Attain Just Between Friends Depicted By Rosie Nixon Conveyed As Booklet

the strongest story to start my year with, It started ok but plodded along too much without much substance, The characters were quite annoying and although I started to buy into the situation I soon bored of them,

I dont think the people chosen to narrate the audiobook were quite right, The voices didnt gel for me and I found them somewhat grating, This certainly didnt help the story!

I though there was going to be a good twist at the end, But it didnt come and left me feeling a bit irked that Id stuck with it,

That said, I dont think the writing style itself was too bad, It flowed well and I could visualise all the people and events included, The story just didnt stick enough, I read another review where the author was applauded for including a range of different parenting journeys and I would have to agree.
We have same sex couples, surrogacy and IVF included in the narrative,
New mums, Old Secrets The gripping new novel from the author of The Stylist,

Aisha Moore is eight months pregnant, Shes thrilled, and a little scared, Not least because her husband Jason hasnt quite wrapped his head around the fact,

Lucy is having her first child too, She has finally got her wish although the circumstances arent quite what she had hoped, Oscar will be a great dad though, wont he

When the two women join the same baby group, they quickly become friends and before long theyre confiding in each other.


Only theres one thing Lucy hasnt told Aisha, And while a baby may turn your life upsidedown, a secret this big will change everything, After a few detective style reads, I wanted to read something that was in a different theme and this hit the spot,

Aisha and Lucy meet at a baby group, both pregnant with their first baby and both nervous about motherhood,

Aisha is happily married to Jason but picking up on vibes that he might not be as excited about the baby as she is.


Lucy is in a complicated relationship with Oscar and is prepared to do motherhood on her own if he doesn't want to commit, her priority is to have a baby, she's never quite got over the abortion she had at age.


Although you can tell straight away that things are afoot and Jason has some secrets, I thought I knew where it was going, I was only partly right!

This is a great read, I flew through the pages and whilst it was quite emotional at times, there were other times when it made me smile as I remembered my lovely friend and the memories from baby groupyears ago fortunately, less drama in our baby group.


Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book, this is my honest opinion, Great story about a baby group with some unexpected turns, I enjoyed it a lot, especially the relationship between the mothers in the group.
Aisha and Lucy are expectant mothers who join a baby group in Clapham, The two quickly become friends but are unaware they share more things in common than being new mothers, . .

Well, I enjoyed the book, The book opened my eyes to the journey new mothers experience when expecting, Nixon mentioned all the highs and lows which was a very nice touch, She did a great job of having diverse parents join the baby group too and strange but hilarious happenings during some of the meetings Mooooo!.
I did enjoy Aisha and Lucy's budding friendship but I felt the book dragged before reaching the plot twist, I was so close to DNFing due to this,

However, once we reached the plot twist, I did want to know more! Nixon really left me in suspense as I had to keep reading to find out the results! But then the book was wrapped up swiftly.
I didnt feel satisfied by the ending, Just Between Friends did give me all the warm feels about motherhood, pregnancy and what follows when the baby arrives, The highs of motherhood for Aisha was overshadowed by the secret Lucy had, so I felt sorry for her, For some reason, I connected more with Aisha than Lucy, Overall, I honestly didn't know what to expect with this novel but I did enjoy it,

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for a honest review, Well this was just a lovely book! I really enjoyed the writing and I LOVED the alternating first person perspectives from Aisha and Lucy.
I love being in the heads of multiple characters, I think I read too many mysteries so I figured things out from pretty much the beginning but it was still fun to read the details as they emerged.
It was definitely refreshing to read a womens fiction novel, Definitefrom me!

Thank you so much to HQ and NetGalley for the incredible privilege of reading this book! When I first looked at this book I thought it was a thriller with lots of twists and turns and I was pleasantly surprised that I was wrong.
I think this book goes more into the suspenseful category

This books follows two different POV's: Aisha and Lucy, Aisha and Lucy are both pregnant and both sign up to join a baby group for first time mums, They soon become friends, but Aisha thinks that there is more to Lucy than she is letting on, But, what is it

Both women in this story are likeable and relatable in some ways, I felt a deep empathetic connection towards Lucy and her strong want/need to have a child of her own, I feel as though this could have been that little bit more relatable for readers who have been through pregnancy and have children of their own but that didn't take away any enjoyment I got from this book.


However, I guessed the plot from early on and I am a huge fan of thrillers/suspense books in which I have no idea what is going to come from it.
So, unfortunately that did knock the rating down ever so slightly for me!

Overall, this was a really enjoyable book that I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys a good suspense novel and would be very happy to read more of Rosie Nixon's books again!

Thank you so much NetGalley, HQ and Rosie Nixon for a copy of an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Overall:.
I really enjoyed Just Between Friends,
Brings back memories of being pregnant, anti natal classes and the competitiveness of Mum groups!
The book centre around lots of couples in all shapes and sizes, from gay couples and sperm donors in an anti natal class and beyond.
Only this class has a parent to be with a secret, A secret that could blow the group apart,
I loved the diversity of the characters in this story as well as the clues along the way as to the shock factor.
Though I have to be honest I guessed it halfway through the book, Once the secret was revealed this book goes further and tackles the issues around what happens after trust is broken, I loved the fact it is honest about families coming in all shapes and sizes and the notion that a Dad isnt someone whos DNA made a baby its anyone who cares and stays to make a difference in a childs life.
This is a quick and interesting read with a mix of genre undertones throughout, It combines domestic drama, suspense and has an occasional lean towards Psychological Thriller,

Whilst the big reveal is not unexpected, the Author weaves her way towards it with the occasional hint at something else going on and I quite like that I was expecting more.


New friendships, new beginnings and secrets are all carefully put together with great characterisation through a diverse group of couples expecting their first babies.
Member

Just Between Friends

by Rosie Nixon

Pub Date: Nov

by

Soulla G, erLast updated onOct

My Recommendation

A very easy and enjoyable read about a diverse group of couples about to face parenthood for the very first time.


The couples meet at a local Baby Group in Clapham, and the story focuses on two woman, Aisha and Lucy, The story is told from the points of view of both Aisha and Lucy, who after a wobbly start, begin to form a friendship and a bond.
As the story unfolds, we begin to realise that what may seem like the perfect life on the outside , is really a facade, and Aisha and Lucy become entwined in a way they never thought possible.
Or did they

An endearing and funny in places read, about the trials, tribulations and joys of pregnancy and birth, with an added twist.
Although I did guess the twist around half way through, this did not distract from the enjoyment of this original novel,

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review, What I enjoyed most about reading this book, is the memories that resurfaced about my own pregnancy and early motherhood, Nixon has captured this perfectly and I think any mother will experience the same recollections when they read this book, However, from a thriller perspective, it did just fall a little flat and I found the ending prolonged,

With Aisha and Lucy joining a baby group, the sessions that Nixon details are ones that I am sure most parents can relate to.
There is humour here and I could not help chuckle at Aisha and Lucys experiences before, during and after the birth of their babies.
It was a pleasant read from this perspective, because it brought back memories that I had forgotten for a while, For me, it is this that made the book so enjoyable because I relished in my own trips down memory lane,

From the thriller angle, I was quite disappointed, It was too clear, too early on, what Lucys secret was, As such, I just wanted the writer to “get on with it” and have the “big reveal”, When that happened, I was still surprised at the number of chapters still remaining, Unfortunately, I found that I was losing interest as the conclusion still seemed too far away from my liking, I started to feel frustrated and I think this was because the story had moved away from the parenting aspect and was focusing on the thriller genre.


This book covers all aspects of parenting that you would expect, Birth, relationships and early weeks of motherhood, I think this makes the book most enjoyable, but is quite weak as a thriller, I did not sympathise with Lucy and her situation, Indeed, the other character she becomes involved with did not share my sympathies either: I felt they were both rather selfish and not appreciative of their current circumstances.


I cant say that I had a favourite character in this book but I do applaud Nixon for the diversity of parents.
It is refreshing to see and it reinforced how different everyones journey to parenthood really is, Based on this, I found the story quite different and unexpected to what I had anticipated, But, the mystery did not excite me as much as the baby memories!

This is an ok read that sadly did not fulfil my expectations.
Reading about motherhood was really pleasant because of my own memories but, I think other readers may find the thrilling element as equally frustrating as myself.


With thanks to HQ Digital and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Found this one to be a bit of a 'flowy' read enjoyed it, though it wasn't a thriller per se, More like pregnancybaby women's fiction with secrets and a 'big' reveal, I'll admit I read this more for Rosie Nixon's voice and writing style as I found it to flow nicely and I didn't really see the time passing.
So because of that, for me, it was a nice read and a good time where I got to lose myself in a story This book is about pregnancy, childbirth and being the mother of a young baby/child.
It loosely follows a group of pregnant women who are attending a childbirth group, Later in the book it becomes apparent that two of the women are connected outside the group too, though , as Aisha one of these women , as the reader , you also gradually become aware of this.

The descriptions of the classes, pregnancy and the period with a young baby are

very well written and sometimes very funny, All are first time mothers and/or fathers and I do not think I am giving too much away when I say that their pregnancies and births do not always follow their expectations.
You feel the fog that they live in as new mother with too little sleep and the heightened emotions that are part of this phase in their lives.

As the book moves on, we come aware that there is an elephant in the room between two of the women, This too is handled very well and the discussion around it well written and realistic, There could have been a tendency to explain much more, but I thought that the author had exactly the right approach in this part of the book.

Definitely a book which gets you thinking, both about past loves/lives and decisions and how to move forward,
Thank you to Net Galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review,