So Lucky is the first book I’ve read by Dawn O’Porter and didn’t know what to expect but I’m glad to say that this was a really good read and will be looking out for other books by this author.
The book is full of everything from sad emotional moments to genuinely laugh out loud moments and this makes it one of the top books I’ve read this year. The book is based around 4 women, all with different backgrounds but all with their own struggles and insecurities. The characters were likeable so that made them very real and had a really good depth to them making them relatable.
The book follows an event that sees them all together and it shows that no matter where you come from, what you have and where your going you still all have the same insecurities and for parts of this book dogs were made at social media.
A really good read that I really enjoyed.
I would like to thank Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Just finished this book after picking it up and putting it down and having mixed feelings about it. Many thanks to #Netgalley and #Harpercollins for providing me with an ARC version of this book.

At first I couldn't get into the book and I still cannot relate to any of the three characters the book revolves around. One is a Wedding planner, another an editor for photographs, and the third, an Instagram model. All three characters are fairly unlikeable but what kept me reading was wanting to find out how their lives would intertwine and turn out.

The book is humorous in parts though I wouldn't say laugh out loud funny and as a reader, you would definitely have to keep an open mind as it gets racy and explicit in parts. There are elements of the book that are sad without being depressing and the author helps to bring awareness to different things that happen.

I'd agree with another reviewer who commented on the language of a three-year-old and how she reacted to certain events in the book.

Overall I would read another of Dawn O'Porter's books.

Thank you to Netgalley , the author and publisher for a copy of this book.
This was hilariously funny, so much I have just bought Cows. I really enjoyed this book and it is a perfect holiday read and I would highly recommend. Bring on the next one

Frank, funny & fearless - I absolutely loved it!

O'Porter's writing style is unique and authentic from the laugh-out-loud to the raw, emotional moments I became completely invested in Beth, Ruby & Lauren's stories. Risky deserves a special mention too - everyone needs a friend like her!

These distinctive characters aren't perfect, they are flawed, they are insecure and they all have their own struggles ...but don't we all? This novel is incredibly relatable, the plot flows seamlessly and the way all the characters are brought together is very clever.

It's bold, brilliant & thought-provoking. The characters stayed with me long after I'd turned the last page, a must-read!

Thanks to Harper Collins for sending me this novel in exchange for an open and honest review.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I'm a big fan of Dawn and her writing so was really excited to read this and it didn't disappoint. The characters are lovable and their individual self doubting about their lives is so relatable. The journey to self acceptance that each of the characters go on is lovely to read and shows that everyone has their own fears, insecurities and worries no matter how good their lives may look to the outside.

Beth's just had a baby and her husband won't have sex with her. Ruby has a three year old who seems to hate her and a big secret about her body. Lauren seemingly has the perfect life and is about to get married to a huge celebrity. All their lives are about to intertwine in ways you never expect.

I really enjoyed this book! It was so real and honest an fresh. The last 25% had me gripped as the three stories came together. A great read!

I did love reading The Cows so I have been really excited to read Dawn O’Porter’s new novel, So Lucky. The protagonists are three women. Ruby feels she is failing as a mother, she is angry all the time, and she is ashamed of her own body because of a rare condition. Beth has just had a baby, but she went right back to work to organize the wedding of the year. She feels guilty not only for leaving her son at home, but also for her dreams of sleeping with other men as her husband doesn’t seem very interested in having a more intimate relationship with her. And then, there is Lauren. A model with millions of followers on Instagram and about to marry her gorgeous billionaire fiancé, but is her life as perfect as it looks on Instagram?

What I really love about Dawn O’Porter’s novels is the authenticity of her characters and her stories. With their problems, their insecurities, and their dreams, these women feel realistic and relatable and the readers feel connected to them. I liked Beth, Ruby and Lauren, even if there were times when I found them irritating or I didn’t like what they were doing. I sympathized more with Beth and Ruby because we get a complete and honest picture of them. Lauren remains more of a mystery. We meet Lauren through her Instagram posts and through Ruby and Beth’s eyes who are both involved in the organization of her wedding. The self-assurance she shows to her followers is shadowed, in real life, by her overbearing and bossy mother and her too-perfect-too-be-true fiancé. I think that my favourite character is Risky, Beth’s assistant. She is so outspoken and brazen and she often made me laugh out loud.

So Lucky is thought-provoking, compelling, and captivating and I stayed up late at night to finish it because I couldn’t stop reading about this three fantastic women!

Thanks to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book to review.

Having read Dawn O'Porter's last book, The Cows, I was really looking forward to reading her next novel.

It definitely didn't disappoint! I finished this in a matter of hours and absolutely flew through it.

The novel is mainly centred around Ruby, Beth, and Lauren, three women with very different lives but all considered 'so lucky' for various reasons.

The characters are fantastic, so well done and you really get involved with them and their lives. Initially, I didn't warm to Ruby as I found her stand offish and Lauren made me roll my eyes as she appeared to be a typical 'Instagram influencer'.

However, by the end of the book I loved them all and just wanted the best outcome for them.

Although I'm aware a lot of what's posted on social media is posted purely to come across as the 'ideal life' and the reality is nothing but, this book made me think that it isn't all about social media. Judgements of other people's lives based on the snapshot you see can be very far from the truth.

Really funny at times yet very relatable and quite emotional.

Great book and can't wait for the next one! Highly recommended.

Fab book,. Loved it from cover to cover. great story, loved the characters, the way the book went descriptions and the story line.

A great book about women’s attitudes to love, body image and friendship. I loved this book, thanks NetGalley!

What a book! I’ve been looking forward to reading So Lucky for a while and I haven’t been disappointed; I lost count of the number of times I snorted out loud with laughter whilst turning the pages!

Accurate to a tee; So Lucky is a searingly relevant read.  I found myself continually nodding in agreement as I read about Beth, Ruby and Lauren.  It’s fiendishly funny yet thought provoking in terms of the perception we have of ourselves, and SO full of sass!

This book oozes power with its cast of three fantastic women, and their stories were both honest and touching, producing a compelling tale which is absolutely made for binge reading.

I found So Lucky to be hilariously addictive and scintillatingly smutty! Bravely bearing filth on almost every page  - this book is not for the prudish!

So Lucky is wickedly witty, side-splittingly funny and deliciously dirty; a joyous romp of a book which will be enjoyed by many.

I received an ARC copy of this book from Harper Collins UK via net galley.

I started this book not really able to get into it and feeling like giving up but it turned into a riveting read.

Ruby, Beth and Lauren three women who outwardly look in control but underneath all have unresolved issues. Ruby has a condition which affects her body image, Beth is a new mum with a husband who seems to want to do anything but have a sexual relationship with his wife, Lauren seemingly has it all fame, fortune and upcoming wedding to the sexiest monied man on the planet.

Told through their individual voices this is a book about accepting who you are and unleashing the power in yourself. It is once you get over the start a fabulous pacy read which it was difficult to put down. Real moments of Humour and indeed pathos

Fab book,. Loved it from cover to cover. great story, loved the characters, the way the book went descriptions and the story line.

Ok, so erm, I have decided that I will not be doing a review for this book. I don’t want to and it doesn’t deserve one from me. No, no, no, hear me out a sec. That is not a negative comment from me at all, in fact it’s totally the opposite.

I formally known as the Book Geek Wears Pajamas or PajamaBookGirl in the book world, or just Natalie in the normal world, or Mum (none fucking stop) in my kids world, could never ever do So Lucky justice with my words. I don’t have them and I certainly can’t articulate them like they deserve.

So Lucky deserves unlimited praise. It deserves it for making women feel beautiful regardless of their faults/conditions/jobs/thoughts/looks/life. It deserves it for making reality what it is and what it should be. For keeping life real in a fictional world. For making sure that a fictional world created gives back to people in need. People that deserve it. Characters we connect with and want the best for.

It’s a fucking decent read my friends. It’s funny, sad, stupid, diverse, harmonious, sexy, fun and REAL! And we know for sure that right now in this shit world we all need that. We all need the love. And that my fabulous book geeking fabulous friends is what So Lucky is. It’s self love that’s what it is.

Do I recommend? Abso-fucking-lutely!

Do I resonate with the characters given to us by O’Porter in SO? More than you will ever know.

Do I feel better about myself being a hairy bastard who can give my husband and his beard a run for his money? Yes, actually, I do.

Am I embarrassed to be telling you all that and owning up to the fact that I am part of a female world that is silent and ashamed and yeti-like? Well, I’m proper beetroot and overheating writing this so am taking that as a big fat yes!

However, I am writing it and I am telling you all, and that my friends comes down to So Lucky. It helped me in realising that we are all not perfect, we all have problems and issues, but we are not alone even though we feel we are. So Lucky helped me see that and I went searching on Instagram and found hundreds and hundreds of people just like me. And for that tiny bit of confidence it gave me will always be why I can never do this book justice with my words.

Thank you Dawn for SO and for keeping it 109% real always! The world needs that and the world needs your books and love.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

5/5

P.S… I have not and will not be editing this post. Why? Because I wrote it from the top of my head and from my heart. If it’s wrong in any way, I do not care. If it doesn’t make sense or doesn’t flow, oh well! Fuck being right. I like being wrong sometimes 🤷🏻‍♀️

I really enjoyed this book although it took me a while to get into it. The characters were really interesting and it was a humorous but humane tale.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book and I really enjoyed it. It was so far away from my usual genre but wow did I need the refreshing change and wow some parts would make yoir hair curl lucky for me I'm broad minded. Was lovely to follow 3 women through there lives and trails and tribulations. Top marks it was a fab read and would recommend to all women to show us that we should be happy with who we are!

This book did not disappoint.

It was funny, poignant, fast paced, a quick read but had some deep themes.

I really enjoyed the difficult, awkward viewpoint of Ruby and the development of all the characters,

I was a bit concerned how they would all come together and thought it might be a bit tacky and obvious, for example Ruby's wedding photos getting muddled or something but it was done in a really nice and clever way.

I would recommend this book to others and really enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed this book. A heartfelt story about body image and how we see ourselves and think others see us. It’s all about self esteem and finding the confidence to accept ourselves for who and what we are.
The story follows 3 different women who essentially share the same issue, they don’t really like themselves or the way they look. As the book progresses the women learn to accept themselves, flaws and all and forget about what other people may think of them. This, I believe, is the biggest hurdle for women, learning to love ourselves. The book has a strong message in its plot-nobody’s perfect.

I was delighted to be given the opportunity to read the latest book by Dawn Porter and it really did not disappoint. Her style of writing is so clever that one is entangled in the story line so much so that it is hard to put the book down. I would certainly recommend!

There are times when you read a book and you have no idea what it’s about and have taken a punt because the author is famous and you like them, and because the cover is really cool, and this was one of those occasions. This book was an exquisite piece of fiction that encapsulated what it is like to be a woman in the 21st century, and how no matter who you are, why you are, what you is happening and what you see can be very different. It was heart breaking and heart warming in equal measure and showed the power of women, both the positive and negative. 

The book follows the perspective of two mothers, Ruby and Beth, as they negotiate motherhood, work, and relationships, while dealign with their own insecurities and problems. As we track their stories, we’re also treated to an external view of a third woman, Lauren, whose Instagram ideal lifestyle and impending nuptials provide a backdrop and timeline for the book’s narrative. Each woman’s life and lifestyle is vastly different, and the way we see each really carries a message about shown life versus true life. 

Let’s start with Ruby. She is a complex character who suffers from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and the associated affliction of excess body hair. She is the mother to a young daughter Bonnie, and her strained relationship with her emotionally manipulative and abusive mother has left her with a complex about herself and about her life as a mother. She doesn’t connect well with Bonnie and is jealous of Bonnie’s relationship with her Dad Liam. Her struggle is heartbreaking and was fascinating to watch as she grew. Meeting Ross in the park really opened her mind to her familial relationships and her growing bond with her daughter, which was heartbreaking to read about at first, become one of the warmest aspects of the book for me. I thought her self loathing was awful and all too familiar, and her battle with dealing with her negative body image whilst working within the photo retouching business was a painful duality to read about. I really like that she had found someone initially in Liam, and like that her insecurities were the basis for their split, but later their growth.

And Beth, I loved Beth. Her and Risky has a special working and friendship bond and were hilarious to track. There sexual frankness and body positivity was actually quite inspiring, and even though I really didn't like the relationship between Beth and her husband Michael (in fact, I really hated it) I felt like she was a really great character. She was so different to Ruby, she was open enough to breastfeed at work, she thoroughly enjoyed being a mother, and she had a relationship with the father that was deeply flawed in a completely different way to Ruby and Liam. Although Risky was beyond deeply inappropriate at points, there unusual working and personal relationship was a real show of female diversity and force, and I loved that together they had forged to create a successful business together. Her brief encounter with Ross was pretty heartbreaking and born from a place of desperation, and he navigated that with an aplomb that I really respect O'Porter for giving to one of the male characters.

I thought the most interesting person was Lauren. Lauren appears at the end of chapters in the form of an Instagram post, associated caption, and a mix of positive and negative reviews. We see Ruby begin to interact with her world as a photo editor, asked to assist at Lauren's upcoming wedding to a famous (and loathsome/controlling) businessman, ready to touch up their big days photos to fulfil a social media obligation to a champagne company sponsoring her big day. We also see Beth interacting with Lauren as her wedding planner. I think he dichotomy was absolutely spectacular, and actually made you question Lauren's character and motive and then in turn your own. Her personal portrayal on social media, carefully planned, orchestrated, and edited, provided a very glossy and impersonal image. Her want to edit and touch photos for her big day gave the impression of someone unhappy and desperate to change themselves to conform to a publicly expected image. Then we see Beth interact with her, we see her smile and laugh one on one, and cower in on herself when her mother and her husband to be are present.

I feel like this book absolutely embodies the idea of not judging a woman, or in fact anyone, by their cover. Partly because we're complex, partly because you don't know what someone has been through or is showing you, it shows that all women are judging themselves and choosing the front they put on to the ones closest to them, and to the wider world. I found bits of this book really hard to read (in a good way) because it struck very close to home, and I feel like that would ring true for anyone that reads it. I like that O'Porter made all of the characters, whether main or side, complex and flawed. They had their moment where things, and characters, all come together in a powerful way, and had enough uplifting moments that the harder moments to read were worth it.

This book expertly navigates the complexities of being a woman in the modern world. It really embodies the idea that we shouldn't judge others (by what we see, what we hear, what we feel) and should just strive to be better versions of ourselves because that will ultimately help. I really think it shows that idea that we (as humans, as women) are actually judging ourselves more harshly than anyone else and showed that theory that no-one else is looking at you because everyone is too busy thinking everyone is looking down on them I can't recommend this emotional rollercoaster of a book highly enough.