A really engrossing and engaging read that I read in a few v enjoyable sittings over one weekend. Hope captures female friendships incredibly well, and the way they can ebb and flow over the years and deals with the myth of 'having it all' in a very smart and sensitive way. Would recommend.

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. Anna Hope is an author whose books I am always eager to read. They are the type of fiction that you are still thinking about days after finishing, there are scenes in her book Wake that I still think about a few years after reading it.

Hannah, Lissa and Cate have been friends for years. The reader sees their relationship develop throughout the novel through flashbacks. You see their dreams, first love, career, life choices and disappointments. You see the way they appear to others and the way they really feel. Most of the time they feel like failures, all for very different reasons.

Hannah was the character who appealed to me most, not only because I had a lot of sympathy for her, and the many women who go through similar situations but also because she was a lot warmer than the other two. Cate, I did struggle with occasionally but she dd grow on me and I appreciated her sense of humour and her putdowns. Lissa I struggled with more. I didn’t dislike her but she was more aloof. The reasons for this were explained in some degree towards the end.

The writing is stunning and the more I read about the three friends I was more reluctant to put the book down. I was totally engrossed in learning more about the three women and their families. None of it felt forced, there will be many people who see themselves, or their loved ones in any of these characters.

Highly recommended, one of my favourite books this year and I hope its not a long time to wait for book 4.

3.5 stars from me.

An enjoyable read but I felt that I was lacking in something, something I cant put my finger on. Usually a book written in 3 perspectives is carried through really well but this one seemed to dilute.

The characters are well written and their own personal stories were woven together really well but they just weren't strong enough for my liking.

Thank you to netgalley and Random House UK for the ARC

One of the promotional lines for Expectation by Anna Hope states, “For fans of Sally Rooney, Diana Evans, Dolly Alderton, Elizabeth Day and Fleabag” and yes, yes to all of this. This book is one of the most powerful I have read this year (and I say that in a year where I have read An American Marriage, Normal People and The Most Fun I Ever Had). It got firmly under my skin so much so that it made me cry at my desk during my lunch break.

Hannah, Lissa and Cate, three friends who live in London are presented to us via multi-person narrative with time slips and shifting perspectives of both their relationships with each other and with themselves. Three very different women, they share a flat and find their feet in London, building both careers and relationships. I’m making this sound like some 2019 FRIENDS which it isn’t at all. It is weighty, lyrical and gorgeous and packs an emotional punch.

As we slip back and forth between now and then we meet Hannah, Lissa and Cate as they grow from teens to adults and we watch as what they want and what they achieve differ wildly. We meet them in 2004 when they

"…live in the best house on the best park in the best part of the best city on the planet. Much of their lives is still before them. They have made mistakes but they are not fatal. They are no longer young but they do not feel old. They still have time, time to look backwards and look forwards."

This feeling of being on the precipice of something exciting is a feeling which I think many of us can recall and Anna Hope perfectly encapsulates both this and what happens next. Because often you realise those days are behind you and your life hasn’t worked out quite how you expected.

Life is messy, complicated and difficult and our protagonists are used to explore this most difficult of emotions; failure. Organised Hannah whose career is bright, has fallen in love in her early 20s, got married and has a lovely house. She has done everything ‘right’ yet she has discovered in the most brutal way that “bad things happen to good people all the time.” Cate is married with a baby son, but parenthood isn’t all its cracked up to be and her past freedoms are at the forefront of her mind. Lissa is an actress who at the beginning of the novel is on the cusp of greatness yet as time goes on she is struggling for parts and struggling to pay the rent. Through the spectrum of their friendship we watch as they deal with life and its obstacles.

As I was reading this, I thought, “oh, here’s a book for my generation! At last” In a world of books for twenty somethings and for women with children/teenagers and nuclear families imploding there was a book about three women who have the world at their feet and find that the reality doesn’t quite live up to their expectations. I ached at the 1990s references, of Tony Blair coming into power, going away to University, all of this promise of a future where women can do anything, be anything, go anywhere – more freedom than previous generations could imagine, and yet, failure. Failure to be a mother, to have a career, to enjoy being a mother (in a world of social media showing how hashtag blessed mothers are) and the crushing disappointment of that and the realisation that we’re letting down our potential.

I especially enjoyed the exploration of women’s friendships and how they alter and change. The relationship between Hannah, Cate and Lissa feels wholly authentic with marriage, pregnancy, career issues and loneliness all being addressed. I felt very affected by this book and its beautiful and lyrical prose and its wonderful and realistic characters. It is a tender and sensitive book which deals with a myriad of important themes in an eloquent and poetic way. A real gem of a book, Expectation is something I will think about for a long time to come.

I was given a free e-Arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review:

I though I was going to love this - a book about 3 women in their early 40s whose lives haven't gone quite to plan? yes please. The idea was great, unfortunately the execution was not well done. Here's a list of things that I did not appreciate about this book:

1) It moved around in time, with no apparent pattern
2) All parts of it were written in present tense
3) The characterisation was weak, and even at the end I had to remind myself who was who. Because they were so two dimensional, that part was easy.
4) I think it's meant to be about female friendship, if so its a very odd, and somewhat misogynistic view of women's relationships.
5) All the (very few) interesting things happened between the chapters, and we are left with lengthy descriptions of characters doing everyday activities...
6) ...except for the (three or four) sex scenes, which are deliberately crude and seem out of place and designed to shock.
7) The ending.

Oh well, can't win them all.

I really enjoyed ‘Expectation’. It’s extremely atmospheric and Hope constructs characters and settings with wonderful depth. She is a writer that makes you feel as if you’re within the book - next to the characters, experiencing everything alongside them. (It probably helps that I live in London, where the majority of the book is set.) I found all of the characters and the plots surrounding them interesting, and didn’t get them confused, as I thought I would. It’s a brilliant exploration of female friendship, and will be extremely relatable to a lot of women. I’m excited to see more contemporary fiction from Anna Hope.

Expectation begins with an introduction to three friends, Lissa, Cate and Hannah living together in 2004 in London. Everything seems simple, idyllic almost:
'life is still malleable and full of potential'. But as the novel progresses we gain a much deeper insight into the lives of these awesome women. All struggling with issues that the writer doesn't shy away from discussing in brutal detail. Hannah's struggles with IVF and the heart wrenching loss that follows. Lissa, lost and in love with her best friend's husband. Cate feeling overwhelmed with motherhood and feeling that somehow she has become less. Something mothers everywhere will relate to. This book is smart, sexy and real. Expectation was pure joy to read. Moving, inspiring and written with real depth, I highly recommend this beautiful book.

This is a book exploring friendships, how they change over time and how we cope as we grow older and realise our dreams are no longer what we desire or what we need in life.

We follow the lives of Hannah, Cate and Lissa from their school days, through to university when life was full of possibilities and opportunities, and finally into the difficulties of being 40-somethings. Hannah and her husband, both successful in their careers, are struggling with IVF. Cate has a young baby but seems detached from her husband and is searching for a face from the past. Lissa is struggling to achieve success in her professional life and feels dissatisfied with her intimate relationships.

The story is told through shifting narratives and shifting time periods as we become privy to the inner worlds of each of the friends. We share both their joys and disappointments as they face various challenges.

I particularly liked the changing narratives, as it gives readers the opportunity to get to know each of the three characters. They were real, believable, fantastic and flawed humans. I felt invested in each character, I wanted them to achieve their dreams and to reach a place of inner peace and contentment.

I did feel some of the plot developments were a little convenient, such as Hannah’s trip to Scotland. Also, some characters seemed slightly one dimensional eg Cate’s husband. But to be honest, that’s me being REALLY critical. I absolutely loved this book. I loved the simple, understated prose. I found myself looking forward to my next reading session, already mourning the end before I reached it. It’s my book of 2019 so far, by far. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to Random House UK and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book.

I really enjoyed this book I struggled a little with the first few chapters until I got into the swing of the narrative style and the time jumps and the names of all the characters and their spouses etc but then the book zipped along. Great observational writing and resonated with me even though I'm a bit older and through the baby raising stage.
The novel follows three friends through their lives up until the present, jumping back and forwards in time. Two of the friends to reveal the characters histories. Hannah and Cate met at school and the third friend, Lissa meets Hannah at University. The book deals with the gap between their expectations of how their lives would unfold when they were younger and single and the reality of their situations in their mid thirtie.. Cate goes to Cambridge University but struggles to find her place in the world (after her mother dies) and feels out of place in a whirlwind relationship that has somehow produced a baby and marriage to a jobbing chef. Lissa's acting career started well but has stalled like her relationships with men and she often can't even afford her rent. Hannah has a plum job as a Charity boss, a Uni lecturer husband and a lovely London flat, she seems to have it all but fertility problems and her longing for a baby are causing her heartache and her marriage to fracture. A great read.

Having read both Ballroom and Wake by Anna Hope I was eager to read her latest offering. Featuring three friends, Lissa, Hannah and Cate the novel follows their friendship through the years and their interactions with one another, charting their hopes and disappointments. Lissa is the bohemian one, having a troubled relationship with her mother and failing to make her name as an actress. Hannah is married but struggling with her fertility which is placing her relationship with her husband Nathan under enormous strain. Finally there is Cate, recently moved out of London to Kent where she is a struggling with coming to terms with motherhood. These are all issues faced by women the whole world over and the author does write very eloquently about said dilemmas in a thought provoking and intelligent way. I think the themes of this novel will resonate with most women which makes it very readable and believable. Although I devoured this book very quickly, I have to say I found it to be a sombre read, which in all fairness seems to be standard for Anna Hopes books. This is contemporary women’s fiction at its finest in terms of the author’s compassionate and insightful look at ordinary lives and how they are affected by all that life can throw at us. Life is unpredictable and many things can derail you from your chosen path through life but all our hopes and failures make us who we are which the author expresses beautifully through the intertwining lives of these women. I recommend giving this space on your bookshelf and thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read ahead of publication.

I really enjoyed this book, it was written very well and the interconnecting stories of the three main characters were plotted out really well. Anna uses quite plain language in the book and it really worked well. The theme of parenthood both as a mother and as a daughter were explored really well and, while the stories were fairly bleak at points, it all came together very neatly at the end. I will definitely recommend this book.

3.5 stars. This is written with a lot of style, lyrical language and good pacing. The story centres around three female friends and the way they have moved through each others’ lives during the course of their relationships. As they mature and begin settling down, none of them is quite happy with the way things have turned out, and they each seem to envy what the others have, whether that’s a child, a career, a secure relationship, or freedom. It’s about the strength and brittleness of female friendships and there were elements I loved, but it didn’t always click for me.

This book tells the story of three women, friends since childhood/university, through their various trials and tribulations. At times I found the book excellent, but it lost me towards the end, hence only 4 stars. Some readers will identify more with the three main characters, and get a lot more out of the book than I did.

The book opens at a brief, golden time when Cate, Hannah and Lissa live together in Hackney, in their 20s, full of potential and hope for the future. Most of it is set in 2012, when Hannah is struggling with IVF, Cate has moved out of London with her husband and new baby and doesn't know where she fits any more, and Lissa is facing up to her lack of success as an actress and the difficulties that being late 30s brings to that career. There are flashbacks to when Cate and Hannah met at school, and to Hannah and Lissa meeting at university and relationships and experiences that happened in the late 90s for all of them.

It's about the gaps between how you thought life would work out, and how it actually has, between how it appears to those on the outside, even close friends, and what it feels like to live it. Hannah's resentment of Cate, Lissa's betrayal, Cate trying to work out where she fits in what is still a new relationship with her husband - and for all of them, who they really are in their 30s. It's a very realistic portrayal of the expectations versus the realities, and how your friends fit, and they're recognisable characters. I enjoyed it, whilst also having a bit to reflect on as only a little younger than the characters!

I love a book that weaves multiple viewpoints and stories together seamlessly, and Hope did not disappoint in this tale. Set in modern London, as opposed the the usually historic settings favoured in the past by Hope, the book follows three friends and their timeline of life and is a really enjoyable plot. It feels familiar, its interesting and it prompts empathy with the characters. I recommend this book.

This is a book about expectation versus reality, friendship and the fragility of relationships. We are introduced to three female friends in their 20s and follow them through the trials and tribulations of their 30s, while also reflecting on their past. This shows us how individual lives change or progress in different ways and each of them have something another one of them longs for, causing friction among them. The writing style makes it a pleasant read and I think this is a story that a lot of women will identify with as it is certainly relatable.

While I felt that it was far more realistic than a lot of other contemporary fiction (in terms of the modern lives of women), there were several trite or sudden moments, which I found disappointing. I would have liked to see more character development, as I felt that following three main characters did water this down slightly. It's also a shame that it's yet another novel set in London (for the most part) - I think it would have worked just as well set in another city (in this case, possibly Manchester).

What does it take to live a meaningful life? That’s the subject of Anna Hope’s new novel, Expectation.

Hannah, Cate and Lissa are young, vivacious and close to each other as only young people are. Living in East London,  they spend their days exploring romance, art, activism and merriment, and are convinced that the world to come will give them everything they hope for, and more. Truly best friends, they believe that they will be inseparable forever. Ten years on, and things have changed. Their once electric world is now faltering amid flailing careers and fractured marriages. Each longs for what the others have.

Hope’s prose is spiky and acute. She’s on form when writing witty prose, and gets inside the complex moments with tenderness and intimacy. Female friendships are the subject, rather than romantic, but these relationships are deep and meaningful, and underpin the lives of the protagonists.

The novel was inspired by American TV series The Affair.

It’s a warm and emotional novel that shimmers with brilliance. Well worth adding to the 'to read' list.

2.75 Stars

Expectation is a novel that explores the highs and lows of friendship. There are three main characters that we follow throughout the book. The three women used to be very good friends but now, due to several reasons, they have kind of drifted apart a little bit and nothing is how it used to be when they were younger. This book surely shows what happens when people take different paths in their life and how sometimes you can lose touch with the people you felt the closest with in the past. It's something that can totally happen and I think it was truthfully described. I must say that I expected a little bit more of female friendship from this book and in the end it was not what I found. The moments when they were together kind of fell flat to me.
I don't think that the big plot-twist of the book (Nathan cheating on Hannah with Lissa) was dealt with in a good way. Hannah comes to this shocking revelation on her own and totally out of the blue. It wasn't very realistic in my opinion.
Overall it was an okay read that made me reflect on some important themes, but I definitely expected more from it.

I really enjoyed this - I finished it over the weekend and can’t stop thinking about it. The three women are hugely relatable and even though their experiences are so different they each felt very ‘real’. The way the author shows how the women envy and admire each other’s lives, each thinking that another’s has worked out better than their own, while not understanding or being able to understand each other’s problems is done so well and with such nuance. I loved the dual time narrative, learning how the women first met and how they were drawn to each other, especially the parts when they are young women in London, really helped to bring the story to life. Hope also deals with some really challenging issues, such as infertility, with sensitivity and compassion. Incredible writing - I would definitely recommend!

A bitter sweet examination of the gap between promise and fulfilment, dreams and reality, Expectation follows the lives of three women, Cate, Hannah and Lissa from the easy hope of their late twenties to the harsher reality of their thirties and forties.
School friends Cate and Hannah have always enjoyed a competitive friendship, a competition both tempered and heightened when Hannah meets Lissa at university and the duo become a trio, sharing a house in Hackney at the beginning of the century. Golden girl Cate is already unsure of her path, her First from Cambridge squandered on heartbreak and years working in a cafe while Hannah took the disappointment of rejection from Cambridge and turned it into a successful career. Meanwhile Lissa enjoys her youth, beauty and talent, convinced her big break is on the horizon. But ten years later Cate is stuck with a squalling baby and a husband she isn't sure she loves in a house miles away from her friends, Hannah is about to embark on yet another course of IVF and Lissa is single and facing the knowledge that she may never make it after all. How did they get here - and where do they go next?
Betrayal, heartbreak and unpleasant truths await all three as we follow them from their carefree twenties, back to their troubled teens and forward to their even more troubled thirties as they face the difference between their reality and the expectations they once so blithely held. Expectation is an elegant, taut examination of womanhood in the twenty first century. Recommended.