What an absolutely lovely read.

There is nothing particularly shocking or new here, but it is lighthearted and full of tremendous characters who are believable and skip off the page. An easy read which I tore through in half a day - a very definition of a summer read.

A total joy.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

It was a book that I couldn't put down. I loved the characters, the setting and the different scenarios that played out along the way.

I really enjoyed following Steph's journey as a newly single mum finding new friends within her village.

I love small village settings as I live in a tiny village and every chapter got better and better.

I was really cheering Steph on as she found her feet and adapted her identity as her own person and I am really looking forward to more of Victoria's books.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thanks to Netgalley, HQ digital and Victoria Cooke for giving me a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book, I read it over the course of two days and was sufficiently interested to bring it up to bed and read it when I should really have been going to sleep.

In the style of the Why Mummy Drinks (Gill Sims), this book features a group of newly single/about to be single women who form a book club in an effort to make new friends whilst navigating the intricacies of family life. It is both funny and bittersweet in places.

We begin the book, with the main character, Steph, utterly bereft as her husband has divorced her and she’s trying to maintain her sense of self and look after three young children with virtually no support. Her neighbour, Janey (who she’s never spoken to before) sees how much she’s struggling and they start a new friendship. The third member of the group is the slightly older (posher), Amanda.

As well as being about female friendship and the importance of being genuine, there is a love interest in the form of Steph’s new boss, Edward. The only thing I didn’t like was the portrayal of a stereotypical grumpy Librarian! Hopefully most of us aren’t that bad! 😏

It does have a somewhat predictable plot and isn’t particularly cerebral but I think that fans of Carole Matthews, Jill Mansell and Katie Fforde will enjoy this book as a holiday read.

The book is out 30th April and you can support independent bookshops by buying it on Hive.

Thank you NetGalley, author Victoria Cooke, and HQ Digital for giving me a free arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
5 stars
This book was simply amazing! From the first page, I was immediately sucked into the story and it held my attention until the very end.
The story follow 3 single mums, who come from very different walks of life, but have one thing in common is the need for some much women company due to the stress of motherhood and marriage. I really enjoyed the characters. Each had a unique voice, well developed, and likeable. Stephanie is a single mum with three children and an ex that seemed to make unreasonable times at times. When finding herself overwhelm and having a meltdown in a supermarket, she meets Janey, her neighbor. Although they have lived next to each other for a while, they have never really talked, but as they get to know each other by starting a book club, they find they have more in common.
Edward was such a uniquely written male character. Most men would be running scared by a single mum with three kids, but he seems to be drawn to Stephanie and her children. I loved how real he was around her. I also liked how much he was willing to support her as a friend and even more. The slow development of their romantic relationship was so sweet. I also appreciated the fade to black intimate scenes. For some stories less is more and detailed descriptions are not necessary and sometimes take the reader out of the story. The support system these women had for each other was so powerful and realistic. I liked reading a story where the women helped each other rather than teared each other down. Overall, the ending left me well satisfying and wanting more! I would highly recommend this book to those who love a light hearted romantic comedy. I can't wait to read more books by this author!

the single mums’ book club was a quick, enjoyable read. the plot was entertaining and characters were likeable and realistic. the relationships were well-written and all the mums’ book club moments were real scene-stealers, funny and emotional at once. romance was cute, i really liked stephanie and edward’s dynamic. overall an alright read. 3 stars.

In this story we meet some lovely ladies who are all experiencing a turning point and seeking friendship to help them along the way.

Stephanie is navigating a new world after splitting with her husband a year before and is finding looking after their small children and juggling finances really difficult. In a chance encounter in the supermarket she bumps into her neighbour Janey who she quickly becomes fast friends with.

I really enjoyed this book, it was brimming with the realities of being a parent and was really focused around the kids maintaining a happy and normal life to create the very best memories despite everything that Stephanie couldn't control. We got to know her ex husband in this story and watch as she navigates the path to decide if she is ready to move on or if she still wants to be with her ex husband.

The wonderful ladies who form the book club made me laugh, with their wall climbing escapades and created a wonderful friendship which in turn helped each of them when they needed the most.

I love reading books by Victoria Cooke and as expected I flew through as I kept wanting to know what would come next. It made me giggle throughout and was a wonderful light hearted read with lovely characters.

Loved the single mums book club! Lighthearted,funny, relatable read!
Steph is recently divorced with three young children and a dog, ground down with the daily monotony of being a single mum and job hunting and a lack of friends for support! A chance meeting in a supermarket when Steph has a meltdown results in a new friendship with her neighbour Janey, this results in an instant friend and the start of a book club! As time progresses others join the book club, romantic liaisons occur and life gets a whole lot better for the single mums book club members!
Random nights out, female solidarity and new romances abound although the path of true love certainly doesn’t run smoothly for Steph!
A great read about family life, second chances and friendship! Would highly recommend.
Thank you netgalley for this early read.

Stephanie is a recently divorced mother of three. She meets Janey and Amanda, and soon they form a friendship and a book club. She also starts working as a bookkeeper for the local vet.

This was an ok book but in my opinion the women's friendship lacked spark, and so did the romance at the beginning.

** Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. **

I absolutely adored this book!!! I loved reading about Stephanie and Janey's friendship grow! I loved them trying to figure out how to fit Amanda into the group even though they were hesitant at first. It was so wonderful to see supportive, healthy friendships. And don't get me started on Edward because wow I loved him. I even liked Mike by the time they had their heart to heart on her couch.

An enjoyable, if somewhat predictable about a group of women who support each other after each experiences a change in their marital status.

Can we give a round of applause to all the mums? You are warriors!

This book was first and foremost a self-love journey before it was a romance novel. A coming of age novel for

Stephanie is a former bookkeeper, divorced mum of three who is learning how to navigate life after her husband decides he can’t do it anymore. She meets Janey, her neighbor who is also going through life with a physically and mentally absent husband, and Amanda, a recently widowed older woman, and together they form the Single Mum’s Book Club. Their dynamic really shows how friendships can be formed as we mature and don’t have work or school to help with facilitating it.

Stephanie and Mike do a great job of showing the nuances of learning to co-parent (or actually parent for the first time on Mike’s side) and it shows how not every parental relationship needs to be completely one-sided. But her relationship with Edward, the hottie vet a village over (and her boss), is so natural and adorable, I squealed every time they were together. Edward is a quirky, awkward, but super nice gentleman, who accepts Steph for who she is and loves her because of everything she brings to the table, not despite it, and is even excited to spend time with her children.

4 out of 5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and HQ (Harper Collins) for providing me with the eARC and the opportunity to read this work of art and for letting me meet an amazing author.

The Single Mum's Bookclub by Victoria Cooke
Published by HQ
Pub date: 30 APRIL 2021

Thank you Net Galley, HQ, and Victoria Cooke for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review. My reviews can be viewed on Goodreads, Amazon, Net Galley, and Instagram.

This book was so adorable, light, funny, and an overall good read! The relationship between Stehanie and her three kids felt similar to my own, only add an extra kid. I have been the working mom; the divorced mom; I understand the stress of trying to build a new family while making it mesh with my kids' dad and his current girlfriend; and my newest chapter is being a stay at home mom. I loved the camaraderie that Stephanie, and her rag tag group of single moms formed. No one situation was alike, but they all became fast friends. I also enjoyed the personal growth we saw in Stephanie and her kids as they navigated their new lives of adding extra grownups into their family. The romance in this book was so sweet, and innocent, and I really enjoyed being able to focus on the relationship between Stephanie and Edward without steamy sex scenes. While I love a good scene, sometimes less is more. And the romance in this book was perfectly done. Overall, I recommend this book to mom's---single, married, or widowed. This book is for all moms, regardless of her current relationship status.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. I tried really, really hard to get through this book but I did not finish. The characters all fell completely flat for me. Everyone was 2 dimensional and surface.

This story follows 3 single mums. Stephanie, the lead, struggles to find herself after her 'unreasonable' husband left. The story felt very formulaic. Husband leave, Single Mum Struggles, Falls into Job, falls for the boss. It sounded like it should have been a really solid rom-com. The problem was no relationship was defined enough nor was any character developed enough to like them or the story.

3.5 stars. A cute story about finding yourself and finding a family.

Stephanie is a newly-single mum with three kids. Her husband decided he didn't want to stay in a relationship and left. She's just trying to get by and keep her head above water. After a very rough day, she runs into her neighbor and they strike up a conversation. Over the next several weeks, they form a book club, make new friends, rekindle old friendships, and maybe even find love.

This book is really about figuring out who you are and what you want from your life. Stephanie really grows and discovers that family doesn't have to mean just mom and dad and kids; it can be so much more. I really enjoyed this story, but I don't think that it primarily reads as a romance. I think it falls much more under women's fiction (or, honestly, general fiction, since women's fiction is a frustrating category), despite being marketed as a romance. There is romance, but this book is really about Stephanie growing as a person.

Trigger warnings: (violent) death of a parent; on-page description of homicide; PTSD (not called this, but has all the hallmarks)

This is exactly my kind of book....funny, charming, romantic and with interesting, lovable characters. Three struggling women who have each other’s backs as they sort out their love lives....what’s not to like?! The characters do vary in age range so I’d recommend this book to women of all ages who are looking for a light hearted read.

The Single Mums' Book Club by Victoria Cooke is a hilarious and sweet look into the life of Stephanie as she meanders through raising her children amidst a devastating divorce and searching for a new job. After facing rejection from her former friends, Stephanie joins forces with several single ladies from her village to form a book club. Along the way, Stephanie becomes a secretary at the local vet's office and naturally, romance ensues. Without going into details about the relationship, I absolutely fell in love with the work's hero. He was everything the perfect book boyfriend would strive to be. I delighted in the literary references from book club meetings and how their insights into works such as Jane Eyre and Eleanor Oliphant altered their failing marriages and new relationships. The only thing I wasn't a fan of in this book was the trope of the ex-husband returning to ask for reconciliation. That being said, it led to a very interesting decision that displayed Stephanie's growth along her journey for self-discovery and meaning. I highly recommend The Single Mums' Book Club for all fans of works such as The Jane Austen Book Club and Kiley Dubar's Borrow a Bookshop Holiday,

Stephanie is a divorced mother of three. Like most mothers her life is one of constant frenzy, trying to get three children and a dog ready and out of the house to various appointments on time. Her ex-husband Mike wanted to be alone, free from the demands of wife and children. Although he shares custody he is prone to telling Stephanie that he can't pick the kids up until Saturday morning (instead of Friday after school) because he wants to go out with his mates after work. Just your typical middle-aged man trying to be the perpetual teenager with no responsibilities. Even worse, all their friends were Mike's work colleagues and their wives who have ghosted Stephanie since the divorce.

On a day where she was late dropping to kids off at school, and made the cardinal sin of reversing outside the school, had a confrontation with one of her so-called ex-friends in the supermarket, and didn't have enough money in her purse to buy toilet roll, she starts sobbing in the supermarket where she is rescued by her neighbour Janey. Although they have never really spoken properly before Janey is a true friend and the two of them are soon thinking of ways to drink prosecco in each other's homes (cheaper than going out out) - hence the book club was born.

Soon the book club gathers other waifs and strays and together these women give each other the confidence to try again - in Steph's case to flex her rusty bookkeeping muscles part-time at the local vet's surgery.

This was a charming read, light-hearted, funny, with some serious moments too.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This was a cute concept of a story, I just didn’t much out of it. It was very predictable and didn’t offer much of a difference from other new divorced, single mom, trying start life again books. Skimmed my way through

I enjoyed this book so much! Anytime books mention other books in them, they’re automatically a favorite of mine.

This book was so interesting because it shows how single moms are supposed to be able to handle everything and it was sweet to see other single moms helping each other out. I appreciated how these characters who seemed unlikely to get along became real close with everyone and supporting them through everything.

The hint of romance between one of the moms Stephanie and the Vet was just really sweet and adorable!

The title got my attention! As an avid reader I love when books talk about reading books or being in a book club of any kind. This book does a great job of that but it is so much more. It’s a book about friendship, relationships, overcoming trauma and family. I loved the book from start to finish, the characters felt very believable and the plot is relatable.
Definitely would recommend picking this one up when it releases.