Time Out
Blurb
‘It’s just a phase,’ they said. ‘These are the happiest years of your life,’ they said…
Mother of one and professional writer Saoirse (pronounced Seersha, not Searcy – thanks a bunch Game of Thrones!) is still adjusting to the demands of motherhood, four years after the birth of her daughter, Anna.
Living in the claustrophobic London suburb of Woodvale, and being surrounded by passive-aggressive mum-wars, isn’t helping. Neither is her increasingly pent-up anger at her once-perfect husband. Her only comrade in arms, best friend Bea, is the one thing keeping her sane.
When Saoirse’s agent asks her to pitch for a book, she is horrified to discover the topic is motherhood. How can she possibly write a ‘warts and all’ account of being a mother without giving away what it’s really like?
Laugh-out-loud funny, painfully well-observed, but with an unmistakable warmth and unforgettable characters, this is the perfect antidote to all those parenting bibles that bear absolutely no relation to real life. The novel may or may not have been inspired by real life…
This was such a different book filled with giggles and an honest view of the demands of parenting. It was so much more than this, too. There are fantastic characters, friendships and relationships and there are plenty of challenges for them to face along the way..
I loved that this wasn’t a book trying to convince us that motherhood is easy and picture perfect. It shows with brutal honesty how lonely it can be after having a child and the importance of having a good support network of friends and family. It also showed the “perfect” mums in group chats, who seem to be able to do everything right with their child and spend their time making unwanted suggestions to other new parents. Despite their ability to look perfect, there are cracks in everyone.
This was a brilliant book, which managed to combine the pressure on parents in society along with the competitive nature of social media driven mums. It showed that children can impact marriages in ways the parents never thought it would. Nobody ever has life completely together and everyone in this story is flawed in some way.
The only flaw I had with the book was that the protagonist felt a little bit flat and one-dimensional. She seemed to only care about herself and her child throughout the book and didn’t stop for a second to think of other people’s feelings. If she spoke to people and thought outside of her self, she would have sorted her problems much sooner.
A refreshing read with a valuable message as well as lots of laughs. I hope to read more by Emma Murray in the future.
Purchase Link – https://amzn.to/2AedWSH
Author Bio –
Emma Murray is originally from Co. Dublin and moved to London in her early twenties. After a successful career as a ghostwriter, she felt it was high time she fulfilled her childhood dream to write fiction.
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