Today I am thrilled to be part of the blog tour for Tiny Acts of Love with a review and Giveaway.
SYNOPSIS
Surviving motherhood? It's all about having the right support network.
Lawyer and new mum Cassie has a husband who converses mainly through jokes, a best friend on the other side of the world, and a taskforce of Babycraft mothers who make her feel she has about as much maternal aptitude as a jellyfish.
Husband Jonathan dismisses Cassie’s maternal anxieties, but is he really paying attention to his struggling wife? He’s started sleep talking and it seems there’s more on his mind than he’s letting on. Then sexy, swaggering ex-boyfriend Malkie saunters into Cassie’s life again.
Unlike Jonathan, he ‘gets’ her. He’d like to get her into bed again, too…
And on top of all her emotional turmoil, she also finds herself advising a funeral director on ghost protocol and becomes involved in an act of hotel spa fraud, never mind hiding cans of wasp spray all over the house to deal with the stalker who seems to be lurking everywhere she looks. Marriage and motherhood isn’t the fairytale Cassie thought it would be. Will her strange new world fall apart around her or will tiny acts of love be enough to get her through?
Funny, perceptive and real, Tiny Acts of Love portrays the rawness of motherhood, the flipside of love and the powerful lure of paths not taken.
REVIEW
I had heard from another blogger that this book didn't quite live up to their expectations, so I am pleased to report that it did live up to mine. Also what a really lovely cover it is. Love the yellow background and the little lipstick, baby wipes and cupcake.
Tiny Acts of Love tells the story of Cassie, a lawyer and a new Mum. Cassie is finding that she has a lot of anxieties since Sophie's birth, but her husband Jonathan just dismisses them. It's his way of dealing with things; not really listening to the actual problem by emotionally detaching himself from it even though he has underlying problems of his own. To add to Cassie's stresses her ex-boyfriend has appeared back in her life and he wants more than to just be friends and Cassie is also struggling at work. The stresses at work are also not helped when she is given a new paranormal case to deal with and there is a stalker lose. Motherhood is really not looking so idyllic for Cassie right now, but will she be able to stop her world falling apart through tiny acts of love?
This really depicted to me what real life is like. It is full of worry, stresses, strains, love, hope, anxiety and loss, but it is the little things that get us through it. I liked the rawness of it, the honesty that being a new Mum isn't always a fairytale ending, it is tough and you still have to carry on with life as normal. Despite that it had a funny edge to it, a kind of dark humour that lifts the novel and brings a smile to your face.
Now I may not be a Mum, but I completely understood where Cassie was coming from in this with her new Mum anxieties and stresses. I think I understood her more as well as my sister had a baby a year ago and she has been living with us for quite a while, so I am very hands-on with my niece. I experience first hand the joys, stresses and strains of having a baby. Now I am not for a minute saying that I understand completely what Mum's go through, just that I have more of an empathetic understanding of what it is like. I have hence recommended this book to my sister to read as she will totally be able to relate to it and also all new Mums will love it too and new Dad's. However as I have proven, you do not need to a new Mum or Dad to enjoy this. It is so brilliantly written that anyone can enjoy it. I was quite sad to finish it has I felt like I knew these characters so well and that goes for all of them, even the ones I thought were slightly mad at first.
A really heartwarming, down-to-earth, real read which I thoroughly recommend everyone should read.
4/5
GIVEAWAY
To be in a chance of winning one paperback copy of Tiny Acts of Love by Lucy Lawrie, enter via Rafflecopter below. This giveaway is open internationally.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lucy Lawrie was born in Edinburgh, and gained an honours degree in English Literature from Durham University before going on to study law. She worked as a lawyer in Edinburgh for several years, specialising in Employment and Pensions law. When Lucy was on maternity leave with her first baby, she unearthed a primary two homework book in which she’d stated, in very wobbly handwriting: ‘I want to be an AUTHOR when I grow up.’ To appease her six-year old self, she began writing her first novel.
You can connect with Lucy via:
Tiny Acts Of Love is available to order from Amazon UK
What a sunny feel front cover, just what's needed after the awful weather we've been having. Love the review on the book, definitely will be on my TBR pile. Thank you for the chance of the give-away xxxx
ReplyDeleteLoved reading your review Laura.
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking part in Lucy's tour.
Shaz