Review : The Idea of You by Amanda Prowse

The Very Pink Notebook is thrilled to present
The Idea of You by Amanda Prowse
Review on publication day. 
With thanks to the author for an ARC of the book.

Published by : Lake Union

21 March 2017

Copy : Paperback - Received from Author

The Blurb

With her fortieth birthday approaching, Lucy Carpenter dares to hope that she finally has it all: a wonderful new husband, Jonah, a successful career and the chance of a precious baby of her own. Life couldn’t be more perfect.

But the reality of becoming parents proves much harder than Lucy and Jonah imagined. Jonah’s love and support is unquestioning, but as Lucy struggles with work and her own failing dreams, the strain on their marriage increases. Suddenly it feels like Lucy is close to losing everything…

Heart-wrenching and poignant, this latest work by bestselling author Amanda Prowse asks the question: what does it mean to be a mother in today’s hectic world? And what if it’s asking too much to want it all?

The Very Pink Notebook Review

The Idea of You is yet another poignant and moving novel from best seller Amanda Prowse.  The beauty of this author's writing is that is so very real.  Amanda has a knack of taking an issue and pin-pointing the beating heart of it, she then writes a true and heart-rending novel around it.

This book is another case in point.  Motherhood.  This is something many people are able to take for granted.  They try for a baby, have a good pregnancy, have the baby and off they are on the road of parenthood.  But Amanda stops, with The Idea of You, to look at those not so lucky, the one's who can't just go through the natural course and rhythm of conceiving, carrying and delivering a child.  She unravels the emotional upheaval this can create, the distress and misery grief can cause when one hope after another is dashed and how this can filter out and tarnish every inch of life. 

Protagonist Lucy is in an emotional minefield throughout the course of the book.  Her longing for a child with husband Jonah threatens to overrule everything, as her heartache and sorrow of not being able to successfully carry a child becomes ever more the reality of her world.  On top of this she undertakes a stressful job, having been highly successful within her career and is trying to cope with her new role as a step-mother to a teenager girl who has issues of her own.  As a main character I did not overly warm to Lucy, but that is hardly surprising given how strung out the poor women is.  Sometimes she seems tightly wound, and that is because she is, for good reason.  Amanda has skilfully and very realistically managed to demonstrate how very good relationships can fall apart over, what may seem trivial things, but that are huge if not discussed, or if the people trying to deal with them are already so emotionally stretched they can't see the wood through the trees.  If communication breaks down, then nothing works.

This novel, sensitively written, looks at the issue of motherhood in full circle, which I really enjoyed.  Although told from the point of view of Lucy, the author has cleverly dealt with all aspects of motherhood throughout the other characters in the book with each mother in the book representing a different aspect or dilemma.  I always enjoy the pace and fluidity of this novelists work, it makes her books so easy to read and digest even though they are very often dealing with controversial and emotional subjects.

Never to be disappointed with a new novel by Amanda Prowse, The Idea of You receives a highly recommend Very Pink Notebook rating of :

2016 - Top Five Novels

2016 has seen a wealth of amazing novels published by both debut and long established authors and I feel lucky to have started this blog in the midst of such greatness.  As such it has been tricky to narrow down the large number of fantastic books to a top five, but after much internal debate it has been finalised.  So, to see out 2016, The Very Pink Notebook is proud to cite these as its top picks for this year...

FIVE 

The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies

With wonderful writing and the most beautiful and fragrant imagery, although this is a gently told novel the plot is packed with punch and body and has stayed with me.

Full review

FOUR

Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard

A gripping psychological thriller set in the muddy realms of maritime law.  Catherine Ryan Howard's fantastic novel will keep you on the edge of your seat... or life ring.

Full review

THREE

Another Love by Amanda Prowse

Chillingly real and poignant, Another Love is the story telling of Amanda Prowse at her best.  Looking at a women and her battle with alcohol and the consequences it has on everyone in her life, this is a heartfelt, moving and relatable novel.

Full review

TWO

A Suitable Lie by Michael Malone

This novel is just, brilliant.  Dark, domestic and brutal it will keep you turning the pages long into the night and make you rethink the way you think.

Full review

ONE

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

Clare Mackintosh's debut novel, psychological thriller I Let You Go, take the number one spot for The Very Pink Notebooks top five novels of 2016.  Fantastically written, with superb dialogue and descriptions and a twist you will never see coming is what makes this book impossible to put down.

Full review

To say, as a reviewer, I am looking forward to 2017 is an understatement.

Happy New Year!

Blog Tour and Review : The Food of Love by Amanda Prowse

The Very Pink Notebook is overwhelmingly thrilled to be part of Amanda Prowse's, 

The Food of Love, blog tour this week.  With much thanks to Amanda for involving me in the tour and for a copy of the book.

Published by - Lake Union Publishing

1 December 2016

Copy - ARC copy received from author

The Blurb

A loving mother. A perfect family. A shock wave that could shatter everything.

Freya Braithwaite knows she is lucky. Nineteen years of marriage to a man who still warms her soul and two beautiful teenage daughters to show for it: confident Charlotte and thoughtful Lexi. Her home is filled with love and laughter.

But when Lexi’s struggles with weight take control of her life, everything Freya once took for granted falls apart, leaving the whole family with a sense of helplessness that can only be confronted with understanding, unity and, above all, love.

In this compelling and heart-wrenching new work by bestselling author Amanda Prowse, one ordinary family tackles unexpected difficulties and discovers that love can find its way through life’s darkest moments.

The Very Pink Notebook Review

It is a lovely thing, to be asked to review a book, but when the author is one of your long time favourites it becomes quite an event.  For me, being asked to be involved in Amanda Prowse's blog tour for The Food of Love, is one of those times.

Often reviewers will say they felt a little anxious at the start of a favourite authors new book, what if it isn't as good as those that have gone before it?  I had no such concerns with this book, just from the blurb I could tell that Amanda had honed in on yet another harrowing topic, which she would raise awareness of by her tried and tested successful format of writing a novel about a women's fight for her family.

The particular fight for the protagonist in this novel, Freya, is against the illness that blights her youngest daughter, Lexi.  Anorexia.  This is not an easy book to read, there is no light-hearted streak running through it, there is no miraculous or unrealistic resolutions, it is full on with emotion and heart-ache and anguish.  But it is brilliant.  The characters are so fully formed and developed your heart feels heavy for them and you find yourself rooting for them to just stay strong, to stick together. 

For me, this book was a real eye opener.  You know the author has thoroughly researched the subject matter and novel gives a realistic impression of life for those where anorexia permeates every waking (and sleeping) moment.  It shows how long term the illness is, how hard it is to find the crux and core to it, which without knowing makes it almost impossible to start to fight it.  Although written from the view point of Freya, the mother I felt I got a really full insight into how it affected all the main characters, Lexi herself, her father, Lockie, and sister Charlotte.  The scene that made me break the barriers and shed a tear was a very moving, but simple gesture between the two sisters. 

The format Amanda has used keeps the story moving along at a good pace and, as always, the narrative and dialogue is fluent and easy to read, making the book extremely hard to put down.  It didn't quite go where I thought it was going to go when I first started reading which was a lovely surprise.

Amanda Prowse says herself, she has found her talent and that is being able to write books, very quickly.  And knowing how frequently she publishes it always amazes me just how deep and developed the characters are and how detailed and well researched the plot is for the timescale she must give herself to work to.  This book is another example of how well this is done by this author.

The last thing for me to say isn't actually to do with the plot, but I feel it deserves mention so no one misses it :   READ THE AUTHORS NOTE.   

The Food of Love of course gets a Very Pink Notebook rating of :

     

About the Author

Amanda Prowse is a bestselling novelist with an incredible 136K followers on Twitter. This is her sixteenth novel and her books have been translated into a dozen languages and regularly top bestseller charts all over the world. Amanda has been dubbed ‘The Queen of Domestic Drama’ and writes about ordinary women and their families who find their strength, courage and love tested in ways they never imagined.

Through writing The Food of Love, Amanda has come face to face with her own feelings of shame, secrecy and obsession with food. Overweight as a child and a yo-yo dieter as an adult, Amanda has struggled with body image and overeating all her life.

She now recognizes that the habits of her once anorexic mother had a profound effect on her growing up. By writing about eating disorders in The Food of Love, Amanda has faced her own food demons and has made incredible steps to correcting her unhealthy relationship with food. Since she started writing the book, Amanda has lost one and a half stone and aims to reach her target, healthy weight by 1^st December, the publication date of The Food of Love.

Follow the Tour

The tour continues tomorrow so I am passing the baton on to www.karensworld-writer.co.uk

Publication Day - The Food of Love by Amanda Prowse

The Very Pink Notebook is thrilled to congratulate Amanda Prowse on her publication day.  The new, emotional book, The Food of Love, is out now.

The blog tour kicks off today and will run throughout December :

COMING SOON : Blog Tour and Review - The Food of Love by Amanda Prowse

Review : My Husband's Wife by Amanda Prowse

Published by : Head of Zeus

14 July 2016

Copy : Reviewer purchased

The Blurb

Once a week, Rosie Tipcott counts her blessings.

She goes to sit on her favourite bench on the north Devon cliffs, and thanks her lucky stars for her wonderful husband, her mischievous young daughters, and her neat little house by the sea. She vows to dedicate every waking hour to making her family happy.

But then her husband unexpectedly leaves her for another woman and takes the children. Now she must ask the question: what is left in her life? Can Rosie find the strength to rebuild herself? More importantly, does she even want to? 

The Very Pink Notebook Review

Amanda Prowse has written yet another beautiful, moving and heartfelt novel with My Husband's Wife, making me once again think, laugh and shed a tear. 

With the most wonderful main character, Rosie Tipcott, we are taken on a true journey of the heart.  I have to say, Rosie is one of my most favourite characters from any book.  I loved her wholeheartedly.  She is so happy with her lot in life, even though she doesn't have massive riches or a fantastic glamourous job, she loves what she has and in her eyes her world is just where is should be.  How lovely and refreshing to meet anyone like that, real or fictitious!  

When the love of her life, husband and father of her two adored daughters, Phil, leaves her for a rich and highly successful women (who, of course, we hate), Rosie thinks she should question her outlook on life.  But ultimately she can't question what she loves and that was the life she had, as her husband's wife and mother to her children.  That was her dream and she achieved it.  Amanda has managed to really capture the true feelings of anguish and torment that Rosie endures in the months and all that transpires with Phil and his new mistress, with real finesse.   

Many might question why this would be enough for a person, being a wife and mother - is it realistic someone would be like that?  But Rosie didn't have that life growing up.  Her mother left when she was born and she was raised by a good and decent single parent father.  After her husband leaves, and she finds herself in receipt of a letter her mother wrote when she left, Rosie starts to see similarities in her mother and fathers relationship and her own with Phil and she is forced to re-evaluate the way she has always viewed her past, and look at her childhood more closely. 

The relationship Rosie has with her father and step-mother is an amicable one and it is quite moving how the revelation of some truths helps to rebuild it to something more between them all.  One particular gesture by her step-mother at the end of the book did actually make me cry.

Although a deeply emotion book it was never too intense or hard going and had some brilliant scenes of comedy - particularly the opening scene with her daughters, Naomi and Leona.  It has been written with a light hand and I flew through it, enjoying every minute I spent with Rosie in her world.  Even in some of the most dramatic scenes for Rosie, there was a hint of humour (I will never carry a bowl of coleslaw to a party...) and that made her even more relatable and real.  The other characters within the book were also well portrayed and I loved how some of them behaved in the complete opposite way to which I was expecting them too. 

All of this goes on in the small sea-side town of Woolacombe.  With brilliant and vivid imagery I could practically taste the salt on my lips and the wind blustering through my hair up on Rosie's bench.  I felt the location matched the character of Rosie perfectly.  Sitting snuggled in the coast line of Devon is it unassuming and content, like Rosie, and blossoms in the summer with the influx of tourists, it lighting up with excitement when it has people to entertain.  For Rosie, her world lit up whenever she was with her family, they are her tourists.  During the cold season the town still sits and waits, the beauty the same, waiting, waiting for the tourists again to arrive.       

Rosie was a character I really rooted for and I was so happy with the ending, it was a perfect fit for her.

The beautiful My Husband's Wife by Amanda Prowse receives :

    

Review : Another Love by Amanda Prowse

Published by : Head of Zeus

01 April 2016

Copy : Hardback - Reviewer purchase

The Blurb

In the early years, she was happy. Romilly had worked hard for her stunning, modern house in one of Bristol's most fashionable suburbs. She adored her gorgeous, gap-toothed daughter and her kind and handsome husband. Sure, life was sometimes exhausting - but nothing that a large glass of wine at the end of the day couldn't fix. But then, as deep-buried insecurities surfaced, everything started to unravel. A glass of wine became a bottle; one bottle became two. Once, Romilly's family were everything to her. Now, after years of hiding the drinking, she must finally admit that she has found another love...

The Very Pink Notebook Review

Amanda's statement 'I write stories for women about women.' was what first drew me to her books.  I am yet to be disappointed in reading one of her novels because that statement could not be more true.  Whenever a new Amanda Prowse book comes out I can not wait to find out what thread the story is going to weave around, but one thing is always guaranteed; it is going to be emotional.  Another Love is no different.

Focusing on the world of Romilly, her husband David and daughter Celeste I immediately loved this family.  Amanda has created a family we all know, they are in love, they work hard in their professional careers to provide a beautiful home and a stable life to their much loved child, daughter Celeste.  But, as with most relationships, you never know what really goes on behind closed doors.

Romilly has an addiction, one that waggles itself underneath the noses of so many on a daily basis but that they control.  But for Romilly that addiction slowly turns itself into an illness, it snakes inside of her and takes hold so tightly she gives herself up to it - Romilly is an alcoholic.

This novel takes us through the torrent of emotions of being an alcoholic, via Romilly's narration and also on the flip side through what it is like for those who find themselves living in a home with someone who has an addiction - in this case via daughter Celeste.  I loved the chapters being written from the two viewpoints, even though sometimes it did leave me quite emotionally drained.

It was quite alarming, how Romilly's addiction grew from simple and to be honest quite, run of the mill, random binge drink sessions in University (I think the majority of drinkers have all done that in the past), to the glass of wine looked forward to at the end of the work day with dinner.  How quickly the glass turned to half a bottle and then a bottle.  How the drink with dinner turned into a little afternoon tipple.  I felt sad at those people in Romilly's life who thought it was all fun and games to encourage her to drink, really for their own amusement - whether they realised or not they were pushing her further into alcoholism I am not sure.

I didn't know how far into this illness Romilly would find herself, but Amanda has not held back and we are taken as far as we can go, I am sure all screaming for her to stop in our head, but knowing and understanding that she will not.  I like that Amanda did not do it by halves, it made it feel all the more real, which is one of this authors real talents as a writer, she is not afraid, she does not hold back.  The characters are flawed and those flaws are the basis for her brilliant novels.

I liked that the alcoholic in this novel was Romilly and not David.  It would have been easy to have made the female the one left picking up the pieces, fighting to keep the family together, to keep her daughter shielded.  It was - I think - a fresh take, a more unique story this way.  Another Love is a perfect title for this novel.

As a big fan of Amanda Prowse and her work I am always a little tentative when starting a new novel, hoping it will be as good as previous.  There was no disappointment with this book.

Another Love gets a Very Pink Notebook rating of :