgotten all about her mother’s marriage plans for her.
All she can think about is that the young man she is falling in love with appears to be engaged to someone else …“

Lizzie (Elizabeth to her parents – I’m also an Elisabeth – but everyone apart from the doctor calls me Libby, including my parents!) is sent to London to a posh cookery school in her mother’s bid to make her attractive to a ‘suitable man’! However she also wants to enjoy the swinging sixties in the big smoke!

Lizzie soon makes friends – and moves in with them rather than her wayward Aunt Gina! And the shared house in Belgravia sounds great fun.

There is a real mix of classes – which causes some stresses – and reminded me of Downton fast forwarded a few decades!

There is one ‘sex scene’ which is fairly fundamental to the entire book – but it is done with incredibly good taste – and I’d be happy for my honorary Grandmother or teenage daughter to read it (although they’d probably both think it incredibly tame! The honorary Grandmother is registered blind and so sometimes has audiobooks. She listened to ’50 Shades of Grey’ as it helped her go to sleep!!)

The story twists and turns and made me want to keep reading – in a gentle Sunday night drama kind of way. It was inoffensive and well told.

A lovely, easy read – sometimes EXACTLY what is required.

Many thanks to the published and NetGalley for my ARC. It’s out in February 2021 if you want to pre order.

Book Review: Call Me Mummy by Tina Baker

Posted on by Libby Price

“Glamorous, beautiful Mummy has everything a woman could want. Except for a daughter of her very own. So when she sees Kim – heavily pregnant, glued to her phone and ignoring her eldest child in a busy shop – she does what anyone would do. She takes her. But foul-mouthed little Tonya is not the daughter that Mummy was hoping for.
As Tonya fiercely resists Mummy’s attempts to make her into the perfect child, Kim is demonised by the media as a ‘scummy mummy’, who deserves to have her other children taken too. Haunted by memories of her own childhood and refusing to play by the media’s rules, Kim begins to spiral, turning on those who love her.
Though they are worlds apart, Mummy and Kim have more in common than they could possibly imagine. But it is five-year-old Tonya who is caught in the middle…“

I saw this book on NetGalley and it really appealed – so I requested an advance review copy, and was lucky enough to be sent one. Do not worry, though, there are no spoilers in this review!

The book is told primarily from ‘Mummy’ and Kim’s points of view – with an occasional input from Tonya or one of the other characters, or social media. The sections tend to be short – and this keeps up a real pace to the book. There don’t appear to be formal chapters either (although I was reading an advanced copy on my Kindle – so not entirely sure how different the final format would be – or if it was a printed copy).

Initially the ‘Mums’ appear very different – Kim is from a rough neighbourhood, has a drug filled past and is branded a ‘scummy mummy’ by the press – whereas ‘Mummy’ clearly has cash, Ocado deliveries, lives in a fancy house, albeit with no family or friends. However it soon becomes apparent that they both have mental health issues, and have had comparable abusive childhoods, and are perhaps more similar than they would think if you look beneath the surface.

I have to say some of the comparison reminded me of how differently the Ben Needham and Madeleine McCann missing children cases were treated in the media based upon social class. Anyway, back to the book!

The book twists and turns – and you’re really unsure how it’s going to end up. ‘Mummy’ has not got the perfect daughter she expected – and Kim’s life is completely falling apart. Whilst I’m lucky never to have had trouble conceiving, I felt this part was explored well by ‘Mummy’ (and is apparently the author’s experience too) but equally the juggling of multiple small children was also true to life.

I really liked Kim’s relationship with her friend Ayesha – it felt really ‘real’. Equally her relationship with her partner Steve was also perfectly written, if not the perfect relationship!

Whilst the storyline for half of the characters seems ‘closed’ – the very final segment definitely left it open for a sequel, and there was one massive (and massively smelly) loose end that would need tidying up which would prove very interesting!!

One other lovely thing is that 10% of the royalties for the book are going to the children’s charity Action for Children – to help children like Tonya in the future.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for my ARC – and I’d definitely recommend this when it comes out in February 2021.

Book Review: Older and Wider: A Survivor’s Guide To The Menopause by Jenny Eclair

Posted on by Libby Price

‘If you’re after an in-depth medical or psychological insight into the menopause, I’m afraid you’ve opened the wrong book – I’m not a doctor . . . However, I am a woman and I do know how it feels to be menopausal, so this book is written from experience and the heart and I hope it makes you laugh and feel better.’ JE
Older and Wider is Jenny Eclair’s hilarious, irreverent and refreshingly honest compendium of the menopause. From C for Carb-loading and G for Getting Your Shit Together to I for Invisibility and V for Vaginas, Jenny’s whistle-stop tour of the menopause in all its glory will make you realise that it really isn’t just you. Jenny will share the surprising lessons she has learnt along the way as well as her hard-won tips on the joy of cardigans, dealing with the empty nest (get a lodger) and keeping the lid on the pressure cooker of your temper (count to twenty, ten is never enough).
As Jenny says, ‘I can’t say that I’ve emerged like a beautiful butterfly from some hideous old menopausal chrysalis and it would be a lie to say that I’ve found the ‘old me’ again. But what I have found is the ‘new me’ – and you know what? I’m completely cool with that.’

At 46 I’m definitely in the peri menopausal camp (who even knew that was a thing until recently??) and so bought this book with interest of what is around the corner!

As you would expect with Jenny Eclair it is witty and laugh out loud funny at times – but also quite informative (in a non medical way).

Some of it is very relevant to me already – and some I can look forward to! Thank goodness periods are no longer an issue (honestly, my endometrial ablation was the best thing ever – and I’d highly recommend it if your child-bearing is over and you’re suffering with super heavy periods). But I can definitely agree with the leg dandruff problem!!

I think it’s great that people talk about the menopause more openly now – it’s something that 50% of the population will be personally affected by (and a large proportion of their partners will also be affected too!), so we shouldn’t be squeamish about it! This is a great ice breaker book – and makes you feel that you’re not alone if you haven’t got friends to share the gory details with.

An easy, fun, interesting read.