ShortBookandScribes #PublicationDay #BookReview – So Lucky by Dawn O’Porter @fictionpubteam #BlogTour #SoLucky
I’m so pleased to be reviewing the brilliant So Lucky by Dawn O’Porter today, on publication day! Congratulations, Dawn! My thanks to the Harper Fiction team for the place on the tour and the fabulous copy of the book for review purposes.
Fearless, frank and for anyone who’s ever doubted themselves, So Lucky is the straight-talking new novel from the Sunday Times bestseller.
IS ANYONE’S LIFE . . .
Beth shows that women really can have it all.
Ruby lives life by her own rules.
And then there’s Lauren, living the dream.AS PERFECT AS IT LOOKS?
Beth hasn’t had sex in a year.
Ruby feels like she’s failing.
Lauren’s happiness is fake news.And it just takes one shocking event to make the truth come tumbling out…
The bold and brilliant new novel from Dawn O’Porter, the bestselling author of The Cows.
So Lucky is the first time I have experienced Dawn O’Porter’s writing and so I had no idea what to expect. What I got was an absolutely brilliant read, searing in its honesty.
The story focuses on three women, Beth, Ruby and Lauren. Beth seems to have it all. She’s a successful wedding planner, happily married with a new baby. Ruby clearly has issues right from the beginning but she’s feisty and in control, isn’t she? And Lauren is living the perfect life, posting her perfect pictures on Instagram and looking forward to her perfect wedding to the perfect man. Of course, nothing is as it seems and that is the overriding message behind this book. Nobody’s life is perfect and everybody is dealing with their own demons.
Beth’s life is far from ideal. Her husband won’t touch her anymore and she’s juggling a stressful job with trying to deal with the fact she’s left her baby at home to do so. Ruby is dealing with a condition that affects every single thing she does, including her relationship with her daughter. And Lauren is living her life in the public eye but she’s feeding the people who follow her an image of herself that isn’t real.
So Lucky is an incredibly relevant and current story. We all compare ourselves constantly with others, almost always unfavourably. I found Ruby’s career as a photoshopper (if that’s the right expression) fascinating as she is facilitating the image of perfection by airbrushing out imperfections yet she knows that it’s completely wrong and not really the message she wants to give to her 3 year old daughter.
This is the most fabulous story. O’Porter writes very close to the bone and frankly she’s also deliciously filthy. She doesn’t hold back on anything and it’s so refreshing to witness the warts and all lives that women seem to feel they must hide. We’re all only human after all. She also writes an incredibly funny story and the book is riddled with the kind of humour I enjoy. I loved how the three individual stories were all following their own paths and I wondered how they would converge. When they did it was in a clever and extremely unexpected way. I also really liked how each woman went on her own journey to come out the other side stronger than ever.
I cannot praise this book highly enough. It’s a book about women for women about the power of the female of the species. I think I need to check out The Cows as I just loved O’Porter’s writing style.
DAWN O’PORTER lives in Los Angeles with her husband Chris, her two boys Art and Valentine, and her cat Lilu and dog Potato.
Dawn started out in TV production but quickly landed in front of the camera, making numerous documentaries that included immersive investigations of Polygamy, Size Zero, Childbirth, Free Love, Breast Cancer and the movie Dirty Dancing. Further TV work included This Old Thing, a prime-time Channel 4 show celebrating the wonders of vintage clothing.
Dawn’s journalism has appeared in multiple publications and she was the monthly columnist for Glamour magazine. She is now a full-time writer of six books – although she would probably have written sixteen if it weren’t for her addiction to Instagram Stories.
Most recently, Dawn has written the script for Especially for You, a jukebox musical using the infamous Stock Aitken and Waterman back catalogue. The show will open with a national tour in early 2020
