Loved this book, wanted to shake Kate or cuddle her, admired her or despaired of her, who wouldn't love a book like this⭐️

How often does a book made your eyes fill with tears and your cheeks ache from smiling?! Such an excellent book, loved her first book and love this one!! I have young kids so can’t relate to the humorous descriptions of menapause, Kids social media obsession, pressure of elderly parents and work etc but I just loved every second!! Must be read!!!

Wow, what a read! Kate Reddy had me laughing and crying with her as she fought her way through the peri-menopause whilst trying to get back into work, juggling life with teenagers, ageing parents and a husband who is trying to "find himself". What mother who has experienced life with teenagers could not identify with Kate's agony as her children negotiate a balancing act between the pressures of social media and growing into independence. This is a brilliant, perceptive insight into issues which so many of us face but told with such clarity and humour that every woman should read it.

How Hard Can It Be is without doubt my top read for 2017. It speaks to women approaching their half century, but whatever life stage they're at, this book will be relevant as Allison Pearson explores many issues including the minefield of modern parenting and the torment of the menopause with great intelligence, humour and a cracking wit.

Our protagonist, Kate Reddy, was sailing through midlife until she hit the oil-spill-on-the-road. Her husband, Richard, having lost his job, has announced that he won't be earning anything for two years whilst he retrains as a counsellor. Instead he has turned into a Middle-Aged Man in Lycra. At the same time as her kids are entering the twister of adolescence, their grandparents are struggling with shades of dementia and life-threatening illness. Meanwhile Kate’s 50th is imminent and she needs to get a decent job at a time when her memory and concentration seem to be abandoning ship. There's no doubt about it, Kate has all the signs and symptoms of the peri-menopause, or the Perry memory-pause, as she calls it.

Allison Pearson’s writing is brimming with pithy insights into how our generation of parents seem to have gotten parenting so wrong, whilst making it so hard on ourselves in the process. Guilt in bucketloads, trying to be the perfect parent, has turned into a neurosis ‘that filled the gap once occupied by religion’. But are the younger generation happier as a result of our undivided attention, well read the papers and make up your own mind, says Kate.

Things are far from easy for teenagers too when they set themselves impossibly high standards, so never feel good enough to fit in with the cool kids, making them think that being imperfect is somehow not ok, rather than the human condition. Cyber bullying, trolling and under age access to porn prevalent on social media platforms, takes a huge psychological toll on youngsters and causes enormous suffering on a yet unknown scale.

Seeing our parents age and diminish is like beholding the Ghost of Christmas Future, says Kate. It's heartbreaking to see their decline, but even more frightening to get a glimpse of what is around the corner for ourselves. Their habit of repeating the same old anecdotes irritates, until one day they are no longer there, and then you would give anything to hear them repeat them one more time, for things to go on as they always had.

Allison Pearson’s penetrating observations of what it's like to be the filling in this midlife sandwich are satisfyingly astute - she just gets it and hits the nail on the head again and again. Some of her observations are wildly funny, others bittersweet, but above all a comfort to know that there are others out there in the same boat. She describes a comprehensive list of menopausal symptoms with aplomb and hilarity and every page has the reader either laughing out loud or nodding in earnest agreement.

A familiar scenario or plot emerges of Kate getting back into the work scene and someone very special from her past making a reappearance in her life, but it is one that is presented in such a deeply perceptive and original format that every page is a joy. The author ticks so many boxes in her acute understanding of human emotions and life experience, which she expresses with poignancy and resignation. This is a book which I know I will return to and which I can't praise highly enough.

Many thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins UK and Allison Pearson for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

Kate is 40+, she is married with two teenage children and ageing in laws. They have recently bought and old house which needs a complete renovation. Then Kate's husband decides to give up his career, take two years off unpaid to becone a councillor. Kate has to find a well paid job to pay the mortgage and renovate the house. With a little imagination and the loss of several years on her CV Kate finds a job in the city with an investment fund company. In fact, she used to work for this company and actually set up the fund she is working on. On her return she works under thirty something hipsters with very little idea how to manage the clients. With the help of Roy, her imaginary memory librarian Kate managed to keep everything together. Enter Jack, an old client. I loved every twist and turn of this book, and I definitely need a Roy in my life. I loved Allison's way if writing. I have now downloaded all her books.

This book is excellent for women of a certain age. It humorously deals with all the trials that we have to deal with on a daily basis. Great fun and well written

A great read with a story that can be aligned with real life! Definitely worth a read!

A pin sharp, hilarious and intelligent look at a woman in mid life, but not crisis. Painfully honest, you'll find yourself rooting for Kate all over again.

Loved the first book and really pleased to read the follow up. Shows that life continues to be hard as you juggle everything. You are told things get easier as you get older but they just get different with different challenges.

Kate still has to contend with the pull of family against work while keeping everything and everyone afloat.

Allison has captured what so many feel but can't always articulate. Great follow up book.

Absolutely hilarious! A must read for every fifty something woman. Alison shares it all..... could identify with so many episodes. Simply brilliant

Brilliant. I'm sure every 40+ woman can identify with Kate, whether a mother or not. How she juggles house renovation, a dull marriage with a born again husband, teenage children , sick elderly relatives, the menopause and a high powered job is remarkable and so true to life. - should be on every book club list!

I have not read "I don't know how she does it" but this sequel by Allison Pearson can be read as a stand-alone novel. I found it possible to empathise with Kate despite not having had a high-flying career in the City or children myself! The characters are real individuals with believable Interactions and the family dynamics are well drawn. The way that the whole social media minefield is described also seems realistic and up to date. Definitely a worthwhile read and to be recommended.

What a thoughtfully written book total captures the life of a woman in her middle age when the children are becoming adults and the parents need support. This book shows trials and tribulations Kate goes through being a woman of that age dealing with every issue you can think of. This book was a breath of fresh air totally believable brilliant read

In How Hard Can It Be, the follow-up to I Don't Know How She Does It, Kate Reddy is approaching her 50th birthday! She is part of the sandwich generation responsible both for teenagers who live in a totally alien world of social media and for needy aged parents. She is also dealing with her own menopause.
Kate’s husband has dropped out of work and parental and domestic responsibility to concentrate on his own spiritual development so Kate must get back into a work place which thinks that women over 42 are not employable in high powered roles.
Resourceful as ever Kate fabricates a CV using all the domestic skills she has used bringing up her children but making them sound as though they are business skills. She also lies about her age. Awkward- for example when colleagues ask her how old her children are and she realises that she will need to lie about them too.
To add to the complications she is a banker back working on the fund she set up years before- a fact she has to hide - while working with men years younger than her who know very little about how to handle their rich clients and who are determined to get revenge on Kate when she does.
Then Kate’s old client and old flame Jack reappears!
I found How Hard Can It Be a really engrossing read. Pearson is very frank about how we live now, about sexism and ageism, about morality in the work place, about mental health, about female friendship, about selfies and social media. Kate has to ask herself some of those fundamental and very recognisable questions which we all face about what really is important in our lives and how to be brave enough to achieve it.
How Hard Can It Be is uplifting, funny and should be prescribed as as balm to help relieve the bruises of 21 century first world living.

Kate Reddy is totally a hero for all of us middle aged women who think we're all passed it. Had me laughing out loud and reminiscing the teenage years with my sons (we all thankfully survived). The first book I have read that doesn't pussyfoot around the peri menopause. I still 'don't know how she does it' but I'm in love with nearly all the characters in this book (not rich he's an arse). Absolutely brilliant

I absolutely love a book to which I can relate and this one has it in spades! I am 49 and totally get Kate and where she’s coming from. Peri menopausal symptoms, teenage angst and finding yourself after years of giving are all within this book. A must read for any woman over 40! Definitely reading: I don’t know how she does it, now!

Kate Reddy is approaching 50 and is stuck in the middle of adolescent children and ageing parents. I hadn't read her first book but thoroughly enjoyed this one. As someone a decade older I can look back and laugh! Her children drive her mad at times and her husband is a bit of a disaster, most women would not have her patience. This is an easy read and will certainly make you laugh,, or maybe not if you are approaching 50!

Perfectly illustrates the life of the sandwich generation - or the stretched middle. With some very funny bits.

I really loved this follow-on book, the first one ‘I don’t know how she does it’ was hilarious. There has been quite a gap between books, around 10 years but it was well worth the wait ! More laughs and excellent writing. I give this 9/10.

Teenage kids, ageing parents, a next-to-useless husband, menopausal woes – Kate Reddy has them all. And now she needs to get back into working life – a decade after leaving her stressful job as the manager of a hedge fund. No easy feat when you’re approaching 50. This is the sequel to the bestselling I Don’t Know How She Does It, but works just as well as a stand-alone novel. A brilliant read, it’s laugh-out-loud-funny in its depiction of the trials and tribulations of the sandwich generation.