Because of you by Dawn French is actually a lovely read, ....for such a shocking subject. Hope and Isaac are just lovely and Minnie’s life is full of acceptance, love and opportunity. In parallel Anna made a bad choice in a horrible man and was dealt a seemingly unrecoverable, devastating loss which she, nonetheless works through to find her best self. Dawn’s writing is very skilled in bringing the characters to life. I expect humour from her and got it in the form of the bumbling police inspector. (I’m not entirely sure that his very humourous portrayal was the best fit for the story but I did smile at some of the erroneous phraseology.) On the whole I enjoyed the read but I struggle to reconcile the sympathetic portrayal of someone who so deliberately chose self over all others. Interesting slant on the subject. Four stars

This is the first book I’ve read by Dawn French (although I do have a couple of her previous books on my shelves waiting to be read). I was intrigued to see how this would compare to her comedy writing.

I must admit that I enjoyed reading this story – there is a mixture of tragedy and humour, and the female characters are very strong, especially Hope, Minnie and Anna. We do have to suspend belief slightly with the story – this is a piece of fiction, and not based on a true story. I must admit that I struggled a little with the ending, but that was due to the nature of one of the events, rather than the writing of the actual story.

Anna’s husband, Julius and DI Thripshaw, are both portrayed as having character defects, one narcissistic and one mixing his metaphors. Thankfully, Lee is revealed to be a kind and caring male, as is Isaac.

A solid four star rating from me for this. Thank you again to Michael Joseph for the chance to read this before publication, my thoughts are my own and not influenced by the gift.

I was disappointed with this book. I expected to be moved by it, but I wasn’t. I also found the short, repetitive, sentences annoying. I didn’t feel empathy with any of the main characters. The story seemed too unrealistic, and parts were contrived.

Dawn French's novel is a complete tearjerker, exploring the nature of mother-daughter relationships and family, the sacrifices a mother will make, the heartache, the grief and the loss, set in London and Bristol. Two mothers are in the maternity unit of a hospital giving birth to their daughters, one of whom is stillborn. Hope Parker, from a Jamaican background, leaves the hospital with Minnie, a daughter that she could not love more, she is everything, whilst her beloved partner, Quiet Isaac, the father, returns to Africa. Hope makes the decision to return to Bristol where her family live, her parents love her but Zak, her dad, is a heroin addict, and to cope with this, her mother took to the demon drink. Her sister has helped to look after and protect them while Hope was in London, while there is a bigger family circle that take Minnie to their heart, with everyone surrounding her with a vibrant, unconditional, unabashed love as Minnie grows up secure, knowing she is wanted.

Anna Lindon-Clarke, the other mother at the hospital, is left a broken woman, she can't forget her daughter, Florence, so desperately wanted, particularly as her husband, the black Tory MP, Julius, a serial philanderer, has proved to be such a utter disappointment. French has really gone to town with his character, a truly obnoxious man, narcissistic, vain, amoral and utterly selfish, whose world revolves entirely around him, no-one else gets a look in. He is power hungry, so ambitious that he will use anyone and anything to further his career including Anna, and Florence, but is so intolerable, with his unbearable, peacock attention seeking personality, that even the Tories are wary. Hope and Minnie, a happy, bright and joyful girl, have an unbreakable bond, with their own secret codes and Wawa. At 17 years of age, Minnie is pregnant, in a strong relationship with Lee, when her world falls apart, leaving her flailing, wondering who she is and who she can trust.

French's writing and storytelling is utterly compelling, it is full of heart, warmth and the kind of heartbreak and sorrow that left me feeling bereft and tearful. She explores the mother-daughter relationship with expert skill, the sacrifices made, and her characterisations of the towering Hope, Minnie and Anna had me totally invested in them, not to mention Quiet Isaac with his love and yearly letters. This is a fabulously entertaining and immersive read, of family, love, loss, grief, forgiveness and such courage and bravery that it left me breathless. Dawn French really is a national treasure. Many thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph for an ARC.

I find it difficult to review this book as it was so well written and so powerful, honestly I couldn't finish it! There is a first!! Too GOOD to finish. It simply affected me too much to continue, as a mother I couldn't handle it.

A fair bit of suspension of disbelief required to get into this book, but it's dramatic, emotional, compelling, and written with a great deal of heart.

Aww what a read. A total emotional rollercoaster this one. It’s all here, love, loss, grief, motherhood, childhood and an ending that made me cry.
Thank you to the publisher for inviting me to read this one.

I found this a really emotional rollercoaster of a read. I ended it in tears and felt myself welling up as I went through.

This is my first Dawn French book but I suspect will not be my last.

Two mothers give birth on the same day - one is however a still born. One mothers’s decision changes the life of two couples and brings with it trauma for all concerned.

The ending I did not foresee but it makes you think deeply about the concept of a mother’s love.

Compelling - a must read - I will be recommending this book.

I love all of Dawn French’s books, however this is by far her best one yet.
I was super excited to be able to read this book early and I wasn’t disappointed. I was enthralled from page 1 in this amazing story.
It’s an emotional, relatable and engaging read. Make sure you’ve got the tissues at the ready; I’ve just finished it and was definitely a little teary.
It’s definitely worthy of 5 stars and one of my favourites this year.

This was definitely one of those mind blowing, unputdownable books. It’s not perfect - definitely requires a bit of suspension of disbelief here and there - but it’s a bloody good, heart wrenching read.

Cannot recommend more highly.

Book 📖

When The Michael Joseph Marketing Team reached out to offer me the chance to read Because of You I jumped at the chance for a copy. Thank you to @MichaelJBooks and @Dawn_French for this advanced copy in return for an honest review. Because of You is due to be published on 15th October 2020 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

As the millennium rolls in, two couples are on a maternity word. Both women come from different backgrounds, but both give birth to very similar daughters. Hope leaves the hospital with the new love of her life; a beautiful baby girl. Anna unfortunately leaves the hospital with no baby and whole lot of heartache.

Seventeen years later, lies from the past start to unravel and the horrible truth is unmasked to all resulting in two broken hearted mothers.

General Thoughts 🤔

What a story this book tells. It's one of those things that I am certain people would think "this could never happen to me" or "I would never do that" but when reading this book, I defy anyone to not have a moment of putting themselves into either Hope or Anna's shoes and be able to sympathise with both mothers.

Having lived and breathed the lives of the characters whilst reading this book, I really should have known how the story was going to conclude, but it still snuck up on me and I had to hold back tears. Tears for so many reasons too. I felt so very sad, but also happy and relieved. LOTS of emotions poured out of me throughout this read.

Characters 👫👭👬

I'd like to give quite a short summary of each of the characters that really struck a chord with me.

Hope - I understood Hope. I may not have agreed with her 100% of the time, but I felt a lot of empathy toward her that allowed me to forgive her.

Anna - I felt such sadness for Anna. Not only for losing her beautiful daughter but for the lack of support and love after the fact. She proved herself as one of the strongest characters in my opinion.

Issac - what a difficult position this man was put in. Similar to Hope I did not agree with his actions and I felt like he should have taken charge of a terrible situation, but I admired his commitment to and love for Hope.

Julias – what an absolute moron. There is no love lost between this character and I.

Minnie – if I had a daughter, I would want her to be like Minnie. Strong willed, independent, smart, creative and loyal to the end.

Writing Style ✍️

I’ve not read a Dawn French book before and this hopefully won’t be my last. This is her first book in five years and I’d guess that a lot of that time has been poured into this book.

The book is told from the point of view of all characters in the story which I felt was a fantastic way of keeping me on my toes and keeping me invested in the stories and the characters. She also did a brilliant job of bringing such a range of emotions out of me; the reader and tying it all off with such a bittersweet ending.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

As I said I was really excited to have the opportunity to read this book; mostly because I’ve never read Dawn French’s work before but secondly because if it’s the first book she’s released in so long, you can almost guarantee it’s going to be good. I was not at all disappointed and would definitely recommend this book to anyone who’d like to have a read and good cry!!

I hadn't read any of the authors previous books and it took me a while to get into her writing style but when I did I was drawn into this story and the characters. Dawn French's unique style does have warmth and humour oozing from the page. It is both funny and tragic at the same time with an end that will leave you moved. Thank you for the advance reading copy.

I have just finished this and the last few pages left me with tears streaming down my face. I have read all of Dawn French’s books but this is her best by far. It is a very tricky one to review without giving the plot away so I’m just going to try and focus on why I enjoyed it so much rather than reveal any spoilers.
Hope and Anna are two very different women but they both give birth on New Year's Eve to two beautiful girls yet only Hope leaves with a baby. We fast forward 18 years and Hope’ daughter Minnie is now expecting her own baby and this sets in motion a series of events that Hope knew she would have to confront one day.
Hope and Minnie were my favourite characters in this book, I was taken with them from the very first pages, they are vibrant and realistic and their relationship is just a pure joy to read about. Anna is a very troubled woman but so much of her life has been dominated by her vile husband Julius, an MP with a huge ego. He too, was one of my favourite characters but for all the wrong reasons. Dawn French has created such a vile, pompous man, you can’t help but be entertained by him whilst feeling so sorry for those who have to deal with him in the book.
I loved the way in which Dawn French explores the family unit within this book and the idea of nature vs nurture. Minnie is surrounded by love in so many forms and whilst she has events from her life that she can call into question, she can in no way doubt the love that Hope has shown her from day one.
Because of You is a fantastic read, the ending knocked me for six as I just did not see it coming. I urge you to buy this book, it is full of love, wit, hope and joy, we could all do with some of that at the moment.

It is just after midnight on the first of January 2000 when two families in the same hospital welcome baby girls into the world. The opening chapter was so emotionally engaging and compelling that I was hooked from thereon in. Basically from the first chapters the rest of my day was cancelled as I simply could not put the book down. In those first pages as I got to know both families, there were tears (mine), characters I wanted to hug and at least one I wanted to slap!

Anna is a long suffering politician's wife, married to Julius. He's such an entitled annoying character, much more concerned with the appearance of a perfect family than actually contributing to making his family perfect. Their baby is long awaited and longed for. Then there's Hope and Quiet Isaac. She's a hospital cleaner while he is an overseas student from Sierra Leone. Theirs is an unplanned, unexpected but nonetheless welcome baby. Between them is a quiet but deeply felt love.

Although Dawn French is well known as a comedian, this is not a humorous book, although there is a touch of humour provided by one of the characters who continually uses wrong words. Instead this is a book of big emotional themes: motherhood, grief, loss and above all love. It's an poignant, heartfelt story of mothers and daughters and the bonds between them, so beautifully and insightfully written.

Because Of You is a superb book with such a perfect last line, full of hope. One of Dawn French's previous books was called A Tiny Bit Marvellous. Well, this one is a huge, warm, moving, glorious piece of marvellous-ness. Is that even a word? Well I'm not sure and I don't even care. This book is simply wonderful.

A bittersweet tale of the loss of a baby, seen through the eyes of 2 sets of parents who find themselves in the maternity hospital at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Sadly only one couple will leave with a baby, who turns into a beautiful, child loved by all she meets. Until at the age of 17 she finds out what really happened that night in the hospital. The story is filled with sadness but French has tried to lighten it with some comic characters. This is just the kind of story that, in the hands of a novelist like Fredrik Backman, I love reading. Unfortunately while one of these characters, 17 year old Millie’s boyfriend Twat, works as a funny, engaging character. The other, the incompetent detective whose speech is one long string of malapropism, really isn’t funny and even worse is totally unbelievable as a police officer assigned not once but twice to the investigation of the disappearance of a prominent politician’s child. The ending, could have been a real tear-jerker, but I was so busy thinking how ridiculously unlikely it was, that I just didn’t see it. Not one of French’s better books.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this gobsmacking, tear jerking edge of the seat book

its new years eve on the edge of a new millennium and two young women are in labour but at the dawning of this new millennium only one couple will walk out with a baby, the other will be a stillborn

what follows next in this book is gripping and thought provoking and at times gut wrenching....i thought i knew the way it was going to end...

brilliantly written with pov from each individual done in a style that keeps the storyline moving and interesting and at times hard

and oh my that ending....i was in tears...

have never read a dawn french book before but i will from now on...

I have laughed I have cried and a whole load of emotions in between.
A lovely heart warming read ideal to snuggle up on the sofa on a wet afternoon. 10 out of 10.

Hope and Anna give birth in in hospital rooms next door to each other. Hope takes home Minnie and Anna is left heartbroken.
17 years later and we discover the true meaning of a mother's love.
Such a thought provoking and emotional story.
Brilliant read.

Well, this was a very different read and not at all what I expected. In fact, I haven't read a book like it before. I'm a mother who has a daughter of my own so when I read that 'This is a book about mothers and daughters, love and loss, mistakes and regret' I thought I it would be just my sort of read.

It is about all of those things but not in any way I had imagined. There are two couples, different ages and totally different backgrounds but they are both in the hospital due to give birth. I really liked the younger couple, Hope and Isaac. they were truly in love and had next to no money but were determined they were going to make things work. The older couple Julius and Anna were total opposites. He was a politician and everything was about him. Anna, however, was lovely and I did feel sorry for her having a husband like that! Their stories connect in a way you wouldn't imagine.

I would recommend going into this story with no preconceptions. I wish I could say I loved it but alas I did not. It was an alright story but I felt it had the potential of being so much more. I know it's fiction but parts of this had me shaking my head in disbelief as they were so far fetched. Sadly for me, it just didn't hit the mark and I was left feeling disappointed, but maybe that's just me.

Midnight 2000. A new millennium and a new life
Anna leaves hospital without her baby daughter.
Hope leaves with a baby daughter
Seventeen years and many heartaches later the truth of that night is about to be revealed and their lives will never be the same again.
I couldn't put this down and read it on a cold wet day. I laughed and I cried and then cried some more.