Today I’m delighted to be sharing my review of the audiobook version of Because Of You. It’s written with thanks to Chloe Rose at Penguin Books for inviting me on the blog tour and for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock . . . midnight.

The old millennium turns into the new.

In the same hospital, two very different women give birth to two very similar daughters.

Hope leaves with a beautiful baby girl.

Anna leaves with empty arms.

Seventeen years later, the gods who keep watch over broken-hearted mothers wreak mighty revenge, and the truth starts rolling, terrible and deep, toward them all.

The power of mother-love will be tested to its limits.

Perhaps beyond . . .

Review:

I enjoy Dawn French’s comedy, but I’ve never read her novels before, so I was intrigued to see how she would address more sensitive issues. There are several issues in Because Of You including motherhood, pregnancy, grief and relationships, which are all explored thoroughly with a gentle approach and the occasional touch of light humour.

French’s characters are absolutely brilliant and I loved the way I was able to engage with them straight away and take them to my heart. The women, in particular, are very cleverly constructed and I was intrigued by the way that the characters that I would have expected to sympathise with were the ones I ended up disliking most, and vice versa.

The plot of Because Of You goes in a very different direction to what I expected and the ending is incredibly poignant and gave me lots to think about.

The audio version of Because Of You is narrated by Dawn French herself. Her acting background means that her characterisation is fantastic and it is easy to distinguish between the characters. She is able to add the expression in the way that she would have intended while she was writing and this brings the novel to life.

Because Of You is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: