What do you do, when you find the perfect family, and it's not yours? A charming, funny and irresistible novel about families, friendship and tiny little white lies. The only thing Abi ever wanted was a proper family. So when she falls pregnant by an Australian exchange student in London, she cannot pack up her old life in Croydon fast enough, to start all over in Sydney and make her own family. It is not until she arrives, with three-week-old Jude in tow, that Abi realises Stu is not quite ready to be a father after all. And he is the only person she knows in this hot, dazzling, confusing city, where the job of making friends is turning out to be harder than she thought. That is, until she meets Phyllida, her wealthy, charming, imperious older neighbour, and they become almost like mother and daughter. If only Abi had not told Phil that teeny tiny small lie, the very first day they met… Imagine the warmth of Monica McInerney, the excruciating awkwardness of Offspring and the wit of Liane Moriarty, all rolled into one delightful, warm, funny and totally endearing novel about families – the ones we have, and the ones we want – and the stories we tell ourselves about them.
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This was unlike anything I've ever read. On paper, a book about a woman who gets pregnant, relocates to another country to be with her boyfriend, and befriends an older woman who recently lost her husband sounds heartwarming, but the story went a lot deeper than that. It was a very accurate depiction of loneliness and the things we'll do to avoid the pain of it.
I felt for Abi, who was alone in a new country with a newborn baby, and next to no support. If this sounds heavy, it wasn't -- the story struck a great balance between conveying the full spectrum of Abi's emotions without being overly cheery and lighthearted or getting stuck in the muck.
Watching Abi's friendship with Phil develop was a big highlight of the story, and Phil is a larger-than-life character who is sure to entertain.