This book viscerally hurt to read at times - it was simultaneously easy to pick up because I wanted to know who started the fire but also so hard because it was just so painful to read the experiences of some of the characters.

Starting early chapters with a police interview with the character that the chapter is from was a really good and enticing way to introduce the reader to a bunch of different main characters. The four main character's plots are so different, however, that they'd be hard to mix up.

Two of the plots are so pro-motherhood and the other two are so anti-motherhood that it's kinda funny, in a way. Although, also, it's really not funny because what both Charlotte and Lauren are going through, in contrast to each other, is so tragic and heart-breaking. Yet this book manages to keep being darkly humorous most of the time.

So dark and hopeless. I never felt the usual message of "motherhood is worth all the trouble" that you usually get from books about people who've just had children. Which is refreshing, in a way, but also it was so hopeless. For example, men are literally useless in this - every male character is pointless at best and harmful at worst. Healthcare services, according to this book, are so useless that they're actively trying to kill you - doctors and nurses won't listen to you at all and will just do things against your will because they're monsters and they don’t care. IVF is a pointless waste of money because you'll either conceive naturally or you won't.

I have to say that Steffi's career and friendship-focussed plot was a breath of fresh air when we got her chapters because she was the only one not obsessed with babies. Which is a wild prospect when you go into a book expecting it to be all about motherhood and you find yourself yearning to read about the only character with no interest in it at all because the motherhood-centric plots are so depressing.

I wasn’t especially fond of the first world problems at times - most of these women are the kind of rich where they don't have to worry about money at all, especially Charlotte and Nicki. I can't fathom having or wanting a child and not having to worry about how to afford a child, it's a very foreign concept to me.

The way the women turn on each other based on old resentments they've kept buried for years was so well executed and realistic of friendships that have been going for years. The fact that, as a reader, I felt compelled to sympathise with all of their plights whilst simultaneously empathising with their feelings of injustice at one another was fantastic writing. I couldn't help but hope for a happy ending and a reunification of the friendship group at the end of the story, in part to offset how dark the rest of the plot was, and in part because I didn't want to see 10+ years of friendship die between 4 women just because of one horrific disaster of a day.

I absolutely loved this! I read it over a weekend, unable to put it down. It has a great opening hook - who started the fire, and what are the characters covering up, but what follows is a beautiful account of what it is like to be a woman in 2025. The pressures of work, family, and motherhood. The characters are all really rounded and compliment each other perfectly which makes for lots of secrets being kept - I loved it!

So Thrilled For You is the first book I have read by this author. I felt that the start was a little slow but as the story progressed it became more entertaining.
The four friends who call themselves the “Little Women” meet at University in Sheffield. Their friendship appears solid but it soon becomes apparent that now in their 30s their lives have taken different paths and they are not perhaps there for each other when things are difficult.
Lauren has a nine month old baby and has gone through a traumatic birth and as a result she is finding it hard to cope. She thinks that her friends won’t understand what she is going through so she keeps her struggles to herself. After all, Charlotte is going through IVF and is desperate for a child and she would feel insensitive to let her know how she feels. Steffi is a career girl and makes no secret of the fact that motherhood is not on her radar. Finally, Nikki is about to give birth and as these four friends and other guests meet together at Nikki’s parent’s house in the country on a hot Summer’s day in drought conditions the Baby Shower meticulously planned by Charlotte will not go as planned. Resentments simmer and the pyrotechnic to be set off for the surprise gender reveal is going to give more surprises than anyone bargained for. An entertaining read with a satisfying conclusion.
Thanks to the author and publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I have been a big fan of Holly Bourne's work for years now. I really enjoyed this story and the way it was told through multiple perspectives. Definitely will be recommending to everyone to read!

I LOVED this book!

When a baby shower ends in a massive fire ripping through the Surrey countryside. There are 4 best friends, hiding their own secrets could one of them set the fire in anger …..

This book relates to all women, how we manage adult hood and becoming parents.

A must read for all

So Thrilled For You is a book about motherhood in all it's glory. We find ourselves beginning at the wrong end of a baby shower/gender reveal party where things have clearly gone very wrong.

We then work our way backwards with all the group (who call themselves The Little Women) who have been friends since university, giving their version of what happened at that party to cause such a disaster.

This is a character led book and these women, who were clearly once friends, have lives which have diverged to the point where they have little in common and there is where the problems begin.

I enjoyed reading this novel despite it not being my usual fare and knowing precious little about motherhood but the emotions are key in this piece of work- there is new motherhood, imminent motherhood, desperate longing for motherhood and one whose choice is for a career. They are disparate characters and that is what makes the book work.

I found the end almost superfluous because it was the journey to get there that was so interesting.

Definitely recommended.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the advance review copy.

This is my first book by Holly Bourne and It was a really enjoyable and relatable read.
A group of friends meet up for Nikki’s baby shower and tensions rise as the day progresses. A fire then breaks out and everyone is a suspect.
The characters are well written and very relatable especially Lauren who is a first time mum.
A brilliant book with a great unexpected ending.
Thanks to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Holly Bourne for an advance copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

A group of friends that met at Uni, life changes, relationships, babies, arguments and a gender reveal firework on the hottest day of the year, what could go wrong and more importantly, who did it? I loved this story of the friends relationship and more so the honesty about childbirth and having a new born, it’s not a,, scented candles, soft blankets and love, sometimes it’s really hard, painful, life changing and this story showed this.

Nicki, Lauren, Charlotte, and Steffi—friends since their carefree university days—find themselves at a crossroads in their thirties. With life pulling them in conflicting directions, their reunion at Nicki’s baby shower becomes a pressure cooker of unresolved tensions and unspoken grievances. The suffocating heat only heightens the drama, culminating in a shocking fire that leaves everyone questioning who’s responsible.

What sets this novel apart is its nuanced portrayal of female friendship and the complex emotions tied to motherhood and societal expectations. Each character has their flaws and fears, making them very real. Steffi’s defiance of traditional roles, Charlotte’s consuming desire to conceive, Lauren’s struggle with the reality of motherhood, and Nicki’s questioning of her sexuality showcase the reality of life.

I did enjoy this book on the whole; there were parts that felt very unbelievable, like the police interrogation (what was with some of the questions they were asking!) but overall, I could relate a little bit to some of them - not Nicki, she was just awful and needed to be booted from the group.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I quite enjoyed this but it wasn't as light a read as I was expecting. I liked the backstories, the exploration of the women's lives and friendship over the years and the stresses and issues of their current lives. All the women have their own problems in the present but despite their friendship they feel they cannot discuss their problems because of the effect this might have on the others in the group. This leads to resentment and niggles and finally enormous rows and an explosion!

All in all, not bad but boy, what an awful child that Woody is, perhaps he is acting out his despair at his dreadful name. I certainly did feel for Lauren most of all.

I was not expecting the raw description of motherhood, the way society (including other women) side-lines mothers, silences their voices and fails to understand and treat physical pain arising from birthing procedures.. I fear that there is a lot of truth in this but it does make uncomfortable and enraging reading.

The ending is probably mostly what we wanted to read.

It’s the baby shower whodunnit we didn’t know we needed in our lives. We’ve all been targeted with the American click bait articles of gender reveal disasters from hell and this is the English fictional narrative of such an event.

Set in sweltering Surrey on one of the hottest days of the year, disaster strikes when a fire breaks across the scorched landscape enveloping all that it encounters. Everyone is a suspect and it’s the work of the all intrusive detectives to find out who started the fire.

Is it Steffi, who doesn’t want kids and needs this party to end so she can get back to the most monumental day of her career?
Is it Lauren, who recently had a baby, is struggling and feels the joys of motherhood shouldn’t be celebrated?
Is it Nikki, who never wanted this baby shower to begin with?
Or is it Charlotte, the one who wants this baby shower so much for herself that she’s jealous it’s not hers?

The reader hears all the plausible motives, all the rationalisations and warning signs. I was hooked right to the end.

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for sending this book for review consideration.

I didn’t really know what to expect from this book but my goodness it exceeded all expectations. One of my favourite books of the year. A thorough examination of womanhood in your 30s. Discusses the complexities of female friendships, relationships, motherhood and sexuality. I absolutely loved it.

If you enjoyed Olive by Emma Gannon (another one of my favourite books), you’re sure to love this.

Holly smashes it again! Every perspective was treated with love and empathy all the while keeping me utterly gripped.

I will literally read anything Holly Bourne writes - that is the power her writing has over me. This was another twisty turn mystery that really packed a punch.

This book was a lot of fun! I love books about imperfect female friendships and I love a flashback. The mystery of who started the fire was solved perfectly. The police interviews being peppered throughout and the different character perspectives was a good way for the story to unravel. It was an easy and light read.

Thanks to the publishers and net galley for an advanced ecopy in exchange for a review. This book follows Nikki, Lauren, Steffi and Charlotte on the day of Nikki’s baby shower, Based over one day the book flicks from past to present to build characters and the story of how the day ends in tragedy and to try and discover and how. The book covers lots of topics including motherhood, pregnancy and friendship. They have all been friends since uni but have relationships and motherhood or lack of it finally driven them all apart? I enjoyed this book especially since I am due to give birth this month and liked reading from different characters point of view. I will be recommending to others

I am grateful to Holly Bourne, Hodder & Stoughton, and Netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of this title. Keep reading for my review of the book.

I stumbled across this book as I was lamenting at the sorry state of my friendships. As I plan my wedding, everyone around me lacks the minimal enthusiasm I expect them to have. It gives off the vibe that on the surface they are ‘so thrilled for me,’ but inwardly it’s a different story, although we won’t dwell on this. The point is, the title called to me and as I read the blurb about this group of friends and an ‘accident’ that occurs at one of those said friend’s baby shower, it resonated with me and made me and called me to look at the destruction of someone else’s event instead of concentrating on the destruction of my own.

Nicki is having a baby shower, and her ‘best’ friends are due to attend. Excitable Charlotte threw together the shindig to be held at Nicki’s parents’ house, although secretly she wishes it could be her day. Lauren, already a mum, has a young baby of her own in tow, and a husband to boot. Childless Steffi has all the answers to everything, and an emerging publishing company that is putting her on the path to career success, even if she can’t hold down a man. And then there’s Phoebe, the frenemy whose friendship was mourned when the ‘Little Women’ parted ways. Whilst seemingly all happy to be in attendance, all is not as it seems when arguments and a fire breaks out. Piling on the negativity, an investigation deduces that arson is to blame. So, who is not as thrilled as they would have us believe?

Told through multiple sources including present tense (at various points), police interviews, journalistic interviews, and general observations from a range of characters, the novel is a slow burn, building rich characters with distinct personalities and backstories that weave themselves into the current day scenarios.

I enjoyed how the book was relatable. Watching long-term friends exert their familiarity and range of loveable and not so loveable traits was interesting, comical, and highly believable. The inner thoughts and bitchy comments were funny, and at times understandable on this hot sweltering, highly charged day that was heading for a catastrophe one or another. Nicki’s parents, particularly her mother, added an additional dose of humor with how out of touch they are.

The book is an insightful look at women today battling their inner selves and each other as they try to live up to societal ideals, be it via motherhood, or in the business world. Through the wit, satire and sadness, there are grains of truth that many women will find resonates with them. Aside from the pace at the beginning, there is nothing that I would fault with this novel. It stirred judgement and a healthy range of emotions within me that kept my attention, made me want to get involved in the whodunnit, and most certainly hooked me enough to drive me to the conclusion, which was always going to come as a surprise to me because of the way the story was set up. The storytelling was absolutely brilliant with so little given away that my choice of culprit changed several times throughout based on who was recapping at the time.

This book is for all the women out there, whatever your take on family life is as there is a friend, or elements of a couple of friends that you are sure to recognize in yourself. It’s an easy read to chill out to be it on the beach, wrapped up in your snug, curled up in bed, or unwinding in your VDU break from work. It could have been a little shorter, but at the same time, the length gave you more of these hilarious characters. I have already identified a few friends that are going to be receiving a copy of this book on launch day.

I grew up reading Holly Bourne’s books - I loved them as a teenager and love them now as an adult. I can honestly say that I cannot relate to a book more. Being a new mum myself I understood exactly where Lauren was coming from and it was a sigh of relief to finally read something that actually goes into the hard parts of being a mum, rather than just the ‘nice’ parts or making jokes about being sleep deprived. This book is so REAL, and I’m going to be recommending it to my family so they can finally understand what I experienced with my first child.

Four Little Women, friends from university but now grown up and with their own problems. All culminates in the chaos of a Baby Shower/Gender Reveal with a fiery finish.
I felt for these women. No one had the perfect life, but could not see how everyone else was suffering too.
A deeply engaging book, full of suspense.

excellent. a brilliant exploration of female friendships and motherhood and the culture and performance that comes with living in this generation.
definitely recommend if you want to read a book that makes you forget you’re reading.