I didn’t realise that the book was actually a memoir when I requested it.
It was slow to start however I did enjoy it. 
The book was descriptive and really felt like you were there. I’ve been to India and I felt I was back there again which was great.
Enjoyable thank you

I didn’t realise that this is a memoir or I would not have read it, I never review biographies, auto biographies or memoirs....It’s reviewing a person...too personal....the review too easily for me could slip into personal comment, that is too unkind. When I read this I thought that it was a work of fiction. It is however, well written and compelling and I really hoped that Ells would get her act together by the end....she seems to have at least got things into perspective with the help of her family.  

Enjoyable, introspective version of Eleanor Wood’s own life, on her website she describes this book as being her “memoir....a funny/sad book about heartbreak, mental health, history and holidays”. After reading this book I agree that this is totally accurate description and why should I, a non-writer type person, rephrase an accurate description.
During the last chapter she describes herself, and this seems to apply to many young adults of her social demographic, as an “overprivileged, mentally unstable white girl”.


My favourite line in this memoir “For some time now, I’ve felt like I am in the world very lightly” and thank you Netgalley for this free copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

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I actually quite liked this, but it equally annoyed me.  Eleanor tries to be some hippy chic distressed 30-something, with few prospects.  But then, as the story develops, it turns out she is surrounded by an amazing matriarchal family, with an awesome grandmother and elderly relations, with whom she has a fantastic and supportive relationship.  So it was nice in the sense of family ties.  But annoying in the sense that the author chose to portray Eleanor as a 'poor me' princess that the world owes something.  Wouldn't recommend, as the annoyance outweighed the good.  Just.

I knew after the first couple of pages that I was going to like this book. Told in the first person, Eleanor’s personality jumps off the pages and quickly draws in the reader.  What I didn’t realise until way through the book is that this isn’t fiction, it’s a memoir of the authors life so far.  This made it even more fascinating and a lot more meaningful.

After first setting the present day scene on a beach in Goa, India, you’re then taken back in time through all the trauma and upset set out in the blurb for the book.

The narrative is captivating, well I thought so. It’s like sitting down with someone you’ve just met while they pour out their life story so far. You wouldn’t think someone in their 30’s could have a particularly huge life story but so much has happened in Eleanor’s life not of her making, that you can’t help but feel huge empathy for her.

To quote the book description “A late 30s The Wrong Knickers meets Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, having read neither I couldn’t comment on whether that is a true description or not. The writing style is chatty and fast paced, never dwelling for too long on each of the heartaches and heartbreaks in Eleanors life and there’s been a lot of heartache, not just with previous partners and boyfriends but the loss of her step-dad was a crushing blow to Eleanor who had a wonderful relationship with him.

It’s not just about Eleanor and her troubles, she describes the very close relationship she has with her nan.  Her family – her grandmother and her grandmothers sisters were born in India and grew up there until India was given it’s independence from British rule in 1947.  I learned so much about what happened in India and the partition when India was split up, with part of it becoming Pakistan.  I didn’t know any of the history until reading this book.

The story isn’t told in any particular chronological order.  It really is like sitting chatting to a friend who divulges their deepest thoughts.  Always told with humour and kept light but then that is a part of who Eleanor is.

She shares the love and fondness she has for her family and what it is about her grandmother and her aunts that makes them, in the authors eyes, Staunch.  Throughout the book, most of which is set on their holiday there, you get to meet the many different people they encounter on their holiday, you get a deep insight into Eleanor’s thoughts and life so far and you meet her lovely Nan and great aunts and learn about their lives both in India and here in England.  A riveting read which I enjoyed very much.

Couldn't ever get to the point to decide if I did like this book or not. I found the main character to be rather self involved but did really enjoy the elements from her family. 

Tough reading this as it is very tempting to stop!

I agree with other reviewers the start is heavy but eventually it seems to get to the main reason for the story. I throughly enjoyed the trip to India and was so drawn in that I was actually sad to leave too. The descriptiveness is lovely and I got to live it with the characters. I was annoyed with Ells, her naivety and insecurities but understood her journey to understand herself, it’s reflective and it resonated with me. Loved it eventually.

I desperately wanted to be part of this book and to be friends with all these wonderful staunch women. Following several generations of a family as they take a trip to India, this book neatly sidesteps the messy memoir category whilst still being true to life. Thanks NetGalley!

I found the beginning of the book a little heavy on the trials and tribulations of Eleanor who is trying to understand    what the future might hold for her. As I got to know Eleanor better, I developed considerable empathy for her and sympathised with her disappointments in life.
  How courageous of her to agree to accompany her grandmother and great aunts on a holiday to Goa. The book then began to be a real page turner. The family history was so interesting and enjoyed hearing how Eleanor spent her time in India..
  What I particularly loved reading about was Eleanor's relationship with the three octogenarians. What wonderful characters!  Each one different but all well rounded individuals.  Through being kind and patient Eleanor listens and learns from their wisdom and experience.  She develops a commendable maturer view on life. As Nan says "Find out what makes you happy and make the most of what you have."
  Good luck Eleanor and thank you for letting me share your wonderful holiday and the company of your very special nan and aunts.

This book spoke to me on so many levels, absolutely nailed many characteristics of my own life and personality on the head! I binge read this in 2 sittings on a beach in Thailand and fell in love with the characters and internal struggles that befall us women as we hit middle age! I would live to read more and pray there will be further stories to come!

I struggled with this book. Had I realised at the start it was a memoir I don’t think I would have selected it.
It rolls along at a good pace and contains lots of history. The plot is a refreshing change from the usual and as Eleanor spends more time with her elderly relatives the more she learns about their past lives and of course it’s her history too.

Like other readers, I wasn't aware this was a memoir; the blurb for this book isn't very clear.
At the beginning it was quite a challenging read: a lovely person had got herself into a negative spiral due to a series of events.
However, a trip with her grandmother and great aunts empowers her to address her current situation and move on. The book is interspersed with stories of her relatives that is very inspiring.
I found this an interesting read and I am sure women in their 30s in particular will be inspired by this talented writer's story.
Thank you to NetGalley for gifting me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a truthful review.

I loved this book. It took a while for me to fully get into it but after that I was loving it. I loved the chances between time frames and how her life seemed to fall apart but actually helped her see what her life could become. Over I think this book should be read by young adults to prove that life may seem crap but can actually be pretty good

A very enjoyable read. I loved the descriptions of Goa and the relationships between Eleanor and her older relatives. A marvellous celebration of womanhood.

I feel like I know Eleanor Wood. At some points during this memoir I felt like I’d been her: after a long and mainly harmonious relationship in her early to late twenties, Eleanor emerges in her thirties realising two of the men in her life have let her down; her disappearing stepdad and her long term musician-boyfriend- as her friends are just settling down and lecturing her on how to handle married life and coupledom  (yep, did that, got the t-shirt). 

What happens next is achingly sad but not surprising, with one Bad (gaslighting and abusive) Boyfriend and an emotionally unavailable Lecturer. Can the staunch older women around her give Eleanor advice to live by? 

I fell in love with Eleanor and her relatives, Nan, Rose and Ann, as they journey to India, where Nan grew up. If I had one criticism it would be that the idea of staunchness sometimes feels superimposed - I suspect that the aunts just got on with the hands they were dealt, as Eleanor does. One of the stronger millennial memoirs out there. Eleanor already is a staunch woman, I hope she realises that.

If you're after a bit of life-affirming, reality-checking memoir, this ticks all the boxes. The author finds herself not quite where she thought she'd be at a certain point in her life - as those around her seem to be getting married and starting families, she has come out of a 12-year relationship into a series of problematic ones and is feeling lost and unhappy. Her turning point comes when her grandmother and two great aunts ask her to join them on a month-long trip to India, where they were born. During their time away, Eleanor learns a great deal about her family history and develops a profound respect for these women and their attitude, which she describes as 'staunch'. During the book, she reflects on her own past as well as that of her family, and tries to apply the life lessons she is taught by these remarkable older women. It's warmly written and thoughtful.

On my first glance at the synopsis, I thought that this book was a work of a fiction. 

I quickly learnt when I started reading it that it was a memoir.  I do not read many memoirs, but after reading this, that will be changing. 

This book is so beautifully written. 

It is such an inspiring book and I think will do so well in the book charts!

I didn't actually realise this was a proper memoir, I initially thought it was a fictionalised version! Which explains the slightly frustrating ending - had it been fiction, everything would have been beautifully tied up in a way that it wasn't quite here., but as it's real life then it makes a bit more sense.

The story of a trip to India with her grandmother and two great-aunts, with family history and reflections on her own life experience so far, it's an easy read but also a thought provoking one. I've seen a couple of other reviews commenting on the target audience being women in their thirties, but as someone in that age group I'm not entirely sure it resonated with me as much as it might have done. I've also never thought of "staunch" as a descriptor on its own, which I found strangely irritating throughout the book. 
 
Entertaining, thought-provoking in some ways, but nor for me really.

*TW there are discussions and memories of sexual assault within this book*

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers HQ for my eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

I really enjoyed reading this book and once I got into it read it in a few sittings. It's funny, touching and so incredibly well written I can imagine being Eleanor. Although it is a memoir, I didn't realise this when I started reading it, it was only when I found the author twitter did I realise. 

The book tells Eleanors life story in a way that almost seems like a therapy session where she discusses the things that have happened in her past and the effect she thinks they have had on her. She also talks about her family history and her time on holiday in India with her Grandmother and aunts. I get the feeling that she feels like the trip is her chance to deal with things, make peace and move on as best she can. 

Although I sometimes found the switching between times confusing, for the most part it was fine and I found the sections where she talks about her family history interesting as her her Nans parents had lived in India with the British Raj before having to move 'back' to the UK when her Nan was in her teens, despite none of them having ever lived there. Other sections, such as when she discussed past relationships were difficult to read as you could feel the rawness of the situation on the author. However I did find it to be, for the most part, uplifting and inspiring. I read it as my first book of 2020 and I think new year was the perfect time to engage with it, not only because it is set at the beginning of the year but also because it made me think about how I can be more staunch (a word I had never heard of previously!). 

Eleanor is in her 30s and this memoir and I get the feeling it is maybe aimed at women a similar age, however as someone in their 20s I also enjoyed this book and found a lot of it to be relateable so believe anyone would enjoy it!

I really enjoyed this book. When I requested it from netgalley I thought it was fiction, so was interested to learn when I started reading it that it was, in fact, a memoir. 

It's really well written and very engaging from the outset. I found the author really very likeable and was completely engrossed in her story. I loved the tales of her trip to India with her relatives. It will definitely make me look at older people with fresh eyes in future. I was very inspired by the ladies she travelled with and their zest for life! 

I thought the stories about her family's past in India in the 1940s added real depth to the book and I learnt a lot from those sections. 

I read this book over New Year, which I think was the ideal time to read it. It has a strong, positive message and I now intend to try to be, even just a little bit more, staunch. This book deserves to do really well and I hope it will go on to inspire lots of people. 

Thanks so much to netgalley and to the publisher and author for this review copy.

I requested this book on Netgalley as the description sounded fun – I had no idea it’s actually a memoir, not fiction. That said, much of the author’s life does sound like it’s come straight out of a soap opera script.
The author is only a few years younger than me but my word she has had some shit to deal with, and this book feels very much like a therapy session. It’s part soap opera, part family history and part pearls of wisdom from the elderly relatives she goes on holiday to India with (incidentally, I would LOVE to go on holiday to India with these ladies too – they sound like a riot!).
I particularly enjoyed the family history sections – there were some fascinating tales of life in the British Raj from when her Nan was in her teens, and the family’s journey ‘back’ to the UK, despite none of them ever having lived there before. 
I am truly envious of the close-knit family that the author has, and the amazing relationships she has with the staunch women in the family. It was interesting to read about how life events have affected her, and her determination to not let it beat her down, but to become as staunch as all the ladies surrounding her and supporting her.