Liked the way people's lives 'crossed paths'. How appearances can be deceptive, never judge a book by it's cover. Does anybody have it all?

Having loved Dawn O'Porter's novel The Cows, I was ecstatic to be invited to read So Lucky. Dawn's novels are so beautifully written, with great, sometimes flawed and thoroughly relatable characters.

So Lucky focuses on two main characters; single mum Ruby, who's trying hard to keep it together with work and parenting her sometimes difficult young daughter. Ruby's work involves retouching the photos of celebrities, airbrushing away their apparent imperfections. Being body conscious herself and dreaming of having any body but her own, Ruby can't help but feel terrible at what she does - but she needs to pay the bills.

Meanwhile, Beth is trying to deal with the realities of life and parenting her newborn baby. And there's Lauren - famous Instagrammer who has it all. Living the perfect life seems easy for Lauren - at least on social media. Problems are lurking behind the scenes, and Lauren is trapped, trying to keep her life afloat and picture-perfect, even when he marriage might be in danger.

So Lucky explores the realities of life in the age of social media, and the pressure on women to 'have it all'. This is a wonderfully compelling, real and often brilliantly blunt book that every woman should read.

I really enjoyed reading Dawn O'Porter's previous book, The Cows, and so was very much looking forward to reading this one. Unfortunately, it did not seem to have the same impact for me and did not make me laugh, merely smile from time to time. I liked the irony and the way the individual stories melded, could willingly have throttled a couple of the participants and smacked the legs of another.

If you have not read either of these and like quirky stories about the way women react/interact with each other and the world at large, go read both of these books.

Overall, I did enjoy the book and its quirkiness and will read the next one too. You may very well feel that this review is a bit masculine and you would be correct; I am male!

I often write off celebrity authors and Dawn O'Porter has proved that I am completely wrong for doing so.

This book works on so many levels, you get the chick-lit, sisterhood, women looking out for women and being unstoppable bit, you get the marriage and parenthood journey of three very different families, and then we really explore what happens when you keep blurring of lines between reality and what we want people to believe about us both in our online personas and in our daily life. Sounds heavy, right? But Dawn has made 3 fantastic and interesting characters (4 if you count Risky and I adored her) that take you through the story and keep you very entertained along the way. I'm often the type of reader who dislikes the female characters for no real reason but these ones shone for me. All of them are SO well written and relatable, even as a late-twenties-child-free-unmarried woman myself. I felt like I was going to leave my house and bump into Ruby or open social media and see posts from Lauren. They felt so real and I cared about them. I genuinely wanted a happy ending for everybody.

The plot is based on a simple idea that snowballs into something completely different and compelling. It's a chunky book at 400 pages but I flew through it. Theres enough going on in the book that I would consider re-reading it too which is super rare for me and this genre. Chapters alternate POV between two of the leading ladies and was brilliantly paced throughout the book. I laughed, I cried a little bit and I throughly enjoyed reading this book from start to finish. 5/5.

Enjoyed this book a lot/ I've read a couple of other books that Dawn has written and this lives up to my experience of those, would recommend!

Really enjoyed this one. Four seemingly unrelated and very different women whose stories intertwine in a funny, sometimes painful, often touching, story which builds to a wonderful crescendo of female support, self discovery and u likely friendship. Some genuine laugh out loud moments interspersed with bits that made me cringe and also want to weep for our heroines. A great story, would highly recommend!

I've not read any of Dawn's books previously, so didn't really know what to expect of this one.

I was so lucky to have been able to read this advance copy!

The main characters in the book are "real". There was no perfect girl being swept off her feet by the knight in shining armour - this was a story of real insecurities, hang-ups and the pressure of living the perfect life.... but not in a depressing way! This book was full of humour, laughter and positivity. I loved it.

Thank you Dawn for writing such an unflinchingly honest book about the best and worst things people can do to themselves and each other.

I laughed and I cried and I read some parts through squinted eyes. This book was everything I didn’t know I needed. I’ll be thinking about these women for a long time.

So Lucky is an “up yours” to society and a love letter to women. I feel seen.

This book was funny, intriguing and had some unexpected twists. There were a few crude parts that O’Porter was brave to include but they added to the reality of knowing the female reading audience.

This book is a work of art, the subjects covered range from, infidelity to self awareness mixed with traumatic childhoods and health conditions rarely explored.
The women in this book are not the run away heroines from the off, but that's not the point. It's not about being a hero, it's living in the 21st century with baggage, issues and wayward relations... Real life. I loved reading this book and will read it again, purely the enjoy the life lessons within the writing. Dawn has created a character for every women, any woman or man reading this will see some of themselves in one of these women or men and that is pure genius writing. In my top 5 of Best Read in 2019
#dawnoporter #solucky #NetGalley #bookreview #bestin2019 #MUSTread

After reading and loving The Cows by Dawn O'Porter I feel 'So Lucky' to have read an early release of this book.

This is a really up to date, sign of the times story is about the grass being greener and not believing everything you see on social media. I loved it!

Being a huge fan of Dawn O'Porter's previous work, I was over the moon to receive an ARC copy of 'So Lucky'

So Lucky, is told from 3 POV; Beth & Ruby predominantly, with snippets of Lauren told via her Instagram feed. The alternative viewpoints make this an enjoyable read, as it keeps the pace of the book going.

Ruby & Beth are both loveable characters; Beth is a full time working Mum, returning to work when her son was just 4 Months old, due to planning a celebrity wedding. She appears to have it all on the outside, but problems with her husband lead Beth to take action in ways you wouldn't expect. Ruby is also a working Mum, to 3 1/2 Year old Bonnie. Ruby suffers from a condition, which we learn about throughout the book, and this was prevalent to her character throughout. I initially found Ruby very difficult to warm too, she's presented as quite a cold character, depicted through her relationship with her daughter. However, as more of the story unfolded she became my favourite character.

There were parts of the story that I feel could have been improved slightly. Mainly the character of Bonnie. Despite being 3 1/2 she's almost presented like an adult. The language, personality of the character were beyond her years which was a shame as the other characters were so well formed. My only other drawback to the book was the culmination of the book. I feel the ending may have been a little rushed, as i'm left with a few unanswered questions. I'm secretly hoping that it's due to a follow up book!!

Overall a brilliant read, which I very much enjoyed! Thank you so much Netgalley for allowing me to read this ARC of So Lucky.

Great book, devoured it in one day. Enjoyed Ruby and Beth and Lauren too. Loved Risky and Tommy, so many fab characters and enjoyed how they all knitted together come the wedding. Story was great and I was sorry when it ended!

I loved The Cows, so I was thrilled to be invited to read Dawn O’Porter’s new book, and it was indeed a fantastic read.

Ruby struggles both with her three-year-old daughter Bonnie, who she finds difficult to manage, and with a physical condition which she finds deeply shaming and isolating. New mother Beth - in a reversal of stereotype - can’t deal with her husband’s lack of interest in sex (though their problems clearly run deeper). And “social media influencer” Lauren, about to be married to celebrity entrepreneur Gavin, shows off her Instagram-perfect life and body to adoring fans, but the rumours about her fiancé just won’t go away.

All are involved in different ways in selling images of perfection. Ruby earns her living - well aware of the ironies and dodgy ethics - by digitally altering photographs to make women appear flawless; Lauren portrays a carefully curated image of her perfect life and gorgeous self on social media; Beth and her young assistant, the strangely named Risky, plan perfect weddings for the rich and famous (and Beth has an apparently enviable marriage of her own).

This book is spot on in so many ways, from swipes at celebrities who express “fashionable” mental health issues and “keeping it real” in terms of body image while constantly portraying unrealistically perfect lives and bodies, to Beth’s assistant’s well meant and sincerely held but sometimes naive conceptions of feminism.

Ultimately it’s about accepting and making visible - literally, in some cases - what lies beneath the surface, and ends with the deceptively simple question: “Who are you?”.

I really enjoyed this book, although it wasn’t quite what I was expecting – in a good way. It is funny, and warmly written, as you would expect, but there’s a lot more to it. The two main female characters are complicated and engaging, and throughout the book both women struggle to understand themselves. At first glance it could seem a frivolous book - it’s about wedding planners and instagram stars and photo retouchers - but the underlying theme that really impressed me is that no matter who they are, time and time again, women are reduced to and treated as bodies, by society, by men, by each other and by themselves. It gave the book a cohesion and core that I think worked really well.

And it had some pretty hilarious bits too.

I was really excited for this release having read the Cows, and I wasn’t disappointed. Read it in about 5 hours, so relatable and engaging, and there was some decent laugh out loud moments. Best summer read so far this year and can’t wait to see what else Dawn O’Porter has in her!

This is Dawn O’Porter’s third fiction novel after her debut Paper Aeroplanes in 2013 and The Cows in 2016. She’s really active on social media, especially Instagram, and has contributed/edited/written about loads of things, usually around women/feminism/image etc.

The novel is told in a sort of mainly first person/third person style, with either Ruby or Beth taking a chapter, pretty much alternately. Ruby is a single mother struggling to deal with her toddler, Bonnie, and her debilitating condition which sees her dressed head to toe in velvet outfits she makes herself. Beth is juggling new motherhood and her career as a wedding planner, managing the event of the year in the form of an exclusive, expensive celebrity wedding.

While I definitely enjoyed this, there were a few things that rankled a bit. The biggest thing for me was that it felt like the pacing of the narrative was a bit off – the first 2/3 seemed to be hopping back and forth between Ruby and Beth as they dealt with their respective struggles, without really going anywhere, or at least, with quite a lot of repetition. That meant, then, that the action packed chapters all seemed to be at the end, as the writing accelerated towards the climax(es). A bit like watching any episode of Lost, it felt like it ticked along nicely and then was really exciting, and having the majority of the action at the end then felt like it was really exciting for the whole book.

The split narrators were quite difficult to differentiate, sometimes, and I found myself checking the name at the top of the page on a few different occasions. It was strange as the characters themselves have quite different lives, but their voices weren’t quite distinct enough sometimes. I think maybe adding a third voice would have been really helpful – that does sound counter intuitive, I know, but it could have encouraged something different in the mix. That said, I did like the characters, and their stories were reasonably interesting.

Part of the narrative thread was focussed on Instagram posts, where the photos were described and a selection of comments printed underneath. I thought that was quite interesting, a little bit quirky. On the 10th time though, where the comments are all the same – one positive, one slightly psychopathic fan, one negative and one slightly psychopathic hater, it got a bit samey. I’ve never had to live with the kind of scrutiny I think O’Porter does, so I can’t relate to that, which might be why it didn’t connect.

Similarly, I didn’t really connect to one of the central themes – of motherhood – because I’m not one. I’m an Auntie to five brilliant nieces and nephews, but the pages around how it feels to be a mother and how hard it is to juggle – I can empathise, but I don’t really connect.

Ultimately, this is a great late beach read where you don’t have to think too much, and the underlying message of sisterhood and celebrating our bodies/differences is a good one.

Thanks to HarperCollins for the copy of ‘So Lucky’, and to Netgalley for the access!

What’s it About? Two women, primarily: Beth, and Ruby, whose stories told in alternating chapters make up a social commentary of parenthood, love, feminism and social media.

What I liked: I liked it more than I liked The Cows, for starters which I was super disappointed in. It had a lot of valid things to say and it made those points for the most part, pretty well. I was interested in Beth and Ruby - Ruby a little more so I think, her story having a tenderness to it that surprised me. I loved how one of the stories was told via a character's instagram posts, that was clever and worked well, really cleverly demonstrating the whole issue of instagram versus reality. Overall, I liked it, this is a pretty good - and fast - read.

What I liked Less: I felt like the male characters needed more depth - I'm all for books about feminism featuring strong female characters, but they lose something for me if the men are two dimensional. So frustrating. Also, I don't know what the deal is with O'Porter and the sex stuff - I'm not a prude; I read about sex, I have sex, I'm pretty sex positive, I think, but, like in The Cows I felt like O'Porter is trying to shock and that just bugs me; she's a good writer, she doesn't need to try this hard for a reaction. There's also one scene that really reminded me of a scene from The Cows and the repetition made me roll my eyes. Also also, the blurb doesn't match the book. So annoying.

Thank you to Netgalley , the author and publisher for a copy of this book.

Brilliant and so relateable - I couldn't put it down and read it in one day. There are many laugh out loud moments and, at a couple of points, the tears trickled. I absolutely loved it.

Go read this one - 5 stars!

As someone who prefers to read thrillers, I was surprised how much I enjoyed So Lucky. My first book by Dawn, I agree with other readers that the blurb didn't really match that of the plot itself but this didn't bother me too much. The book felt like a really easy read and I completely flew through it. I struggled with Ruby from time to time but I think this is a credit to how well Dawn has written to her as I don't think she's supposed to be particularly likeable to begin with but we learn to understand her as the story progresses. Beth I really liked and I really felt for her and the situation she was in although I do feel her ending was rushed which was really disappointing. I wanted there to be more about why her husband was the way he was and felt this could have been explored a bit more. While Risky was a nice addition, I do think her character was quite over the top. As someone who is the same age as her, I don't know many like her so it seemed a little unrealistic. While I thought the additions of Lauren's Instagram posts were a good idea, I wouldn't have minded Lauren having her own chapters and thought this would have given us a really good insight into the reality of her life. Overall, a really easy read with some very relevant topics and messages we could all do with being reminded with.