I've never read anything by Holly Bourne but like the sound of the story and thought I'd give it a go. I really enjoyed it up until about 80%. Although none of the characters are particularly likeable their individual stories were interesting. 4 friends from uni (the little women) gather at Nikki's baby shower. Organised by Charlotte, who sounds like complete nightmare (everything has to be perfect!!!!) Lauren who has 9 month old son and has barely sleep a wink in that time and Steffi who is child free and focused on the best day of her life as her publishing company takes off. All very nice. But boy are these people toxic. They are all so self obsessed that they can't see outside of their own little bubble.
The last 20% was just a manic rant which left me unable to sleep, as my heart was thumping away Iin distress! I get it. Our lives are messy even scary at times but this was a story about women and motherhood and I found the lack of sisterhood a bit troubling. I am a mother and found my first baby very hard. An emergency c section and a baby who wouldn't sleep. All very real. But this book would make any would be Mum scared silly! Also the police investigation was silly and didn't ring true. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read an advance copy in return for an honest review.

lets start with saying ... I COULDN'T STOP READING THIS.

This gave me a lot of feelings, that I didn't expect to feel when following four friends navigating motherhood in there 30s but I honestly think that I found something in each of the characters that I could relate too. Only reason its getting a four star and not a 5 is because the ending was a little bit of a let down for me but other than that, loved this one and will definitely be talking about it nearer to release date!

‘They talk so much about weaponised incompetence in men, but I swear weaponised incontinence is the bigger feminist issue’

I am a fan of Holly Bourne, so was very happy to read the advanced copy of this book.

It comprises of the ‘Little Women’, a circle of friends who have been navigating life together since University. Each are living their own lives, and are at different stages of their lives.

The four come together to celebrate the imminent birth of Nicki’s baby at her baby shower. The day is meticulously planned by Charlotte, whose desire for a baby is palpable. Exhausted new mother Lauren picks up Steffi and they arrive at the party together along with Lauren’s son Woody.

Although they are best friends, there is underlying animosity, jealousy and misunderstanding which starts to ignite.

I loved the brutal truth of struggling as a new mother, a taboo subject that is exposed and navigated so well in this book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to all women, whether they are mothers or not.

As ever with Holly Bourne books, So Thrilled For You was an incredibly fun and relatable read!

4.5 stars.

The whodunit element was such a pleasant surprise, it gave the story such great momentum! Every new reveal of the women's backstories felt like a ache - they've all been holding grudges for sooooo long it was tantalising! My only wish is that there has been one dynamic between the four of them where they didn't secretly hate each other, as it was ever so slightly exhausting to jump from one disingenuous relationship to the next. I loved Steffi most of all and couldn't wrap my head around her friends not understanding that her personal choices weren't a slight at them, but I'm sure everyone will identify with one of these characters more than the other - it's very Sex and the City in that way!

So Thrilled For You by Holly Bourne
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My first Holly Bourne novel was definitely worth the read. Following a group of women in their early thirties, all at different stages of their life. The novel effortlessly jumps from past to present, giving readers a backstory of their friendship, while slowly uncovering the timeline of a present crime.

The first half reads as a fun and compelling crime novel, shown through different formats and lenses, such as interview transcripts, news articles and comments written by online users, as well as different POVs from the main characters. I think this could make it into a brilliant audiobook (think audiobook of Big Little Lies). As the story progresses, it shifts from the crime to a stress-induced baby shower, focusing on the characters, escalating their disagreements, built-up resentments and their experience and expectations of what motherhood is like. Hence, the culprit reveal is a bit underwhelming.

Bourne depicts great characterisation of women who, for different reasons, want and don’t want to be mothers, have been traumatised by birth or are awaiting the big day. Nikki, Steffi, Lauren and Charlotte are four unique yet relatable women, representing four different perspectives. As the story progresses, we gain understanding of their behaviour and what’s really hiding behind it. The most harrowing read for me were definitely the perspectives of Lauren and Charlotte - one clearly suffering from postnatal depression and the other one willing to do anything to have a child after rounds of unsuccessful IVF.

Overall, this was a quick but not an easy read, pointing out the expectations, challenges and sacrifices women have to take when considering and experiencing motherhood.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for my copy.

Holly Bourne is one of those authors who I will actively keep an eye out for new books and will always read straight away, and this latest offering didn't disappoint. In fact, So Thrilled for You might just be my new favourite Bourne book.

Bourne captured the toxicity of female friendship perfectly, alongside motherhood and fertility journeys. I think my only grumble would be the clichéd depiction of the child-free woman being a 'Samantha' - a fabulous, stylish, career-woman; it feels like writers can't possibly understand a child-free life without having to fill the 'gap' with something else that's 'big and meaningful', when some of us are happy just living a quiet life with a mundane job and a cat!

I think I have loved every single word that Holly Bourne has ever written. I’m certainly not in her demographic but her characters are so beautifully written than you feel you know each and every one.

A group of girls meet at University and become firm friends- even naming their group Little Women but as they move on with life, tensions appear as they start to make choices about how they live their own lives. Do they want to marry, have children, have an amazing career? Or are they each facing their own individual problems? Splits are forming within the group and a baby shower is the perfect reason to get them all together again…

I loved this book and where I used to thrust her YA books into the hands of the teenagers I work with, I’ll now be gifting them to the twenty and thirty somethings I know.

I mainly enjoyed this book, however the format made it really difficult for me to read which resulted in it not being as enjoyable. I believe this is due to it being a preview which meant it was difficult to tell when the book changed perspective, and the interview scenarios were all muddled up too.

I loved this book - and I was hoping for nothing less, as Holly Bourne is one of my favourite authors. A baby shower that goes horribly wrong, with a great set of characters, all imperfect in their own ways, and with different experiences of motherhood. A really well-written account of what life can be like for women in their thirties. Would highly recommend.

I absolutely adored this novel. It's witty, tense, and often deeply moving. So Thrilled for You charts the friendship of four women throughout one incredibly stressful day: a baby shower. Each woman has a different relationship to motherhood (there's the pregnant friend, the friend who's postpartum depression is destroying her, the friend who never wants children, and the friend who desperately wants children but can't conceive). Yet the women are so much more than mothers or mothers-to-be, as their friendship is tested and explored through flashbacks to the past. Each character is so vivid and real that I felt like I really knew them. I couldn't put this down. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy! I'll be recommending it to everyone.

Holly Bourne's latest is another juicy page turner about a group of women who've been friends since college. Now they're going off and starting families of their own (or not) and new tensions and old resentments surface at a baby shower.

Bourne is great at writing contemporaries about women and complex relationships, yet this is the first that reads a bit like a thriller. The story moves between police interview transcripts in the present and the build-up to the fire that ended the baby shower from hell. It was great (and unusual) to see a book successfully juggle four different perspectives.

It's a very compelling story, mostly because the characters are so well-drawn. Nicki, Lauren, Steffi and Charlotte are each easy to sympathise with when you're reading their POV, but it is also easy to see how you could resent them when seen from another's perspective. Bourne's characterization was so strong you could appreciate it from all sides. This is true of Charlotte, especially, who I felt sorry for at the same time as I felt sorry for all those having to deal with her.

I wasn't at all surprised to learn Bourne is a new mum herself as she so perfectly describes the horror and anxiety so many new mothers deal with, including breastfeeding nightmares, useless husbands and the feeling that your whole life and identity has been taken from you.

Alongside this, she also portrays the heartache of being unable to get pregnant and the frustrations of being a woman who doesn't want kids. She handles all these perspectives with empathy and respect.

I was excited to see how it would all play out, though I'm not totally convinced by the last chapter.

This book surprised me. It gave a raw, unfiltered view of four women at different stages in their lives: the new mother, the expecting parent, the career driven single girl and a girl battling infertility and how this impacts their relationship with one another over the course of a day. I would highly recommend it

ANOTHER great hit by Holly Bourne! I enjoyed this one so much and found its topic so interesting and relevant. I found myself intrigued by the ending, wasn't expecting it and it was very important to me to find compassion and understanding for each one of the characters, even though I didn't agree with some of their decissions. Also, loved Charlotte to the core!

This book starts with an incident at a baby shower and the police interviewing the main four friends there, we then go back to the day each time someone is interviewed getting to know their lives and personalities, each one carrying lies from their friends putting on a pretense that all is okay but as the day goes on the cracks start to show.
As to how the fire started it's the only negative I had about the book as was too unrealistic and left me a bit disappointed.

So Thrilled For You is a well written and thought provoking read. It follows four friends as they attend a baby shower which ultimately goes wrong and ends in a large fire. The book shifts through the perspective of four friends as they each deal with their own problems, miscommunications and misunderstandings throughout the day of the baby shower as we unravel the events that led to the fire. The different perspectives does a really good job of examining the different experiences the women are going through and highlights the expectations that women face. Holly Bourne does a brilliant job not shying away from some difficult content and it makes for some difficult and uncomfortable reading at times but is very thought provoking. Definitely check the trigger warnings before picking this up! The characters are not all likeable and your levels of sympathy change as we delve deeper into each of their backstory and decision making but I think this also makes them feel real and more relatable even if you don't like them. Overall its a really interesting character driven book with thought provoking perspectives. The addition of the whodunit storyline surrounding the fire adds a layer of mystery and intrigue that kept me gripped and unable to put the book down.

This was another amazing read that I absolutely ran through. Full of beautiful writing that touches you if you are single, in a couple or a mum. Will stay with me for a while

Four friends (one with a young child, one heavily pregnant, one who wants a child, and one who is happily childless) attend a a baby shower where one is the organiser and one is the focus. Sounds like a nice premise for a character-driven story about friendship, right? But add a gender reveal firework gone wrong, burning down the venue and setting fire to the nearby surroundings, and this becomes a whodunit.

Quite a few years ago, I saw Holly Bourne speak at a women's literary festival. At the time, she was a widely acclaimed young adult author. She spoke about her passion for gender equality and mental health. I was surprised and intrigued when, a few years later, I saw that she had begun writing contemporary adult fiction. I've read all three of her previous adult novels ('How Do You Like Me Now?', 'Pretending' and 'Girl Friends) and found them all very engaging and readable.

However, with 'So Thrilled For You' she has really upped her game. The absolute searing honesty of how she approaches motherhood, dating and friendship is almost painful. It's pretty tricky juggling four point of view characters (the last novel I saw execute this so well was 'The Friend' by Dorothy Koomson) but she did this with panache. She draws you right into this tight friendship group, informally named 'Little Women', and explores the dynamics in a very realistic way. I was out with a friend the day I started reading this book and I still managed to finish it all within 8 hours, reading it frantically on public transport and then in bed when I got home.

Given the continuing upwards trajectory of the calibre of Bourne's books, I'm very excited to see where her next novel will take us.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC!

Four extremely annoying women.

I really couldn't warm to any of them

I've no idea what happened to them, because I didn't make it to the end

I absolutely loved this book! Through its use of multiple POVs of Lauren, Steffi, Charlotte and Nicki, the story provides an emotional insight into the impact of motherhood and female friendships in the past and present, all through the setting of a disastrous baby shower!

This book is so funny and entertaining, but at times the main thing that struck me whilst reading this book was the pervasive anxiety imbued in every woman’s POV. The strain of motherhood, infertility and the decision not to have children are all explored equally and fully in a realistic way that does not glamourise or hyperbolise the experiences these characters have of this time in their lives. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for approving my request to review this book.