Stella Smith has set up a club called Mums Like Us. She is a normal mum with a normal family and normal friends who are also normal mums. They are sick of the Mother Superiors that they bump into at the school gates who think that they have to do the best by their families so she set up the club so all the mums can get together and have a good old whinge about their kids, their partners and being a mum! They also recognise the fact that it can be tough being a mum, being at the families beck and call and feeling that you have lost your own identify and are just Mum!
Stella's hubby also plays an important role in this book and spends a lot of time emailing his mates and his brother about the fact that he's trying his best but nothing is ever good enough anymore!
What was once a small group, grows and grows as more and more people find out about it and that in itself brings its own challenges.
I can't think of one person I know who would read this book and not be in stitches before the end of the first chapter. Laura's sense of humour is exactly the same as mine, so I found myself constantly snorting along to this book and explaining myself! At one point I thought I was hyper-ventilating when I choked on a glass of wine at a particularly humorous part.
I could definitely imagine myself sitting and drinking tea and scoffing cake at one of the meetings, which mainly happen at Stella's house while the kids are running around like maniacs in another room! The meetings sounded like fun and chaos all rolled into one.
There is a serious message in the book, which is that you don't actually have to be perfect to be a good mum. Just be who you are and let your friends and family accept that. It also shows that perhaps the grass isn't always greener on the other side and that people aren't always how they look or feel like you think they feel.
With a million laughs a minute, and the fact that I recognised myself so many times in this book being quite a scary realisation, this is just a fabulously funny read that I think every mother should have.
Laura sounds like a person that I'd love to spend an evening with over a glass of wine or two or maybe even a bottle! A lady with a sense of humour such as hers is sure to have an award-winning super novel on her hands. Very hard to believe it is her first novel, she is a complete natural and I hope there are many more of her books out in the not too distant future.
It is published in paperback on 28th February so is a perfect Mother's Day pressie. It is guaranteed to make every Mom laugh and realise that they are not the only ones! I can think of loads of people I need to buy this book for!
If you order before 28th February, you'll get a 25% discount if you go to www.rbooks.co.uk/mumslikeus and add it to your basket using the promo code MUMSLIKEUS before you make your purchase.
Find out more about Laura at her website www.laura-kemp.com
Follow Laura on Twitter
Buy this book via www.rbooks.co.uk/mumslikeus (remember to enter the code above)
1 comment:
This looks fabulous, Kim. Thanks for the recommendation.
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