An interesting read that covers many views on bringing a new life into the world. It is also about the joy of friendship.

This is an easy-to-read and enveloping book, written in a chatty and familial style. I enjoyed Olive's characterization and her candid narration, but my favourite part of the novel was Olive's relationships with her three closest female friends, which felt grounded in reality, lived in and extremely believable. Often contemporary women's literature overly romanticizes, or just glosses over, the ins and outs and ups and downs of female friendships. The subtleties of how Olive and her friends behaved to one another, in times of anger, times of distress and during the fun times, too, felt extremely accurate.
The way the novel engages with different women's conflicting feelings about becoming a mother was very engaging, candid and thought-provoking. As other reviewers have noted, it's not a topic that's usually discussed in such detail in contemporary literature and was refreshingly honest. More generally, the ways in which your life starts to diverge from your close friends following university was also a relatable and well-explored theme.
The story swept me along, but I felt like the ending happened quite suddenly, with a romance blossoming almost "off screen" in a way that was sweet, but not fully fleshed out. Some parts of the plot, and some characters, also felt less well served, as the book juggled it's meaty themes with its more light and frothy moments.
One minor quibble -- at times, the novel flashes back to different points in the recent past, but the cultural references become too modern. E.G. Killing Eve didn't come out until 2018, but is referenced in a section that's supposed to be set in 2017. This is just a small thing, but might be worth looking into pre-publication.
Overall, this is a warm, sweet debut that will be appreciated by many modern women -- Francesca, Loves Labours Watched Podcast.

This was an interesting concept for a book. 4 friends, all at different stages of their lives as regards having or in Olive's case - not having children. It was fluent and well written, and for the most part interesting. My problem was I didn’t really like, sympathise or empathise with any of the characters. All of them were in their own way completely self absorbed and occasionally incredibly insensitive particularly Olive herself which stopped me from caring about her. I found the incredibly tidy ending slightly irritating. . Its a good book, and I'm sure it will be successful,

I had such high hopes for this book and I wasn't disappointed!

Olive has reached a point in her life where she is deeply considering her relationships and motherhood. She loves her life and is proud of all she's achieved, but is it 'enough'? Is at as much as those people who are mothers have achieved? Should she want more? How will she know if she wants more? This book is so relatable, whether you're a mum trying to figure out how that impacts your identity, whether you're just not sure if you want kids or whether you know you definitely don't and are dealing with how the world reacts to you.

There is so much here that struck a chord with me and I just know it will be the same for so many women. This is so well written and I was sad when I realised it was coming to an end - I could have read double the length of Olive's life and thoughts. She's such a vivid character that you almost struggle to believe she isn't a real person.

I look forward to seeing everyone reading this this summer!

A fairly enjoyable read addressing interesting and contemporary issues. I must admit I didn't really take to the main characters as they all seem self centred but empathised with them as they all seemed basically true to so many young people caught up in the fast demanding modern world which is sadly very self centred and selfish. It certainly makes the reader thinks and possibly reassess certain topics especially in these slower lock down times. Some humour throughout and the message of the book really is making time, respect and prioritising.

A really cosy and comforting read but also incredibly eye opening and insightful to hear a perspective of someone who chooses not to have children. It’s really frank, honest and refreshing. A brilliant debut from Emma, reminded me of Marian Keyes, look forward to seeing what she writes next!

There are so many things I love about this book. The very relevant idea that women are just 'expected' to want children- I found myself nodding so much at this! This is an idea that isn't talked about but really should be!
The fact that her friends are having children, and even friends for years who should know and understand her, struggle with her attitudes to her future.
I think the time frames were pretty erratic though, and difficult to distinguish between.
Aside from that, it was a lovely story, funny and warm!
Loved it for so many reasons!

I mistakenly thought this book was going to be about an older character because Olive is a more traditional name. I was pleasantly surprised at how young and hipster Olive was. I loved the fact that Olive and her three besties from Uni are still friends despite all now having full on home lives, demanding jobs and children. The book moves between their current lives and has flashbacks to things that have happened in the past that help explain their history. A great book that I couldn't put down.

I am going to admit, that this book has definitely changed some of my opinions. I have been guilty of assuming that because a woman is child free, it's because of circumstances rather than choice. I have also definitely said the "...you might change your mind one day..." or "...you just havent met the right man...." lines before. After reading this story I will never jump to that conclusion again. Its taught me a lot. If that is what Emma Gannon set out to do she has definitely achieved her goal.

I am a huge fan of Emma Gannon and have been so intrigued to read her fictional debut. As a married person of four years but currently child free, I was especially interested to hear her explore the idea around choosing to not have children whilst having close female friendships with mothers. I love Emma’s writing, the flicks back and forth in time as we explore her friendships and see her personal journey in her career and sense of self. However I just do not like the character of Olive. I didn’t warm to her, I found her selfish, ignorant of others positions and unempathetic. I wouldn’t want Olive as a friend. She is constantly acting impulsively and although I appreciate the author didn’t want a main character that is a people pleaser, and someone that can put themselves first, I just didn’t really care about her and found her friends and Dorothy and even her mum much more interesting characters to explore.

If you haven’t read this book then pick it up now!! I honestly cannot recommend this highly enough. I have seen this being mentioned by authors I love (Lucy Vine & Lindsey Kelk) so I was really excited to receive an advance copy of this. There is a piece of every single woman in Olive, totally relatable and easy to identify with.
Olive is just figuring life out and sometimes it looks a little different to how other people see it. At the end of the day, just like in real life - it doesn’t matter, why’s it a problem. Just do you!!
Love love love this!!!!!!

"I don't want to forget that we are still young. It's clear that our lives are at a major crossroads. We are no longer sat at the traffic lights, though, everyone is already zooming off in different directions. I wish everyone and everything would slow down just for a moment."

Olive is in her early thirties and lives in London with long-term boyfriend, Jacob. She is a journalist who loves her job working at .dot magazine. She remains close to her three childhood and university friends, Bea, Cecily and Isla. As they all settle down, marrying and starting families, Olive is pretty sure she doesn't want children, but everyone else thinks she will change her mind. Jacob wants children and so when he ends their relationship because of this, we follow Olive as she struggles, feeling distant from her friends.

Focusing on Olive and her friends, the narrative moves from earlier points in their friendship, and Olive's relationship with Jacob, providing context. Gannon writes movingly and with empathy, about the four womens' different choices and situations, all of which have their difficulties. Motherhood, infertility, IVF, the choice to be child-free, infidelity, and their many perspectives are experienced by the four friends. Olive struggles with the incompatibilities of her friends' feelings and personal situations and her own, along with society's idea of what a woman should be doing with her life. Cliché-free, everyone doesn't get a happy ending. This is a brilliant, affectionate and empowering read about friendship and life choices, particularly women who want to live child-free.

Out of the four women, my path probably most closely resembles Cecily, having married and had children in my early thirties. Whilst many of my friends have children, some have chosen not to and some are unable to, so I have some understanding of their situations. I can see this resonating with many women, just wish I could have read it a decade ago!

This is an easy and enjoyable read. It tackles the problem faced by many 30 somethings who feel a ticking clock - do they join in with the vast majority and have children, or decide against it, or perhaps nature decides for you. At this point friendships that you really thought were forever tend to get frayed, neglected or just past their sell by date.

I was interested in the four different viewpoints and how they did not complement each other, leading to fallings out and unhappiness. My one gripe is the end, in my world worn experience I am not sure that they would be able to maintain the friendship. Sorry all you hopeful 30 year olds but things change, people change and your mate from school who you can never imagine not being friends with may well disappear from your life.

Lovely story. I found the timelines a bit confusing and more than once had to go back and re check what year I was in!
Characters stayed true to themselves and overall I enjoyed it.

Olive, a 30 something city slicker, with an inner dialog to die for. Recently single she has some stark choices ahead but with her firm friends beside her, these don't seem quite so difficult. Intense in places with a touch of Eat. Pray. Love. A novel of our times.

Olive is relatable and engaging. What's lovely about this book is we are Olive, in some manner we have all or will go through the things she does and this is why the it's is so well written by Emma Gannon and lovely to read.

I’d already read Emma Gannon’s The Multi-Hyphen Method, and followed her work from the early days of the “Girl Lost in City” blog, so I was interested to see what her first novel, Olive, would be like. The story is told from the perspective of Olive, a millennial journalist living in London whose life is at crossroads. As her university friends settle down and start to have families, she realizes she’s “different”: she’s pretty sure she doesn’t want to have children. As their lives take different paths, tensions take hold, and Olive wonders what it is she really wants in life.

I really enjoyed this book for a number of reasons. One is that it felt really contemporary – it felt like life being lived right now (well, minus the lockdown, but you know what I mean!), with the characters sending WhatsApp group texts, going on Netflix binges, and mindlessly scrolling through social media. The second is that it examines an issue that is still quite taboo for a lot of people: the decision not to have children. And the third is that it was an excellent portrayal of female friendship, with all its up and downs, and the strength that the women in the book get from those friendships despite the pressures of their lives going in different directions. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys contemporary fiction, with a focus on female friendship.

I cannot believe this is a debut novel. This has been a great read and I have absolutely loved it.
I have devoured this book in just hours this afternoon. I highly recommend this book.

Childfree Olive is adrift in a sea of her best friends – and a society – obsessed with motherhood. As she turned into a thirty-something, the questions only became more insistent – talk of shrivelling up eggs and the perils of geriatric motherhood. Olive has never wanted children, and she’s not going to ‘change her mind.’ But she finds it increasingly difficult to navigate this decision and reconcile it with society’s expectations of womanhood and the life choices of her own best friends.

‘When I am an adult, I would think, everything will be good. I will finally be free. Adulthood = freedom.’

It is the tight-knit bonds of friendship, rather than romance, that are at the heart of the book. Emma Gannon explores the exuberance of female friendship, with flashbacks to their heady university days and teenagerhood, contrasted with their early thirties and how their life paths have diverged. Their sacred rituals – dinner at the same London restaurant every month, a holiday abroad each year – are slowly slipping away from them.

‘Everyone has just seemed slightly less available, a creeping sense of business and life admin and to-do lists, of time being squeezed.’

Despite the sometimes heavy subject matter, Olive is an easy and accessible read, with levity, humour, and self-awareness.

‘I’ve decided to go and see a Reiki healer because I am a Millennial cliché with a free afternoon.’

Although plot elements are at times predictable and a little hackneyed, the strength of the novel lies in portraying nuanced protagonists who each have their own struggles when it comes to motherhood – be that infertility, post-natal depression, juggling three children or having no desire to have kids – and explores these choices in an open and honest way. Gannon draws sympathetic characters and lets us into their heads. It’s a perspective I’ve not read about before in such a clear-eyed way, and I think this will resonate with many women at a similar crossroads in their life.

I really struggled with this novel, Emma Gannon’s fiction debut. Olive is a successful 30 something with a job she loves and great group of friends, but her long term relationship has just ended- because Olive is starting to realise she just doesn’t want a family. With one best friend a mum of 3, one about to pop and one going through heartbreaking fertility treatment, she is finding it hard to confide in anyone about her secret feelings.
My main issue with this novel was that I really didn’t like any of the characters. Olive’s friends came across as selfish and unsupportive, and for long term best friends, they don’t actually seem to like each other very much. As for Olive herself, I didn’t think she had much of a personality and I just wasn’t that invested in her story.
It’s a shame because I think it’s such an interesting concept for a novel, but I wasn’t convinced by the end result.
Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review