I enjoyed this book so much. Prickly Susan Green was right up my street - a character I can certainly identify with! Fans of Eleanor Oliphant will love The Cactus. Highly recommended.

A very entertaining read with some laugh out loud moments. I would definitely recommend this book

Heartfelt read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It shows Susan's life which is turned upside down by the death of her mum. This book goes through every emotion.
Great book.
Thank you to both publisher's John Murray press and netgalley for the ARC. In exchange for my unbiased review.

A delightful book that sees the main character Susan bloom from a prickly, opinionated loner to a who has few friends, to a first time mother at 45, taking a chance on someone she would once have considered completely incompatible. I loved it.

I haven't read the other books that are claimed to be similar to this one, so was reading it and judging it stand alone. I enjoyed the book and found Susan a really interesting character, I particularly enjoyed the way she spoke the harsh honest truth many of us hold back from spouting. She has very low emotional intelligence and is quite self centred for the majority of the book, she isn't always easy to warm to but I still found my self rooting for her. This book was a nice refreshing change from the plethora of chick lit and crime thrillers I normally end up with and was certainly worth the time invested reading it.

Going by the description and the author comparisons I thought I was really going to enjoy this book.

How wrong was I.

Now don't misunderstand me, the story was ok and the writing was alright, dry witted/sarcastic which is normally the sort of thing that I like but for some reason this novel just didn't do it for me.

I had to keep picking it up and each time not getting very far, taking me a lot longer than it usually would to complete a tale like this.

The story felt like it could have been wrapped up a lot quicker, it just seemed to take forever to get to the point.

There were a couple of secrets which I guessed early on so I guess there was no real urgency to keep reading.

The Cactus is a book that should be funny but just wasn't. Perhaps I was just the wrong audience for this story.

I was emailed about this book and it suggested it would be suitable for fans of Eleanor Oliphant so figured it might be something I would enjoy! Susan definitely has a lot of social issues and is a very literal person. She's 45 and her mother has just died. Never one for relationships, Susan has an 'agreement' with a man she met years ago and she falls pregnant but doesn't need him financially or emotionally. I can definitely see the comparisons with Eleanor from Susan's demeanour but otherwise, this is a very different book. I read it really quickly as I found it well written and engaging throughout.

This is a super book, I enjoyed every page. I have not read the much described 'Eleanor Oliphant' so had no comparisons to make.
Susan is indeed a cactus, prickly, self absorbed and unbelievably self centred. She has a huge problem to solve on her mother's death when she is told that her somewaht feckless brother has been left a life interest in the house. She goes through so many avenues trying to get hwhat she sees as her fair share.
All the time we are seeing new sides to her, some of the prickles fall off, new thoughts emerge.
I'd love to read more from this author.
Thanks to Net Galley for a review copy.

An enjoyable entertaining read. I found the use of “Mom” instead of “Mum” irritating as the book is set in Birmingham and so obviously English in everything other way. Apart from that I thought it was well written and moves at a satisfying pace.
I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest unbiased review

What a refreshing book this was to read, I couldn't put it down. Imagine someone who looks like Kylie Minogue but has the personality of a cactus, in keeping with the plants she loves. The first half was fabulous, oh how we wished we could think and say some of the wonderful reproaches that the cactus chimed in response to everyday people at her work, social life and family, not to mention the poor souls she encountered in everyday life.. The second half did slide a bit into chic lit but was still totally enjoyable. I really loved this book and would very much look forward to more by this author although I think her prickly heroine may be unique, so a follow on would be perfect.

I noted the comparison to “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman and also the similar characteristics of the main player in Graeme Simsion’s “Rosie” books. For anyone who enjoyed those books this first effort by Sarah Haywood will prove rewarding.
It does seem to take a little time to get going but the novel has some interesting twists as Susan Green goes on a journey of discovery both in terms of her own history and of unplanned motherhood.
The ending leaves a lot of hope in the air for a number of relationships and I will watch out for further books by the author.
This book was provided as an advance copy by the publisher in return for an honest review.
Note :
I intend to provide the above review on Amazon when the book is released on 04 Oct 2018

I LOVED this book!! Susan lives a mostly solitary life and is fastidious about her work.. Her life suddenly takes a turn when she has to deal with the aftermath of her mother's death and navigate family politics. I would love to read more by this author and was sad to finish this book. Highly recommended. Thanks NetGalley!

I enjoyed reading this book. It was amusing at times, sad at others, and the characters were well drawn.

However (rightly or wrongly) some of the main character's attributes and behaviours reminded me of Eleanor (of "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine") - and although I didn't warm to Susan in the same way as I warmed to Eleanor, I would still recommend this as an enjoyable and absorbing read.

My thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an ARC in return for my honest review.

I was looking forward to reading this due to the hype about it being ‘the next Eleanor Oliphant’ which is my favourite book that I have read so far this year. Unfortunately, the similarities between the two books turned out to be the downfall of ‘The Cactus’ for me. I felt like I was reading a second rate Eleanor Oliphant and for that reason, I just couldn’t get on with the book and actually DNF at 25%. I really wanted to like this and maybe if I hadn’t read and absolutely adored Eleanor Oliphant than perhaps my opinion would have been different. But for me this is just a pale imitation of Eleanor Oliphant.

This is a heartwarming tale filled with very rich and dynamic characters.
As someone who lives in Birmingham I almost felt as though this story was happening down the street from me which only increased how invested i was in it.
This story is well paced and well written and i think it will appeal to many people.

Susan is an odd character. She keeps people at an arm’s length and likes her life to run like clockwork.

We learn through the book about Susan growing up, her relationships with people.

The story meandered a little at times and I found Susan somewhat frustrating - people seemed overly tolerant of her and she was somewhat rude at times.

One thing that really did annoy me was the constant use of “mom” instead of “mum”

Thank You Netgalley and Two Roads got the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a lovely read. Difficult in places, I think I identified with Susan a bit too much in some ways! I'm sure there will be discussion on what has made her how she is, to me she's just Susan, Shy, prickly, likes to keep to herself. She likes to keep her distance even in relationships, but how much of that is a self defence mechanism given her experience of her parents' relationships is a point to speculate. Difficult relationships all round, from growing up with an alcoholic father, and a brother with whom she clearly didn't get on, and a former fiance, a story which emerges over time. Can Susan and her brother Ed sort out their problems, now they are the only family each other has? Ever suspicious, Susan can't trust anyone. She's never really had friends, so how will she get on with the seemingly well meaning intervention by Ed's friend Rob. And having her neighbour decide they are now best buddies. It's a minefield of relationships for someone who has lived her life for the first 45 years in her own space. Somehow, being pregnant makes you public property, and it's interesting to see how Susan copes. I was pulled into Susan's world from the beginning, and so wished for a happy outcome. A great read with great new characters. #cactus #netgalley

I love this book! I read this so fast, within a day and loved the characters and the style of writing. I can see why this is compared to The Rosie Project - in a good way! A brilliant book.

Thank you to NetGalley, John Murray Press and Sarah Haywood for the chance to read this book.

“It’s never too late to bloom….”

People aren’t sure what to make of Susan Green - family and colleagues find her prickly and hard to understand, but Susan makes perfect sense to herself, and that’s all she needs.

Susan Green is a strange character. She only buys charcoal, grey or black clothes, is often found writing letters or emails of complaint , will bring up ideas for timesaving with her manager so often that she jokes Susan save time by having an allotted time each month to raise these things, she tends to her collection of cacti with precision each day and never takes holidays. She doesn’t have any friends, has no interest in socialising with her colleagues, has limited and regimented contact with her family and has created a life where she is so independent and isolated in order to avoid being hurt. But there is a problem - Susan is going to be a mother. This unplanned event in her carefully controlled life leaves her reeling and unsure, not knowing what she will do first about the pregnancy and then when the baby is born.

I loved the opening paragraph and how it gave an immediate sense of Susan’s nature. You see her detachment and how she endeavours to act in a proper way whatever the circumstances when she has a seemingly emotionless response to the news of her mother’s death. She is in fact upset, but views her ability to conceal her feelings from others is a talent, tears as not of any help and something she certainly doesn’t intend to shed in front of her brother Edward, who she has an intense disliking for.

When she arrives in Birmingham for her mother’s funeral she is shocked and appalled to hear that her mother wrote a will just weeks before her death in which she gives Edward the right to live in the house for as long as he wants so it will only be sold upon him leaving or his death. Susan is immediately convinced there is foul play involved as there’s no way her mother would do such a thing without force. Intent on proving this she embarks on taking the case to court and gaining her rightful, and needed, inheritance, not realising this will also take her on a journey of self discovery as she strips away the secrets she never knew were hidden from her and finds things she never expected to learn.

I enjoyed this often funny and heartwarming book but did find it slow at times and that both the character and story could be a little too bland. A lot of the humour for me was in how little self awareness she actually had in some situations and in her complete lack of understanding about children and parenting. The fact that she is very sure of her child being as sensible and understanding of the right way things should be done as she is, and that anything else can be simply and calmly explained to the child lead to some wonderfully amusing scenes. It wasn’t easy to warm to Susan, although as she became less of a frosty personality and her impending motherhood made her grow as a person, I took to her more and was rooting for her finding the ending she wanted. Another thing I liked about this book was that even though it wasn’t written in diary form it was still narrated as if she was talking to the directly to the reader.

Overall this was an amusing, fun and at times emotional debut . It will inevitably be compared to Eleanor Oliphant but is a very different book in a lot of ways. I would recommend this to any lovers of chick lit and adult fiction .

Susan Green is a 45 year old woman, who lives a very independent and routined life. I think she has aspergers as everything about her is very ordered and precise and she has little in the way of social skills.
She finds herself unexpectedly pregnant while having to deal with her mother's will, which has been written in her brother's favour. She tries to deal with these challenges in her usual pragmatic way, but unexpectedly starts to experience new emotions and forge new friendships.

She is initially a prickly (hence the title), unlikeable character, but as her pregnancy progresses and we learn about her upbringing, her vulnerability becomes apparent. By the end of the book, I felt a lot more fondness towards her.

A very enjoyable book, well deserving 4.5/5. My only criticism, as has been mentioned by other reviewers, is the Americanised use of Mom rather than Mum or Mam, but overall, it is a book well worth reading.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.