This a collection of short stories about 30 women each one at a different point in their lives each one experiencing some kind of dilemma for example 'the Women Who Unraveled' and 'the Women Blew Away'.

I enjoyed this collection it was thought-provoking with its messages presented in a unique and appealing way. Though some tales resonated more with me more than others they all feature issues which women experience in modern life, for instance, not being taken seriously by men in the workplace, being eaten by Mum guilt and feeling so embarrassed you want the ground to open and swallow you up.

It was very reminiscent of Aesop's fables but for a grown-up audience with each tale having a moral. My personal favourites were 'the Women Who Wore Pink' and 'the Women Who Had a Strong Suit'. It is the perfect book to dip into when you want a short sweet tale, amusing but with a valuable message at its heart.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for sending me this in exchange for an open and honest review.

I found reading these short stories to be very frustrating, because the writing is excellent, as I would expect from Cecilia Ahern. However the content of the five stories which I read was utterly bizarre, and not at all uplifting or inspiring, if that is what was intended by the author. I found the stories to be a surprisingly patronising view of some women in ordinary circumstances, whether marriage or health situations or some other. Reading from the perspective of an over-60 woman, the stories were depressing and irritating, and came across to me as just lazy writing. Cecilia Ahern is so much better than this short story collection. Disappointing.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy in return for an honest review.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I don;t generally like short story books as a rule but this is an exception to the rule. I liked everyone of the stories.

I am a big fan of Cecilia Ahern’s books but I don’t normally have much luck with short story collections, so I was not sure which way this book would go for me. The stories are all themed around women’s issues with the main character being a nameless woman. What I found hard to get my head around is that the titles to the stories are quite literal, for example one of the titles is The Woman Who Was Kept On The Shelf and the story was about a woman whose husband kept her on a shelf. They were like Fables I suppose. Once I got my head around this and knew what to expect from each story I quite enjoyed it. My favourite was The Woman Who Grew Wings as this was based around the school run. I think that every woman who reads this book will find at least one story that they can relate to.

This book was a joy to read from start to finish. Each story with a woman as the central character, was unique and fascinating, I just don't know where she gets her ideas from but they are truly brilliant. It's the sort of book I'd love to read again at some time in the future. Truly excellent, I can't rate it highly enough, one of the best this year.

Just what you would expect from Cecilia Aherne. A brilliantly original collection of short stories many of which shall leave you smiling. Not a book to devour at a sitting but rather to dip into. If you are curious why a wife would spend 20 years on a shelf being "cherished" by her husband or like to read about a society in which you can return your husband to a "store" as not satisfactory and swap him for another, this is the book for you. Suspend disbelief and enjoy!

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Review *Disclaimer: this book was sent to me for free by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I have only previously read a couple of Cecelia Ahern's novels and am not sure if I have experienced her short story writing before. This collection tells the stories of thirty female characters from different walks of life and has a touch of magical realism which is used to highlight issues faced by women in the twenty-first century.

This is by far one of the best short story collections I've ever read. There were a few misses for me personally but the majority of the stories were impactful and memorable. I love how Ahern has taken contemporary issues and twisted them slightly to give a strange atmosphere to each story without it becoming stale at any point.

Overall I would definitely recommend this book. It's one that I feel different people would get different things from and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I would like to thank HarperCollins and NetGalley for letting me have a copy of ‘Roar’ by Cecilia Ahern in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
This book is a collection of thirty short stories written for women and about women. I admit that I’m not a great fan of short stories, I prefer to spend time reading a full-length novel that enables me to dig deeper into the characters and immerse myself in the narrative. ‘Roar’ consists of some interesting short stories that are ideal if you have the odd five minutes to spare. Some of these stories made me smile, some made me laugh, but all of them were interesting with unusual characters. If you’re looking for something quick and easy to read then this is a must for you but for myself I’m happier reading one of Cecilia Ahern’s full-length novels.

Each chapter is a short story (of varying length) that often takes a whimsical or even absurd twist, very cleverly done, to convey allegories of common phrases and realities of women throughout their lives (such as being "eaten up" by Mum guilt, gender policing, access to birth control, or "wanting the ground to swallow you up" after humiliation).

These stories are modern day parables for women. All women. Older women, trans women, Mums, married women, refugee women, grieving women, daughters, successful women, women who make unpopular decisions, etc.

I think the interesting thing about these stories are that they will resonate differently with you depending on your life experiences and what stage in life you are, but there will, I guarantee, be at least one story that hits you hard.

There were several favourite chapters of mine: The Woman Who Wore Pink, The Woman Who Spoke Woman, The Woman Who Found The World In Her Oyster, The Woman Who Was Pigeonholed, and The Woman Who Ate Photographs. This final one I recommend to any parents watching their kids grow and feeling that tug between holding them tightly and letting them go (welled up just writing that let alone reading the chapter!). The writing and the way significant, current issues are interwoven through the stories, presented from a woman's perspective, was both emotive and powerful. As with most feminist literature, this isn't packed full of ways that men are horrid (quite the opposite in many of the stories), it simply presents the reality of situations from alternative perspectives and with wit, satire and intuition.

This is definitely a book both women and men need to read. I truly adored it.

Also, a TV series focusing on the stories within this book is in production so it's my top tip to be the next "Big Little Lies" particularly as Nicole Kidman is one of the producers.

Totally different from any Cecilia Ahern books I have read. These short stories are easy and quick to read and dip in and out of.

I do enjoy a short story and these ones written from the viewpoint of different women made for an enjoyable read.

The ideal book to grab and short story while the kettle boils or dinner cooks. Quite odd little moralistic stories to shake up your thoughts, nod in agreement, laugh and even cry.

It’s not the best book I read this month but different, quirky and would make a great present for a female friend.

I would like to thank Netgalley for the free book and the opportunity to post an honest review.
Roar by Cecelia Ahern, is made up of thirty short stories all celebrating the strength of women through a very clever take on different sayings and idioms. Each story has different character, situations and a strong message.
It is well written and the author reveals a wisdom on many topics and a deep understanding of how a woman can feel or perceive herself. The author has taken ideas literally and placed a woman at the centre. The woman then struggles to come to terms with her predicament but eventually rises above it or understands what she needs to do to rectify it.
Roar, in my opinion, is about looking at yourself honestly in a mirror and having the strength to make changes or hold your head up high. It is like a self-help book for women which amusingly uses proverbs and expands into fantasy.
As an example, chapter 5 is called ‘The woman who found bite marks on her skin’. This story is about guilt. A mother, returning to work is eaten away by the guilt of leaving her children, not having time to do everything she used to, not being able to put 100% into everything she does. It is not until she realizes what is causing the bite marks and is then able to understand she should not be feeling guilty, that she is a capable person, consequently her condition improve.
A good and interesting read for those who enjoy literary fiction with a paranormal/fantasy lilt.
Although I enjoyed reading the stories it did make me feel a little sad that women need to have a book such as this to encourage them to challenge the rhetoric and idealism of modern life.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. This is a book of 30 short stories all about different fictional women. What had drawn me to it was the author but it is quite unlike anything else she has written. The idea is quite interesting and many of the short stories are sweet and funny but several of them are just plain bizarre. Each story taps into a different insecurity that women are seen to have so it does become quite clichéd at several points. It's an enjoyable read for the most part but just as you start to get into one of the stories- it ends.

Maybe it's just me, but these stories make me feel totally disempowered as a woman. Whilst I'm sure that the writer intended the complete opposite, these trite 'modern' fairytales have left a nasty taste in my mouth. Probably the first book I've never read to the end. I got half way through these thirty stories, hoping that they would get better.....

I really wanted to like these short stories....I have loved many Cecelia Ahern books in the past, but for me the collection over all wasn’t for me....

However I can appreciate the need sometimes for short stories for when I don’t have time to begin a whole book, and I still have a few stories left to do this with maybe. The ones I have read left me feeling like I’d just read a magazine short story with little depth, and the “strong women” theme running between them I found a little annoying.

I have come to the conclusion I prefer stand alone regular length novels with more character development and questions. I definitely prefer Cecelia in full length form!!

I really enjoyed this book and it’s one that will definitely stay with me for a long time.
The collection of stories are insightful, touching, modern and relevant.
Cecelia Ahern is one of those authors where I love one book and then detest the next one, however this is definitely one of my favourites. The writing is beautiful and very clever.

Not the usual Cecelia Ahern book that I read and I found it a little bit of a struggle at first. Once I had understood that it was to be picked up to read a short story and then put down, the stories then continued to bubble in my head and I enjoyed it much more. Great stories about women and their lives which once understood was great to read.

Very surprisingly it’s not for me. Have heard how clever and subtle the very literal interpretations of female psyche are, yet I found them clunky and overly obvious. Sort of like a teenager trying to be clever. It’s a brilliant idea, but the storytelling is too heavy handed and impersonal to resonate. Sorry -

ROAR is the latest book from Cecelia Ahern and is compiled of short stories that focus on women; some are funny, some thought provoking or enlightening but they are all engaging. The release of this book is perfect in its timing of following the #me too and times up movements, in its premise being about the empowering of women and the promotion of equalitarianism - but not in a preachy way. I'm sure there's at least one story in the book that every woman can relate to.

This book is perfect for people with busy lifestyles, in approx just five minutes you can have finished one of the stories. For those of us with not completely hectic full on lives, the entire book can be devoured in a long and lazy afternoon - with plenty of time for a few tea or (and!) coffee breaks.

Although I did thoroughly enjoy ROAR, I have to admit to looking forward to Cecelia's next "normal" style of book - sorry, I have no idea what you would call a regular/non novella book... That's not to say this is lacking any of Cecelia's distinctive quirky style, and her short stories are spot on, I just personally prefer becoming fully immersed in regular length books that have a bit more substance.

With thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for the opportunity to read this arc in return for an honest and unbiased review.

I have to admit it wasnt really what I thought it would be. I wasn't a fan of the short story format and they just seemed a bit bizarre in ways, they were quite abstract and just didn't make sense to me. I also think that this book may have been more aimed at an older audience because a few of the stories seemed to be related to ageing so I didn't necessarily click with them. I have loved Cecelia Ahern in the past and my thoughts aren't necessarily reflective of the book itself, just more that the book just wasnt for me.