‘So Lucky’ is Dawn O’Porter’s second adult novel and promises to build on the success of ‘The Cows’  So Lucky is based around the individual lives of three unique women, each living through their own personal difficulties, and introduces us to Beth, Lauren and Ruby.  

Beth is a wedding planner with a brand new baby. Married to Michael, she has reluctantly gone back to work a few weeks after giving birth as she’s been booked to arrange a big-time celebrity wedding that once complete, in a few weeks, will give her a comfortable enough financial cushion to allow her to take maternity leave for a lot longer than originally planned. Just a bit later than she’d like. Michael has empathetic employers who have allowed him to take extended paternity for the first few months, and they are both finding it difficult to adapt to their new situation. Add to this that Michael and Beth have not had sex for a year, and now her hormones are soaring post-pregnancy, he doesn’t seem to find her at all attractive anymore. It doesn’t make for a comfortable time at home. Work is a lot more fun, with Beth’s assistant Risky (named by her old siblings) who is very liberal and vocal when it comes to sex and relationships. 

Ruby has a medical condition that affects her self-confidence has led to her being introverted, shy and rather grumpy and antisocial. She takes commissions to digitally retouch photographs for magazines, usually creating ‘the perfect woman’ which doesn’t make her feel any better about herself. She has a little girl Bonnie and is separated from her husband after a disastrous wedding day where she feels he betrayed her and let her down. Ruby had a bad relationship with her mother and doesn’t really know how to be a good Mum to Bonnie, not least because Bonnie is always playing up and never does what Ruby tells her to.  

Lauren is an Instagram influencer, and bride-to-be of an ex-exec turned business TV personality. Constantly showcasing her perfect body in slinky lingerie and showing off her perfect house, she is  #livingherbestlife which is very obviously perfect. Isn’t it?  

Dawn really has a way of getting raw, honest feelings out of characters heads and onto the written page. Her writing is laugh out loud funny, thoughtful and at times, downright filthy – but always entertaining and engaging. The more I learned about these women and their lives, the more I empathised with them. They don’t always do the right thing; more what they think is the right thing to do at the time, which very often isn’t. It’s touching and makes you want to grab hold of them, hug them and tell them that it’s ok, they’re doing just fine. 

I read this book on holiday, in one day – I found it genuinely ‘unputdownable’.  

Thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins and the author for sending me an ARC of this book in return for an honest and unbiased review.

“So Lucky” is released on 31/10/19.