Gigi is in pain, unseen, abnormal and hidden turmoil. Gigi has had a baby, and she just can't love him. She decides that the best thing to do is run away. 'The pain a mother feels is not just hers. She feels everyones pain; she picks it up for her kids, she Carries it for her family''
This tale started as when thing, and morphed into another. None of the characters had any real depth to them, and almost all were unlikeable. However, this is a tough, unspoken subject matter, and a tale that needed telling.

A really great story highlighting some of the challenges that life experiences and mental health can throw at you

This book tells the story of Gigi, a native New Yorker who is caught up in the horror of 9/11. In the confusion and terror, she meets Harry, and Englishman.
He meets her family and witnesses a terrible event which begins their bond.
Years later they meet again and begin a relationship. The story dips back in forth in time retelling the past and how their lives went on.
The main narrative is with Gigi, having left home and pondering her life, holed up in a hotel watching escapist tv.
I enjoyed the writing and the author draws you in to their story and what is going on in her mind.
If anything, it’s contemplative so not a ‘feel good romance’ which is not a bad thing!
I would recommend this to friends as a chance to immerse yourself into someone else’s head for a few hours.
I would look for further books by this author

This is the story of Gigi, a new mother who had a particularly bad birth experience, but doesn't really seem to know much about post-birth trauma. Her husband seems to be very nice and supportive but he is at a loss about how to help her, so she runs away and hides in a run down hotel until her friends and husband track her down. The back story of how they met and their lives in New York and London are depicted with a great deal of humor and sensitivity. I particularly like the accurate picture she paints of the middle class mums at the school gate in a posh London borough - very true. The ending comes quite quickly and all seems to be resolved rather too neatly, hence four stars instead of five. But very enjoyable.

I found it harder to read than expected. The different timeline didn’t help but you need to persevere to continue with the story.

I absolutely loved this book! I really liked the interweaving of places, time and memory and how such a major global event had such a devastating impact on families everywhere. I really enjoyed it, and would definitely recommend it!

English people are easy to make fun of, with our Boden and Cath Kidston-filled kitchens and Eurovision Song Contest parties where everyone does shots at the sight of drag or facial hair. Gigi, a New York girl, is a fish out of water in London - her American-ness also obscures her working-class roots, the fact that she's less like her husband Harry and his friends than the council-flat families on the way home from her kids' school with the foxes getting into the bins (Gigi on London's 'urban foxes' is hilarious 'There are wild dogs running around and should somebody call the police maybe?') This is a sweet, sad story about grief, motherhood and postpartum mental illness. There is a particularly painful scene where the local yummy mummies congratulate Gigi on her 'cleverness' in having a C-section, ignoring how traumatic it was for her and the physical and mental impact. With the help of wine, pizza and Real Housewives, Gigi checks into a ratty hotel, takes stock and faces up to her painful past (and fairly-painful present) before she can start walking into her future.

I found this a hard, but real book about grief, the impact of traumatic births and post natal depression. At first I was confused with the different timelines as each chapter starts with the present day and brings in stories from the past but after a couple of chapters this made sense. It was inspiring to see Gigi fight her way through her demons and I felt the book showed the real struggles working women face.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC of this book in exchange for a honest review.

Just finished this book. I must admit I struggled a bit at the beginning and got confused re the timelines etc but about a quarter of the way into the book it started to make sense.
It is a very sad book and triggered memories of my two traumatic births and in hindsight a bit of postnatal depression. So it did resonate.
I am glad I have read the book. When I first arrived in England I felt the same as Gigi and it was difficult to adjust. I also remember the mum guilt re having a c-section when all the other mums were talking about their 'natural' births and feeling a failure.
I am not going to go into the plot as other reviews will do that better but it is definitely worth a read.

I was given an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest and fair review which I have done.

Gigi is a New York girl, born to a disfunctional mother and a father who loves her, but doesn’t help much. Her beloved younger brother who she largely brought up dies in the Twin Towers tragedy, and Gigi and her mother never get over it.
There are flashes of humour which made me laugh, especially the New York accented humour.
Gigi has brilliant girlfriends in New York, and they all love and support each other, but after moving to London, pregnant and with her husband and son, this support is now only by text and telephone.
After a traumatic labour followed by a Caesarian section that she’s lucky to survive, poor Gigi descends into post-natal depression and you go through it with her, day by unhappy day.
Her relationship with her husband, son and new baby also suffers, and you want to step in and help.
This is such a sad book. It’s a great storyline but halfway through it becomes unremittingly sad and depressing.
Maybe reading it during lockdown wasn’t the best time to read it, but I have to tell you that this a book which will stay with me.