I loved The Cows, so I was thrilled to be invited to read Dawn O’Porter’s new book, and it was indeed a fantastic read. I stumbled across this podcast after reading your book and I absolutely love this! I feel as though your content is so real and relatable to everyones day to day life and it’s good to know that no matter how big or small our problems are - we are all going through something. DAWN O’PORTER is a Sunday Times bestselling novelist, columnist and broadcaster who lives in Los Angeles with her husband Chris, sons Art and Valentine, cat Lilu and dog Potato. She has made numerous documentaries about all sorts of things: polygamy, childbirth, Geisha, body image, breast cancer and even the movie Dirty Dancing. She is the critically acclaimed author of The Cows, Paper Aeroplanes and Goose.

In between writing and parenting, Dawn is a regular on television - so could we expect her on Strictly? Unfortunately, although we think she’d be great, we’ll never see her compete for the Glitterball trophy: "It just doesn’t come naturally to me, I’d be horrific - I would get a horrible reputation for being a terrible person because I would just be so horrible to work with because I hate it". Fair enough, she does have enough on her plate, after all! I laughed and I cried and I read some parts through squinted eyes. This book was everything I didn’t know I needed. I’ll be thinking about these women for a long time. Expect some raw realities of female life, but when these women come together, they go full-blown badass’ Heat Warning! This book is rude, so rude but in a comedy, honest way. It had me howling, and I mean really howling with laughter! It’s fun, refreshing and powerful. It’s simply brilliant.Each character has their own distinct voice, concerns, dramas and thoughts - thoughts we all have on a daily basis, but no one really has the guts to say out loud. This book, and in particular the characters of Ruby and Beth, will stay with me for a while. An amazing read, I hadn’t heard of this Author before and wasn’t sure of what to expect but wow, this book had me laughing out loud. I loved all of the characters, they always tried their best, even if it wasn’t the right thing. I will truly miss them all. I am so looking forward to finding more to read by this Author. So glad I got to review this book as I will now be on the hunt for her others as this is the first one I have read. Ruby has a medical condition that affects her self-confidence has led to her being introverted, shy and rather grumpy and antisocial. She takes commissions to digitally retouch photographs for magazines, usually creating ‘the perfect woman’ which doesn’t make her feel any better about herself. She has a little girl Bonnie and is separated from her husband after a disastrous wedding day where she feels he betrayed her and let her down. Ruby had a bad relationship with her mother and doesn’t really know how to be a good Mum to Bonnie, not least because Bonnie is always playing up and never does what Ruby tells her to. The story follows three women, Ruby who is separated with a three year old daughter who she finds hard to manage and get along with. She also has a condition which makes her feel she must isolate herself from everyone.

I was always a funny little girl who was theatrical, but after my mum died I became even more so. I didn’t want anyone to mention the elephant in the room. I became the kid who spent more time trying to make people laugh than learning, and failed at everything as a result. The joking around was annoying, but I just couldn’t stop doing it. I got pulled up on it when I went to drama school years later. A teacher said to me: “You hide your pain by trying to make people laugh.” Like it was some really negative thing! I thought: “At least I’m not being miserable, and if that’s the reflex reaction to what I’ve been through, I’m not going to be ashamed of it. I’m going to embrace it.” This was actually a hard book to read. The two main characters, Ruby and Beth, are living difficult lives. Ruby especially is such a self contained woman, she is difficult to like. Yet by the end of the book I found myself feeling proud of her, like she was a friend you are rooting for. Beth too, finds strength and clarity.Thank you Dawn for writing such an unflinchingly honest book about the best and worst things people can do to themselves and each other.

I’m a big Dawn O’Porter fan, I’ve read her other books and was so excited to read this. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this early and review it. Even though the characters are all quite different I loved them all by the end and it was a very easy book to read. It was slightly graphic in places, just in case you're easily offended! Beth who is married with a young baby. Her husband has lost interest in sex and she can’t work out why which is diving her crazy. Then we have Lauren who is about to marry a rich celebrity. She has the perfect life on social media but there are rumours about her fiancé Gavin which just won’t go away. They are all trying to go about their daily lives despite feeling like failures and are trying to make the correct choices for themselves. It’s an incredible and wonderful thing to read her painfully accurate, heart warming and hilarious analysis of our age of comparison in this wonderful, powerful novel!’ Scarlett CurtisAnd while Dawn may be very protective of Art and Valentine's online personas we can't help but wonder if we can expect to see baby number three anytime soon."No!" she replies very firmly. "My leg clamps are on!"