A novel about the lives of three friends: Hannah, Cate and Lissa. We meet them in their late twenties, learn how they became friends and follow them as they grow up and grow older, seeking but not always finding happiness and fulfilment.

This is a good book, engaging, well written. I was absorbed and finished it in less than twenty four hours. The characters, their relationships and connections felt real and familiar, the neighbourhood too. I read Expectation on a cold-ish early spring day but I see it really as a perfect summer read. And this is fine but it is also safe and undemanding. If I am being really honest, even when Hannah’s, Cate’s and Lissa’s lives become less comfortable, when they’re about to spiral out of control, Expectation was still a comfort read. This isn’t a bad thing necessarily but I expected more.

Hope writes very well, beautifully at times and I did enjoy the book but I wished that she played it less safe. Having said that, I’d still be up for reading whatever she writes next.

I absolutely devoured this book, loved every minute of reading it and didn't want it to end.
Expectation is actually a really simple story but it's so well written that I just felt attached to each of the three characters as if I'd known them for years and really didn't want the book to end so I could carry on with their journey.
Anna Hope is an author I've read previously (The Ballroom which I also loved) and for me she is a classy writer without any need for plot twists or major action, the story does it all.
I will definitely be recommending this to at least six of my friends and thank Netgalley very much for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Expectation is a different genre from Anna Hope's previous historical novels as it moves to the present day and the entwining lives of three friends, Hannah, Lissa and Cate.

Written from three points of view we meet them as adults ten years on from when they first met as young women, Hannah and her husband Nate have been trying unsuccessfully to have a family; Cate is married to Sam with a child and living unhappily in the sticks; Lissa is a failed actress.

Expectation is a great title. It encompasses what is normal when we are young and have everything to look forward to; then the reaction when life doesn't go the way we hope and as adults we have to learn ways of acceptance and coping.

Anna Hope's writing and characterisation skills made me feel for all the women even though there is a huge betrayal by one of them. We are all human, after all.

I loved the book and think it will appeal to many readers. Thanks to Alison Barrow and Doubleday for the opportunity to read and review Expectation.

From the carefree days of your early 20s, to the realisation that life doesn't always pan out the way you planned it - however well you planned it - and that getting what we want (or what we think we want) isn't always the answer, this is a beautifully observed new book from Anna Hope.

Three very different women have been friends since they were teenagers. Each of them is unhappy and envious of the others at various stages of the novel which switches between past and present highlighting how they have changed over the years as life hasn't turned out how they'd hoped. Quite a depressing novel but the characters were interesting enough to make me want to keep reading.

Expectation follows the lives of three friends and is mainly set in the present time, a change from Anna Hope’s previous historical novels. We find out how the women met; at school or university and how their expectations for the future have not always materialised.
The novel also explores female relationships and how they change over time. Anna Hope writes with such sensitive honesty that no emotion is left hidden. The narrative explores the disappointment each woman feels with their present lives and the envy they may feel towards what they see each other has achieved.
I have found Anna Hope’s previous novels to be exceptionally well written with engaging characters and captivating storylines. Expectation is no exception to this but is a much slower paced book. However, the issues raised within it didn’t leave me when I finished the last page and the book does encourage reflection on your own life.

Written from the point of view of our main protagonists, I felt this book was like life itself. We find Hannah and Nathan, who are trying to become parents, Lissa and her failed career as an actress and Cate, who married Sam and cannot understand why. At the beginning of everything, they are hungry for adventure and desperate to live their lives but ten years on, they have all followed different paths and ended up in separate places.

This is a novel about the highs and lows of friendship, a novel about selfishness and remorse and families and about those dreams that never came true. It’s a story that is alive and that presents us with true life situations while exploring the space between expectation and reality. Our main protagonists will find their way out of the maze but how will they achieve that if they cannot longer trust each other?

I really enjoyed this novel, even though it made me sad to read what was happening sometimes. Friendship can dip, dive and rise again and it was inspiring to see these three women trying to find their feet again. Most of all I enjoyed the writing, Hope knows how to write.

This was not only a beautiful story but a beautifully written book too.

Anna Hope’s third novel is very different from her first two in that it is set in the present day with just a quick glance back to 2004 when three friends, Hannah, Cate and Lissa are house sharing in London Fields. This opening section is tinged with a sunny glow as we are told of the Saturday morning convivial trips to buy perfect picnic food to be enjoyed later in ‘the best park in London’. The girls, all in their late twenties, are enjoying life to the full. There’s much mention of hipsterish venues, interesting food, cool gigs etc. Reading this, I couldn’t help but think that it all felt a bit like a lifestyle advert, too shiny and stylish to be true. And maybe that’s the point. Are we seeing 2004 through the rose-tinted spectacles of the girls who, in the following section dated 2010, are older wiser and certainly unhappier? The section ends with the rather ominous, ‘They still have time to become who they are going to be.’
So, we fast-forward to find that Hannah is married to Nathan and having difficulty conceiving whilst Cate is married to Sam and struggling to look after baby Tom, lonely and depressed in Canterbury, away from her friends. Lissa is still single, chasing after acting jobs and feeling that maybe it’s time to quit this way of life. As always, Anna Hope develops these characters and all with whom they inter-act very carefully. She is also very good at setting scenes. The reader can easily picture the stale mess surrounding Cate in her grubby new home, Hannah’s magazine-perfect flat and Lissa’s mother’s bohemian kitchen, but where is all of this impressive writing leading us?
Motherhood is one of the central themes of the novel – hinted at by its title (which also suggests that these university educated privileged girls feel entitled to have what they want) and, of course, flagged up in the epigraph. Lissa struggles to believe that her mother truly loves her; Cate has lost her zest for life since becoming a mother and Hannah, who has always worked hard to achieve her goals, cannot accept her failure to have a child. Most of the novel’s narrative focuses on the ways in which these women move on from these positions. However, it is surprising that they are all still friends in 2018, or at least friendly enough to replicate the picnic scenario of 2004. Why would Lissa still be welcome after her behaviour towards vulnerable Hannah back in 2010?
I enjoyed this novel for the most part but, at its conclusion, I was left feeling that loose ends were tied just a little too neatly to persuade me that ‘Expectation’ is a serious exploration of real women’s struggles. Back in the park, the impression of that lifestyle advert lingers…
My thanks to NetGalley and Transworld for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

Expectation is the story of three friends and how they grow up from twentysomethings in London to be older, with dashed dreams and new struggles. Hannah, Cate, and Lissa shared a house in East London, with carefree fun and picnics. However, ten years later they're not where they hoped, with careers and marriages and children big issues in their lives. They wrestle with envy over each others' lives as they work out how to make the most of the lives they have, rather than those they expected.

The narrative weaves together moments from their past with this less-than-ideal future, showing how their friendship has developed and their lives have changed. The atmosphere is one of personal contemplation, all about the human connections that each of the main characters has and how they view their own lives and their friends'. Moments of possibility show how changeable life is, though the outcomes of these moments are often predictable. There is drama, it is overall a story of acceptance, and it would actually make a good book to read over a lazy afternoon in a park, as the characters might do themselves.

Expectation is really as expected: a narrative about friendship and about how the image of being young and full of promise cannot last. It's a good book, though it didn't quite have enough of a spark, and ended a little too neatly given its premise.

I loved Anna Hope's two other books - they are quiet and thoughtful with a gut wrenching turn in the plot which has left me thinking back to the tale years after I have finished reading. Therefore I read 'Expectation' with high hopes, whilst I can categorise this book as perfectly serviceable and fine, it has not had quite the same impact as her other books.

Dashed hopes aside, I did enjoy this story. Three friends from home and University, starting out in life, fresh faced and perky, only to have their hopes, dreams and expectations ruined by the cruel world and in some cases, their friends. Maybe I am old and sceptical, but that's life, perhaps modern Britain has driven me to a pit of pessimism. Anyway I read it and thought 'yeah that happens' and was slightly surprised at how forgiving the women are, because as well as being old and sceptical I am obviously unforgiving as I would not be meeting up for picnic and chats with Lissa.

I have loved Anna's previous novels - Wake and The Ballroom, so have been eagerly awaiting new writing. A writer that truly brings something different to each novel. There is no sitting back and churning out another book in a similar vein to the novel before - the settings, the plot style, the time period so totally different every time. But what does remain is a core trio of characters - seriously why do more writers not do this - it works so so well - and brilliant insightful writing.
Expectation is the story of three friends from school days to university and beyond - into marriage, relationships and motherhood. Perfectly capturing friendships and fallouts, the struggles and otherwise of motherhood, love and marriage. The flaws in us all, the flaws in our friendships. I haven't read a book that captures the reality of it so so well in a long time.
Very different to Anna's previous novels in terms of a contemporary setting. Truly authentic wiring, I will be recommending far and wide