Blurb:

An intense heatwave. A high-stakes baby shower. Will it all end in tears?

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 day, 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 harder 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.

BIG LITTLE LIES meets EXPECTATION in the incredible new novel from Holly Bourne – it’s the book you’ll want to read three times, then give to every woman in your life.

Review:

I probably wouldn’t have picked up So Thrilled For You if it hadn’t been chosen for an online book club, but I am glad I did, not least because it introduced me to an author that I’d never read before in Holly Bourne, whose work I will almost certainly read again. Holly Bourne writes in a way that is fast paced and engaging, yet honest and sensitive so it covered everything I like in a novel.

The central characters of So Thrilled For You are Nicki, Lauren, Charlotte and Steffi. They met at university and have remained friends, but now that they are all in their thirties, their different circumstances mean that they have grown apart slightly. I found it quite difficult to warm to some of the girls (although I did sympathise with Lauren) but I didn’t feel that this mattered too much as the author explores their backgrounds and viewpoints in immense depth that I was invested in the characters even if they were not likeable. Through these characters, Holly Bourne explores a number of important themes and issues, and I loved how sensitively these were handled, allowing the reader to gain a greater understanding of them and how they affect not just the characters, but people who experience these issues in the real world.

Throughout the story, Holly Bourne places clues to what has happened, both prior to, and in the aftermath of, the baby shower. I had so many questions as I was reading. I loved the snippets of the police interviews that are scattered throughout the novel, as these piqued my interest but also helped me to think about who was responsible for the fire. I did not guess this and I am pleased that the author surprised me!

So Thrilled For You is available from Amazon.