Another run of the mill story about a woman seeming to have it all, but still wanting more. Enjoyable enough if a bit predictable in places, and not a book I would have chosen to read. However did a read and review for NetGalley.

This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

Didn’t really enjoy this as much as I thought I would. Sometimes the story was all over the place and I couldn’t really work out why Olivia cheated when she was so in love with Felix. It did get better towards the end but just didn’t grip me at at the start at all. Three stars

Trying was not necessarily what I expected.

It does - as expected - centre around a couple (Olivia and Felix) who are struggling to conceive. However it feels like the bulk of the book is not really about that but about their relationship and its challenges - which is of course not unconnected to the fertility issues.

However while I enjoyed Olivia’s voice I struggled to understand her behaviour at times, particularly when it came to her, um, dalliance with her boss. (The fact that he’s apparently exceptionally good-looking isn’t really an adequate excuse.)

While I could relate to Olivia’s fertility troubles, somehow I never really got a sense from her of desperate yearning for a baby. In fact she seemed fairly ambivalent in many ways and it felt like
extramarital shenanigans probably should have been a bit lower on the agenda, in the circumstances.

The book is very honest about sex - the good, the bad, the extremely ill-advised and the just plain awful - and indeed other things and it’s definitely very readable. I liked the lack of an easy resolution, too.

Have tissues at the ready when reading this book. It touches your heart. I got quite emotional when reading this book as I could empathize with Olivia and they want and trying for a baby.
Watching Olivia trying to juggle trying for a baby with trying to get promoted. It is raw in its writing and concept -yet it does have an element of humour to it also.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Hodder&Soughton for giving me the opportunity to read ’Trying’ in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

An interesting topic, well covered, for a chick lit book. A few laugh out loud moments, as well as possibly a couple of tears

This book covered a difficult topic and whilst I know it wouldn't be for everyone I loved it and devoured it in two days. I found the characters to be thoughtfully planned and revelled in their sense of humour. The topic was interesting and I enjoyed hearing the positives times and well as the sad times in their journey. I would recommend this book.

The voice wasn't absorbing enough to justify the lack of plot. I wanted more. More guts, more feel, more reality. But it just felt repetitive and uninspired.

I could relate to the subject of this book as I have tried to have children, but with no luck. Its a funny, well written book, which takes the weight from the actual subject in hand. Highly recommend

Funny, honest and well-observed but not my sort of book

Olivia and Felix have been happily married for several years. For the past 18 months, however, their married life has been overtaken by trying unsuccessfully to have a baby. Despite rigidly planning and preparing, repeated lack of success is taking a toll on the couple’s life and their marriage. As well as this, Olivia is also struggling at work trying to get a promotion and dealing with pressure from her family and the fact that all her friends and colleagues around her seem able to get pregnant repeatedly without difficulty. As time ticks on, the couple’s relationship begins to suffer and Olivia begins to consider what she really wants from her life.

This was a well-written story that handles quite a difficult subject in a way that is sensitive and fairly honest. As it is written in the first person, Olivia’s thoughts are brutally honest, and whilst this does make her come across as quite selfish at times (such as when she feels angry and jealous of her friend who falls pregnant and then miscarries, as this at least shows that she, unlike Olivia herself, can get pregnant), it allows for a real and candid look at the difficulties faced by women struggling with potential infertility. Whilst I am (fortunately) still a long way from worrying about having children myself, concern about fertility will be a relatable concept for many readers, and the author does a good job of tackling it without being either too blasé or too bleak about the matter. There were also several funny moments throughout the book and the author does a good job of balancing the humorous moments with the more sensitive ones.

Unfortunately, there were a few things that frustrated me about this story. I really didn’t get on with Olivia as a character and, possibly because of the unaltered presentation of her innermost thoughts, found her quite selfish and shallow. She seemed very immature for 34, constantly obsessing over social media and her own status amongst her friends and colleagues, and often behaving very selfishly towards her supposed friends. There were several times in the book where her desire for a baby seemed to only exist because she could then put pictures of it up on Instagram and increase her own social status amongst her friendship groups. It also annoyed me that, despite apparently being ‘desperate’ to conceive, neither Olivia nor Felix seemed willing to do anything to increase their chances – both continue to drink alcohol, and don’t even see a doctor until halfway through the book, which irritated me immensely as referral for infertility investigation can begin after 1 year of trying for a baby in the UK. Whilst I understand that some people may not want to deal with the possibility that something may be medically wrong, it still frustrated me and the reluctance to do something that might actually help deal with their problems only increased my dislike of the characters.

Overall, this was an amusing easy read but the subject matter and the characters just didn’t work for me. I would, however, consider reading more by this author, as her writing style was engaging and funny.

Daenerys

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

My next #minibookreview 18 is Trying by Emily Phillips, which is the story of a couple trying to have a baby. It’s a lighthearted tackling of a serious issue that is wittily written with good characters - but it will probably appeal more to a slightly older audience than me.
I’m *obviously* not worried about my fertility as a woman yet (despite the scaremongering stories, I’ve got plenty else to be getting on with) but nevertheless it was interesting to explore this topic through fiction. The characters were funny (although obviously baby-obsessed) and far from perfect, which I appreciated as it made the story much more entertaining. A solid but not astounding debut novel from Emily Phillips.

Moving, hilarious and bittersweet. Will resonate with anyone who's ever "tried" and failed or succeeded to get pregnant.

A funny, deep, heartwarming yet bittersweet book,about Olivia and felix and their quest to get pregnant. Extremely true to life with all its ups and downs and demands.

Frothy novel about the stress of trying to get pregnant. It does get serious in patches but somehow fails to engage.

I have to admit when I saw this and heard all the rave reviews I was excited but a little part of me was wondering if it was for me. In reading you're willing to put yourself into other people's shoes, walk along with them, whatever way the author leads you, but you do worry when it's totally comfort zone, and something you haven't had to deal with, whether you can be impartial. Turns out this wasn't the problem I had with this book, which was a bumpy ride for me, ups and downs and all in between. But, as they say, I digress.

Olivia and Felix are desperate, obsessed with having a baby. The book opens with an eye opener of a sex scene that had me almost snorting and I settled in, happy out. I loved that both of them want the baby so much, as so often the tale is told of the woman thinking about it non stop and the man saying 'enough.' None of that here, and it endeared me to Felix. I'm afraid then the book kind of dropped for me. The book itself was a bit too wordy for me and so people who enjoy something a bit more literary will like this, although it does ease up a lot too, giving us a nice romantic comedy element. We followed Olivia as she struggles, along with other friends who were trying to conceive, watching people around her get pregnant with ease. My biggest issue, I think, was with the group of people I was watching. There was a lot of pretentiousness in the book for me, and this, on top of the bitterness which in all fairness was to be expected given the subject matter, left me reading extremely passively, sometimes pushing myself on. And I think that was the main problem. I just couldn't connect with anyone, finding them all in a different word in terms of their behaviour and it made me feel old (I'm 37), or past it or disconnected or something!

It picked up for me in places, so that I was willing them on as a couple, and I laughed a fair bit throughout, but then my lows, including struggling to connect with Olivia's work colleagues and at times her, were very low. Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for this book in return for an honest review.

Rating: Unfortunately a 3/5

All in all, I enjoyed this book. I've been in the mood for a certain kind of funny/honest stories about being a grown-up in London lately and this certainly does tick the box.

There are some hilarious truths being told here. I completely understand the searing jealousy you feel for your friends when they've 'achieved' something that you've been trying to. It's selfish and awful, but you can't help what you feel. You want to be happy for them, but deep down, you're really not. Liv's thoughts have no filter and it's really refreshing. She's thinking those things you're too scared to.

Mainly though, trying is trying; something not right can fracture even the strongest of marriages. The book doesn't shy away from infidelity, but doesn't paint it out to be a pretty picture. It's messy and angry and it happens.

I wasn't terribly impressed by the cinema-style rushed ending. The cover, I feel, is a little mismatched to the style of writing within. Also, I read it quite soon after Holly Bourne's wonderful 'How Do You Like Me Now?', it just didn't stack up. However, I did enjoy it and it had me laughing quite a few times. I really want to HYGGE my house.

I am so sorry. I could not make myself finish this book.

This book was just kind of a mess. At the beginning, I was anticipating it being a hybrid of Bridget Jones or a Sophie Kinsella novel, but there seemed to be no structure towards what was going on. I find it difficult to connect with a white woman in London trying to have a baby, particularly when that's the only thing that's going on during this entire novel. I just felt so bored by it. It's in need of a good edit, I think.

A story of a couple trying for a baby, and what this does to their relationship.

This is the debut novel by Grazia magazine's Features Director, Emily Phillips. In interviews she has been open about her struggle to conceive a baby and, as she put it: "to channel my emotions, I wrote a book, processing the years of dismay into a comedy called Trying."

In Trying we meet Olivia and Felix - a married couple in their early 30s who want a baby. However, they've been trying for over 18 months and the pressure is getting to them. They use apps to calculate Olivia's most fertile days and have sex with military precision (which takes the fun out of it somewhat) in their attempt to get pregnant. They have successful, but stressful careers (Olivia is a marketing manager at a very on-trend Swedish company, HYGGE, and Felix is a  football agent) and coupled with family commitments and friends that seemingly pop out babies with ease, they soon find that life in general is making things difficult for them and their relationship is taking the hit. In Olivia's case, added stress comes in the form of her gorgeous Scandinavian boss that she's finding hard to resist...

This book delicately portrays the anguish of a couple who desperately want a baby and what this struggle can do to an otherwise strong relationship. It also looks at other issues people face to have children including: IVF, miscarriage, adoption and post-natal depression. All of these topics are approached with sensitivity and make the important point that in this social media obsessed era, people only ever present an idealised version of themselves to the world, yet behind the scenes, so many are actually struggling.

Despite the serious subject matter, Trying is funny and very easy-to-read, with a chatty, friendly tone. Told in the first-person by Olivia, we get to know her well - she struck me as a younger, more stylish, slightly more self-aware Bridget Jones. I don't mean that as a negative though, I enjoyed reading the Bridget books back in the day! There are one or two plot moments that were maybe a little too Bridget - a fisticuffs fight over Olivia for example, but it's also peppered with brilliant pop-culture references, my favourite being Felix and Olivia's cats named Bret and Jemaine after (comedy/singing duo) Flight of the Conchords.. There's a nod to the rise in popularity of mum bloggers and even Brexit gets a mention. It was refreshing to read a book that is set so much in the present day.

Trying tells a moving story - even more so knowing it has a biographical basis - and addresses what can be a heartbreaking issue in a light-hearted, engaging way. Olivia is the star of this read; she is a warm, relatable character you could easily be friends with, who is just trying to make sense of all areas of her life - she makes mistakes and has her flaws, but don't we all?