Good evening lovely readers, apologies for the long time without many reviews; it’s been a week of flexing my wings as a social butterfly. It always seems to happen that way, one week is barren of invites and the next is so full I can’t quite fit everyone in. Monday was dinner with two lovely university friends, Tuesday was a trip to the Christmas Pantomime, Wednesday was seeing the band ‘Embrace’ with one of my best-friends from home, and tomorrow I am travelling to the outskirts of Wales to meet up with another set of friends, it’s all got a little crazy. It’s lovely but sometimes you need an evening snuggled on the sofa watching reality television with a bottle of wine, but that’s just me. Hope you enjoy this lovely little reviews I’ve knocked up (oh the puns) hope you enjoy!

This book is honestly wonderful; I cannot quite describe how much I enjoyed it and how excited I am to read it again. Although being only 21 the subject of this book is something that me and my friends discuss quite regularly, oddly enough, and I am sure other women do too; the ticking biological clock. I’m not sure whether it affects all women but for me (as my mother with tell you) it’s something I frequently think about and worry about despite still being relatively young. Undeniably, in my past reading history, romance novels have touched on the subject a number of times, but I don’t think I have read a book that focuses wholly on it from almost the first sentence. It surprisingly made for a thoroughly enjoyable and humorous read and I think that there are a lot of readers that would really enjoy it!

The book ultimately follows Casey, a thirty-five year old teacher who has always wanted a baby of her own. With a life behind her devoted to teaching, caring for and clearing up after little ones, she is desperate for a little darling of her own. Slight problem’ Casey can’t seem to find the right man, and after the break-down of her first long-term relationship with David, after a travelling trip in Europe with her friend Brit, Casey is starting to lose hope. With her biological clock ticking loud and clear, something has got to give and after another devastatingly bad date, Casey starts to investigate paths of her own to become a single parent; although not before spending the night with her hunky room-mate J.B. Low and behold, a number of days later Casey bumps into her ex-lover and the two enjoy a dinner out together; has her bad luck come full circle, or with fate have her own hand to play in this delightful story, you’ll have to read to find out.

I absolutely adored this book, firstly because the characters are so wonderful. Although the story revolves mainly around the characters introduced above, the story introduces a number of other characters. There is Brit, Casey’s maddeningly self-obsessed friend who will let nobody ruin her wedding, contrasted with Morgan the sweet but ruthlessly devoted lady who together make-up Casey’s best-friends. The syrupy sweet Cooper who is loveable and charming, matched with the equally delightful and adorable Emma who are also Casey’s roommates, and then Casey’s sister and mother Libby and Terri (with an I) who are chalk and cheese, constantly rubbing each other up the wrong way. Although it seems like a lot of characters for the plot to deal with each of them is individually built up so you have a real understanding of their traits individually. Most of my enjoyment of a book revolves more around learning about the characters and a strong understanding of each of the different stories is pivotal to this.

The plot moves with pace and the writing style is smoothly written which is really needed. At times the plot does become a little haphazard because so much is going on, but because the pace moves with speed it really just moves you along with it. I normally would find concluding a book was unbelievable a problem but here because of the strong characters and the pace it works and instead just makes the whole thing a little more wonderful. I liked the way the author places the four, (Casey, J.B, Cooper and Emma) in the same house living together, it allowed for many intimate moments between the characters and allowed each of them to shine in their own special way. I wish I could have seen more into Cooper and Emma’s relationship because I would love to have both of them as my friends but this is a small personal complaint. I want to take a second to really compliment the author on her ability to weave and mix characters stories so well, I thought that it was going to become muddled but it was all handled and planned out very well.

I really enjoyed the little snippets from Casey’s old fashioned pregnancy book; contrasting the current events with the beliefs of the time of this olde-worlde book just showed how times have changed and the irony of the comments made me giggle and was a lovely little addition to the story as a whole. The book manages the difference between dialogue and description very well, there is never too much or too little of the other and writing it all from one perspective means the book stays coherent and there is no room for mistake as to who it talking which is always a bonus for me.

Two minor issues, I haven’t given away too much above because if I say one thing it will all come spilling out but I thought the plot-line with David could have been explained a little more because it’s quite quickly done despite the length of the book (trying not to give too much away!) I also thought the mother-daughter war that was waging throughout the book could have been looked into more because it felt more prevalent than it was given due. Overall I thought this book was sparky and interesting with a great subject matter, it moved with pace and with a serious understanding and attention to character detail which I loved. A little more attention to certain plot-lines and little less heavy handedness in terms of making the events believable but overall I seriously enjoyed this book!

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