"So Thrilled For You" tells the story of a baby shower gone awry. It was supposed to be the perfect day: Nicki, Lauren, Charlotte, and Steffi – collectively known as the Little Women – are finally reunited. Between Nicki's pregnancy, Lauren's newborn, Charlotte's infertility struggles and Steffi's agency launch, they've all had a lot on their plates. But now, in the middle of a heatwave, they finally get a chance to catch up. Only, as it turns out, they've all been harbouring secrets – and, more importantly, resentments. As the day grows hotter and hotter, those resentments come to the surface, threatening to, quite literally, go up in flames …

I've read all of Holly Bourne's adult novels, and most of her YA, so I can safely say she really outdid herself with "So Thrilled For You". Books about motherhood are no rarity, but this one navigates the topic with a complexity I've rarely seen. This is in part due to the fact that Bourne chooses to tell the story from a first-person POV while still giving each character a distinct voice. As the novel progresses, it dawns on the reader that there's much more than meets the eye: Steffi grapples with fears of being seen as selfish for choosing a child-free life and prioritizing her career; Nicki holds a grudge against Steffi due to a dark secret of her past; Lauren struggles with PTSD from the birth of her son, made worse by a healthcare system that fails to help; and, finally, Charlotte desperately tries to manage her infertility issues so much with positive thinking that she almost burns herself out in the process. All of them are filled with jealousy, rage, insecurity, and sadness. Except from Nicki, all of the characters are portrayed as complex beings, and you can't help but empathize with them even in their darkest moments.

Bourne is careful to show that's it not just the women who've failed each other – it's society that perpetuates myths like the "Cool Mum", traps men in their weaponized incompetence or fails to provide the care and support new mothers desperately need. The sharp critique, the messiness of the characters, the pacing – all of it is beautifully executed in "So Thrilled For You". I only wish the novel had been longer; the ending fell a bit flat to me. After everything that had happened, I found it hard to believe that things could've been resolved so easily, and would've loved to see the characters confront their issues head-on. Nonetheless, this is a thought-provoking read I cannot recommend enough. You don't have to have children yourself to care for the people who carry them – and I think we should all make sure we provide them with all the support they need.

An enraging, heartbreaking read which while on the surface is a whodunnit, explores the challenges, difficulties and ultimately the "set to fail" expectations of motherhood: "The sheer, audacious, everyday relentless effort of motherhood - such an exhaust- ing, all-encompassing 'gift'." While it focuses on motherhood in the social media age and the expectations that come with that, the feelings described (isolation, conflict of emotions etc) are universal to all mothers.
Brilliant

I didn't really enjoy this book. I liked the premise but I just couldn't get into it. There were too many characters and I was getting confused about who was who a lot of the time.

Wow, I'm exhausted after reading this one. So many emotions from each of the main characters, almost felt draining to read them haha. Best 0f friends one minute and enemies the next. I definitely felt for each of the girls.

On the surface, So Thrilled For You is a tense thriller about four friends navigating their 30s — marriage, sexuality, friendships, and everything else in between — but underneath, it's an unflinching, visceral take on motherhood and womanhood. At times, a true horror story. Out in January.

4 University found ‘life long friends’

4 very different takes in Motherhood

Lauren, Mum of Woody, in despair

Steffi, non Mum and not quite as sympathetic to Mum’s as the other 3 feel she should be

Charlotte, desperate to be a Mum but finds party organising as near she can get to ot and

Nicki, heavily pregnant and whose parents house all 4 are re meeting after a longish time for her ‘baby shower’

I can’t stress how different all 4 are but how honest each is re their thoughts at the various stages of their lives they are at, ‘brutally’ honest doesn’t come close and after reading some of the thoughts and actions from each of them it gave me a whole new perspective of pregnancy, giving birth and being a Mum, fron the horrific to the sublime, it was enlightening and empowering for the characters and I daresay the author and withoit doubt the reader

EVERY emotion is on show, this is not a book that holds back on any aspect of the subject and will shock as well as entertain

It is a whodunit wrapped round sisterhood and betrayal but ultimately unity and the strong ties of friendship with a bit of the publishing world thrown in

I have never read a book like this and would say it will change minds and leave you evaluating many things

It was uncomfortable at times but in a good way that made you stop and take time to process what you had read

An excellent book to be remembered for sure

I loved So Thrilled For You. Four friends with different lives and experiences. It can be hard to be honest and explain how you really feel, even to close friends and this shows how complicated relationships can be and how easy misunderstandings can happen.

I really loved this book and the way all of the characters are so beautifully written. Each of their stories made me really feel for them, but I could also absolutely understand the resentment from the others, which would have been really difficult to write I imagine. It perfectly portrays the various stages of motherhood and also the thoughts of those who are surrounded by babies but choose not to have them. I enjoyed the suspense element and the police transcripts too. A really good book!

This is reality in a book, how a group of women can be best friends one minute and worst enemies the next. How motherhood isn't all cute and loving and fantastic - this here contains the real stuff like how hard motherhood actually can be. Its very emotional and raw and I bet there'll be many women out there that can relate to the characters in this book.

I loved the complexities of the characters and their relationships with each other. The characters are really well developed and I found it easy to not only sympathise with them individually but also see how they come across to each other.

The fact that this story was told through a police interview was very clever especially with the multiple POV's.

My only critique was the ending, I just felt like it was a bit OTT. Like I know we all enjoy a happy ending but let's face it no matter the relationship somethings just cannot be forgotten and I felt the characters were all far too friendly with each other considering their actions towards each other.

Overall still a really good read that I found I could relate too.

In the aftermath, the police put together the facts - but the truth will shock everyone. Even you.
BIG LITTLE LIES meets EXPECTATION in the incredible new novel from Holly Bourne - it's the book you'll want to read three times, then give to every woman in your life.I had the pleasure to arc read this book, it will have you hooked from the start and the characters feel like you know them,
I could imagine every character whilst I read the book
so good

Nicki, Lauren, Charlotte and Steffi have been friends since university. Now in their thirties, life is pulling them in different directions - but when Charlotte organises the baby shower of hell for pregnant Nicki, the girls are reunited.
Under a sweltering hot summer day, tensions rise - and by the end of the evening, nothing will ever be the same. Someone started a fire at the house - and everyone's a suspect...


Okay wow I loved this book! I loved that it highlighted everyone has their own lives and their own struggles that they might not make clear. I also loved that this book brought in the different types of women - those who are unhappy, those who are desperate to be a mother, those who chose not to have children and those who are starting their journey as a parent! I feel like anyone reading this will relate to at least one of the main characters in how they themselves feel about their lives. It would actually be so interesting to reread this at different points in your life to see if your view changes! 🤔

I read Girl Friends last year by Holly and loved it too so I’m so glad that this is just as good! I feel like STFY brings up the female friendship like Girl Friends did and it’s great. I also felt like nothing was predictable for me which is always a plus!

I’d definitely say this is a book heavy on being a mother so maybe wouldn’t recommend to those who aren’t up for that but I loved it (even though I don’t normally reach for “mum” books). I’d definitely recommend this!

*Thank you so much to @netgalley and @hodderbooks for this arc!

Sex and the City. The Golden Girls. Little Women. Books and shows have a good track record of showing us four different women as they navigate the world around them. Nicki, Steffi, Lauren and Charlotte know this so well, they even call themselves the Little Women, as they met studying literature in university.

Twelve years on, the cracks in their relationship are beginning to show and it takes Nicki’s baby shower, taking place in an excessively Grand(ly) Design(ed) greenhouse of a home on one of the hottest days of a blazing heatwave to find out if their friendship will break into a thousand pieces like a glass platter or hold fast like a Pyrex dish.

We find out immediately that the baby shower was interrupted by the house burning down and only then, narrated in turn by each character, do we find out how they got there. Interspersed with hilarious extracts from the police interviews with each of our heroines, this book may seem like the usual career woman versus earth mother, earth mother versus IVF potential-mother, but it is so much more. Each pacy chapter brings you so close to each character, you side with her completely . . . until you find out another side of that story in the next chapter.

I’ve never read another book that showed me, in such knowledgeable detail, what it is to birth not only a human baby, but also a burgeoning literary career or even a meticulously planned baby shower. Well worth your reading time.

This book is a well written exploration of the competing pressures experienced by a group of thirty-something friends told through the lens of a baby shower/ gender reveal party where something has gone horribly wrong, resulting in a police investigation.
Bourne depicts the madness of late pregnancy and early motherhood so well that I was not surprised to learn she was a new mother when writing this. It’s a very brutal look at how life changes when you have a baby, and about how friendship groups can shift and alter through jealousy and longing.
The four women’s voices are all very distinct and as a reader your sympathies shift depending on who is narrating.
It’s very cleverly written. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

The four main characters, Nicki, Steffi, Lauren and Charlotte have been friends since university. Their lives have gone in different directions and now, in their early 30s, Charlotte is arranging (down to the last box on an excel spreadsheet) a baby shower for Nicki. Charlotte longs for a baby but IVF has so far been unsuccessful; Lauren has a nine month old baby, Woody, but is suffering from both undiagnosed post natal depression but also trauma as a result of a very difficult birth. Steffi meanwhile is happily child-free and open about it; she's just launched a literary agency and is on the verge of making a life-changing book deal not only for one of her authors but also for herself and her new agency.

But all is not as serene and happy as Charlotte's OTT plans would suggest - all four of them are hiding things and over the course of the afternoon they will all have a massive falling out, secrets will be revealed and their friendship will be re-made in the face of adversity.

I found this very readable but a bit tiresome in places - Charlotte's almost militant determination that everything about the baby shower would go to her very precise plan somewhat set my teeth on edge and I could not understand - even by the end of the book - how she'd managed to be such close friends with the other three for so long. Also, for such close friends, I was a bit bemused that none of them seemed to have even the faintest clue that Lauren was struggling with motherhood - or indeed how did Charlotte not realise that Nicki would've wanted a far more low key baby shower than the grand affair Charlotte was arranging? Charlotte invites Phoebe, someone who Nicki hasn't seen for a year, and again, none of them seemed remotely aware of the significance of Phoebe in Nicki's life - which would suggest that, during the time Nicki was friends with Phoebe, she obviously didn't communicate much with the others. Still, once you've started it, you definitely want to know what the secrets are and who really did start the fire ...

First Holly Bourne book I have read. Entertaining and enlightening with four girls who were at University meeting up and organising a baby shower with unanticipated consequences. A story well told and a good plot to keep the reader guessing the outcomes. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

You realise how good an author is when, despite not really liking any one of the four main characters (four women, friends since university), despite the dreadful editing (neither author nor editor seemed to know the difference between lie and lay, when to use an adverb or when to use me and I: "through Matt and I's marriage" (Really? REALLY???), or how to use an apostrophe) and despite the complete lack of a nod to her readers by the author in her acknowledgements—publishers, friends, family, advisers, experts…oh yes, Uncle Tom Cobley, but not all….despite all that (yes, I know it's a lot!), you simply can't put this down.

The above aside, it's very well written with (whether you like them or not) characters with a lot meat on them (figuratively!). There's Lauren with severe post-natal depression, Nicki with a mend-my-marriage pregnancy, neuro-divergent Charlotte who can't get pregnant, and career-girl Steffi who has no need of babies in her life. And then, Nicki's baby shower changes everything.

I enjoyed this a lot but for me to read anything else by this author, I want better editing…and less nonsense like "It’s no coincidence that every woman in this country over the age of 60 has some kind of clinical anxiety disorder." Clearly, I'm unique…'nonsense' is a ladylike word for what I actually think of that.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed regarding this book are entirely my own.

So Thrilled for You by Holly Bourne. This book will stay with me for a very long time. I would say it is one of the best books I have read this year.
The topic of the book centres around motherhood, whether it is a choice and societies' views around having children, not having children and how we celebrate great events in a woman's life. It is a topic that I have personally been thinking of a great deal. The choice on whether to become a mother and the expectations placed on mothers from the birth of their child and how they lose themselves in the process of bringing up their children and how they become invisible. With more and more women choosing a path without children, does society celebrate other life achievements other than getting married and having children? This is the first book that I have had such an emotional, visceral reaction to. The explanation of the trauma of giving birth really resonated with me and my experience as a Student Midwife and mother..

I would highly recommend reading this book, I wanted to keep reading to get to the conclusion and learn how each person in the story turned out. I look forward to reading anything else by Holly Bourne

I can see why this is on so many lists of 'Books to Watch for 2025'. Such an intimate, honest and bare story of four women getting through the trials of your 30s and a brilliant portrayal of never knowing what another person is going through, and therefore why they react in the way they do. So brilliant, so exposing, so liberating.

I really enjoyed So Thrilled for You! Holly Bourne nails the ups and downs of female friendships—how they can be loving, messy, and a bit competitive all at once. The characters felt so real, and I couldn’t help but see bits of my own friendships in their struggles.

It’s funny, honest, and emotional, though a few parts were a bit predictable. Still, it’s a great read if you’ve ever felt left behind by someone close to you.
Thanks NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

So Thrilled for You by Holly Bourne is a captivating, character-driven novel that delves into the complexities of friendship, motherhood, and the emotional tensions that arise when life pulls people in different directions. The story kicks off with a chaotic and disastrous baby shower for Nicki, which ends in a fire that leaves everyone a suspect. The novel then unfolds in a unique way, with each chapter providing the perspective of one of the four women involved, as they recount their version of events leading up to the unforgettable night.

Nicki, Charlotte, Lauren, and Steffi—once close friends at university—now find themselves at vastly different points in life. Their bonds have been strained by time and changing circumstances. Nicki, who never wanted a baby shower in the first place, is overwhelmed by the pressure of impending motherhood. Lauren, already a mother, is struggling with the harsh realities of raising a child. Charlotte, desperate to conceive, is consumed by envy of those who have children. Steffi, happily child-free and focused on her career, feels increasingly judged by her friends for not wanting to have children.

Through these four women’s perspectives, Bourne explores the many facets of motherhood—new motherhood, the longing for motherhood, and the choice to remain child-free—and how these experiences shape the relationships between them. Each woman’s personal struggles and desires reveal the growing resentment, jealousy, and misunderstandings that have taken root in their friendships.

The emotional depth of the characters is what truly makes this book compelling. Bourne masterfully captures the complexity of women’s lives, the expectations placed on them by society and each other, and the tension that builds when they feel misunderstood. As the story unfolds, the reader uncovers more about each woman’s emotional journey, leading to an unexpected and shocking conclusion that will leave them questioning what they thought they knew.

So Thrilled for You is an insightful and poignant exploration of the messy realities of friendship, motherhood, and the choices women face. Holly Bourne weaves an engaging, thought-provoking narrative that tackles deep emotional truths while delivering an unforgettable and, at times, uncomfortable look at relationships. It’s a novel that resonates long after the final page, providing a heartfelt look at the ties that bind and the forces that can tear us apart.

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