Author: Anna Hope
Genre: General Fiction
Format: Paperback 336 pages
Release Date: 11 July 2019
Publisher: Doubleday
My thanks to Alison Barrow for the advanced readers copy provided to me for review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Synopsis
Hannah, Cate and Lissa are young, vibrant and inseparable. Living on the edge of a common in East London, their shared world is ablaze with art and activism, romance and revelry – and the promise of everything to come. They are electric. They are the best of friends.
Ten years on, they are not where they hoped to be. Amidst flailing careers and faltering marriages, each hungers for what the others have. And each wrestles with the same question: what does it take to lead a meaningful life?
My Thoughts
This story is told part present, and part in the past, with chapters going back to different periods of time in each of the main characters lives. Throughout the chapters there are then sections dedicated to Hannah, Cate and Lissa.
These three women are so reminiscent of what I imagine a lot of female friendships are like. Whilst being completely best friends with each other, there is an undercurrent of jealousy, or if not jealousy, then a desire to be more like or have what the other ones have.
It’s really interesting because each of the characters are dealing with their own life crisis, for Hannah it’s the fact she’s unable to conceive, for Cate it’s the fact that she’s struggling with motherhood, for Lissa it’s her failing career as an actress. The way the author has wove all these plots together really makes it a book that I think most women will be able to relate to in one way or another.
This book predominantly for me was about female friendships and the various pressures we put on ourselves throughout our lives. Those pressures might change as we go through the generations but nonetheless are still there. This is a book for women at whatever stage of life they may be at. I really enjoyed this book and I think a lot of others will as well.
About the Author
Anna Hope studied at Oxford University and RADA. Her contemporary fiction debut, Expectation, explores themes of love, lust, motherhood, and feminism, while asking the greater question of what defines a generation. She lives in Sussex with her husband and young daughter.
For more reviews and updates you can follow me on Twitter @BooksBucks
Bucks, Books & Beyond 