I received an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, thank you to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton, and the author Holly Bourne.
I found this story incredibly stressful, but gripping nonetheless. It was well written but I wouldn't really recommend it if you're looking to relax and rewind before bed. It's essentially every intrusive or anxious thought possible communicated through the four main characters.
For that reason, I wish I hadn't read it, but can appreciate the writing. 3 stars.

Love a Holly Bourne book and this one did not disappoint. Forever friends since meeting at university aged 19, now 32 and very different.
You will recognise part of yourself and your friends in each of the central female characters.
Choices that we all make and the consequences they create.. The brilliant ending left me astounded.

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

Four different women, best friends since university, come together to celebrate Nicki’s baby shower. Lauren brings her 9 month old and is severely sleep deprived. Steffi is on the brink of the biggest deal of her career and doesn’t want kids. Charlotte is desperate for a baby, but struggling to convince, pours all her energy into organising the baby shower. When a fire starts everyone is a suspect.

Wow wow wow! I have that devoured this. I lived it so much to the point I haven’t been able to put it down!

The characters are so relatable. Their experiences so true to life. The friendship so powerful, but filled with life getting in the way. I couldn’t have guessed the ending. I loved the epilogue. I want to read it again it was just so good.

Another crowd pleaser from Holly Bourne! The usual smart wit and clever prose. An easy read and one the reader can empathise with.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Unfortunately this just didn’t do it for me. The writing style was a bit juvenile and I couldn’t bring myself to care about the characters. As someone with no children, and no friends with children, it wasn’t all that relatable to me which probably contributed to my being unable to connect with the characters.

Four best friends come together for a baby shower which doesn't go well. A page turning thriller, it was so easy to get gripped by it. Great twist at the end

Four best friends - Charlotte, Nikki, Lauren & Steffi, are getting together for the first time in a while for Nikki's baby shower. Charlotte has obsessively organised the event to keep her mind off her own fertility issues, Lauren is struggling with her own 9-month old son Woody, Steffi has made it well-known she doesn't want children and Nikki is hoping that this baby will help get her marriage back on track.

Starting with the dramatic events at the end of the baby shower, the story changes POV between the main characters, shows the build up to the event as well as when the girls were all at university together, giving a very well-rounded and fleshed out story. With very realistic characters and friend group, as well as some brutal truths about infertility, pregnancy and early parenthood, this gave a raw and honest look at this time of life.

I ADORED this book. Even though my baby days are over and nothing but I distant memory.
All the characters were so well written and they actually felt like real people. Oh Lauren, I related to Lauren so well. Nicki, Steffi and Charlotte were all drawn out in their own ways. I could also heavily, heavily relate to Charlotte the way she was portrayed.
If the author, Holly reads this, then I want her to know that she’s written a barn stormer of a book. I can only sing its praises. I was enraptured from the beginning, I even resented going to bed and having to go to sleep when all I really wanted to do was read on and on.
I’m sad it’s ended , but thank you so much for the opportunity. #NetGalley #SoThrilledForYou #HollyBourne

I LOVED this book. As a mother just a little over a year out of the newborn stage, I CACKLED at some of the traumatic Lauren bits. But all the characters are just so relatable no matter what your choices or where you're at in your own life. I felt like this book was brilliant at representing women friendships and that weird sense of constantly comparing ourselves to each other and feeling so lost and messy while trying to put on a brave face for others. Also, 12/10 for Seth in this one. The fantasy of a nice solid emotionally stable finance bro really is what our fiction dreams are made of. Negative points for Matt (you know what you did). I don't think there's been a book in recent memory that I have devoured so quickly. It had such complex characters while being so accessibly written. The story was easy to follow despite switching perspectives and jumping back and forth between past and present. This book made me call up my best friends and just remind them how much I love them and how proud I am of them and how grateful I am to experience life at the same time as them.

Holly Bourne is an exceptional writer. When I read her book, You Could Be So Pretty, it made me so angry with the world our children are growing up in, with the permanent pressure to look good and fit in. I've recommended it to everyone I can.

Now 'So Thrilled For You' has taken that same laser focus and shone it on the world of pregnancy and early motherhood, another life stage where society tells women they should be grateful and happy to be mothers, that they should know what their babies need, that childbirth can be a breeze. If you're not feeling like that, are you an anomaly?

Four best friends -Nikki, Steffi, Charlotte and Lauren- are coming together for Nikki's baby shower. Charlotte, desperate to have a baby and deep into the IVF journey, has ploughed all her energy into making this the best baby shower ever - she has planned every detail and every second of the day. Lauren is already a mother to 9month old Woody, but it is more exhausting and tortuous than she could ever have dreamt and she can't see a future where this is going to change. Steffi has decided she doesn't want children but her friends can't see her perspective without feeling judged. She is on the verge of a huge business success but feels unsupported by her friends. They all call each other best friends but in amongst that, there are buried animosities and misunderstandings and none of them are entirely honest with one another.

The story opens with police investigating a wildfire spreading at the baby shower/ gender reveal party and interviewing all four women about their movements and motivation. Snippets of police interviews are scattered throughout the book, reminding us where the story is heading.

The book doesn't shy away from the realities of giving birth in underfunded and under-resourced hospitals, or the shock of taking a new baby home and being totally responsible for every aspect of their lives. It also addresses the overwhelming need some people have to be parents, dedicating their lives to making it happen at the expense of everything else as well as how we treat women who decide not to have children.

Its not an easy read and it should make you angry at what we expect women to go through without complaint. When you read the acknowledgements and realise that Lauren's storyline cover some of the author's own experiences, it is even more hard-hitting. Its going to be a story that I think about for a very long time.

I absolutely adored this. As someone who has been the Charlotte of a couple of baby showers and had very close friends who have been both Lauren and Steffi, this was a brutal and touching read. I know people say this a lot, but I did genuinely struggle to put it down and got through the whole book in a couple of sittings. So funny yet heart-achingly spot on in terms of what it feels like to go through these massive changes in a friendship group at this age. I've recommended it to so many people!

This hit hard! I highlighted so many lines in this, I may as well have highlighted the whole thing. It was painfully relatable, in ways that made me reflect on my own female friendships and their sincerity. I saw a lot of myself in Charlotte, including her too-muchness, and appreciated how the different characters' perspectives were nuanced - Lauren, for example, was like a slice of lived experience: unique while also being recognisable, and never straight-forward. I'll be reading more Holly Bourne (and will check out baby sensory videos of dancing veggies... I had not come across this before!!)

Delighted to be sent an ARC of this by the publisher as HB is one of my favourite writers. I found it incredibly confrontational and stressful in the best ways and it was all I was talking about for days as I was reading it. An uncompromising and incisive view of how motherhood changes women and their relationships. Absolutely stunning.

This book was a first for me by this author, but that said, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a variety of characters and and and interesting storyline. A bit of a different read for me, but look forward to more from this author

From the moment I started reading this book, I loved it. However, it should come with various trigger warnings. As a reader in their 30s who has suffered some of the same pain as Charlotte’s character, I really resonated with her POV and outlook on things. One of the beautiful things about this book is that I think there are parts of each of the women’s personality that would speak to any reader due to their different paths chosen in life.
The only reason I gave it 4 star instead of 5 is because it sort of fell into the happy ending trope in some ways and the ending felt a bit rushed. I felt like the ending was at odds with the raw, gritty, honest narrative we saw throughout the book. Overall, a great read!

A new Holly Bourne book is always a treat! A baby shower goes up in flames and the only question is who did it? This was so readable and engaging, and I thought it explored some of the big topics of being a woman in your 30s – motherhood, infertility, friendship, choosing to be child-free – in a way that was very comprehensive and nuanced without ever feeling paint-by-numbers. I felt like I understood every single character's viewpoint and grievances, even when they're sometimes in conflict with each other. Sometimes the characters are bitches to each other but it's always for a reason (except Nicki. Nicki just came across as weirdly selfish with a horrible victim mentality, I did not like her towards the end). I would really recommend, especially for a holiday read!

This was really good - a gripping read. So smart; I couldn't put it down.



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... Is it Steffi, happily child-free but feeling judged by her friends? Is it Charlotte, desperate to conceive and jealous of those who have? Is it Lauren, who is finding motherhood far, far worse than she imagined? Or is it Nicki herself, who never wanted a baby shower anyway?

In the aftermath, the police put together the facts - but the truth will shock everyone. Even you.

Holly Bourne has done it again with her newest adult book, So Thrilled For You. With a rich and varied cast of characters, the book shows what an amazing character study the author is - each so different and yet so real and relatable. At times it was too real, too visceral and it felt like Holly was shining a spotlight on the parts of me I don't want to look at.

Holly is an incredibly talented writer and with this book has shown how versatile she can be. Whether it's YA, rom com or drama, she can master anything she turns her hand to, and So Thrilled for You is no exception.

(4.25) To say this was a rollercoaster of emotions would be an understatement!

Following the stories of these four very different women has been extremely insightful. Each POV did a wonderful job of instantly transporting you into that person's world and made you understand how they were feeling, what they were thinking and what they wanted. All of the emotions were so raw and unfiltered - it was really refreshing to read. I found Lauren's story absolutely heartbreaking at times, which is a massive feat as I could not relate to any of it personally. It was also interesting to read about how different people interpret situations/other's actions (speaking of the article Steffi reposted in particular) and how quickly miscommunication can transform into a sort of resentment.

Having said all that, I found Nicki's POV probably the least engaging as I felt more frustrated with her thoughts/actions throughout. It didn't feel as varied - with the other characters I found moments I could relate to, things I didn't understand, or things I hated. I mostly felt annoyed while reading her chapters. I also didn't love how her and Phoebe's relationship was approached.

I did love how the story wrapped up, and I thought the writing was superb throughout!

Thanks so much to NetGalley for an early copy of this book - I'm definitely a fan.

Holly Bourne holds a special place in my heart and on my bookshelf. Her books always resonate far beyond the words on the page, and So Thrilled For You is no exception. It’s another excellent read!

This story follows a group of friends navigating their 30s, each at different stages of their parenting journeys and wanting/not wanting children. The characters and their storylines were very relatable, even to me as someone without kids. The emotional rollercoaster Bourne takes readers on is both powerful and engaging.

The writing was well balanced with multiple characters and perspectives. It was easy to follow and stay immersed in the story.

That said, some aspects of the plot (no spoilers here!) felt a bit unusual, and the characters could be frustrating at times. But, for me, that added to the drama and intrigue.

Overall, this was an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. I’d highly recommend it to all my friends!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing this book and the opportunity to review it.