Sonya, Tommy and their dog live in their own world, where they go for daily walks at the beach, eat fish fingers and watch Jeremy Kyle show. Until their bubble burst and threaten with social services, Yaya - as Tommy calls Sonya- is forced by her dad to check into rehab.

This book is about love and recovery from addiction. I found the story very gripping, even though I didn’t fully understand some characters and questioned the way they had been portrait. Even though the relationship between Sonya and Tommy is beautifully developed and described.
3.8 stars

Woah, this was such a powerful book. Couldn’t put it down, definitely one I would recommend.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

Although i don't read a lot of first person—preferring third person POV, books, this one is a must read. Sonya's story is told in the best possible way and gripped me from start to finish.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy for an honest review.

Impossible to put down
Reviewed in Germany on 11 March 2021
I did something I haven’t done in ages and devoured this book in two sittings. Beautifully written; you can feel the torment of the main character alongside the beauty life offers

What a powerful read this was. It was so poignant but so dark. Absolutely loved the snapshot of Sonya's and Tommy's lives and I felt like I know them and that is when you know you've read a powerful story. Beautifully written and highly recommended. Well deserves the 5 stars.

Thank you Netgalley.

I would like to extend my gratitude to the author, publisher and NetGalley for sending this advanced reader's copy in return for a fair and honest review.

I found this book a very tough read which it should be with dealing with the subject matter. It was too real at times for me personally, but that is my own issue and will not detract from this review. It was such a powerful book. The only negative was that it ended suddenly. I felt it could have slowly come to a natural end, but it didn’t.

Such a compelling, raw and honest accounting of sinking into addiction and rising again through the power of motherly love…

Sonia’s story was so poignant and visceral it made my heart ache. I wanted at times to shake her awake to face her addiction and as other times hug her and tell her that “all would be fine”.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book is powerful. The unspoken truth of what not wanting children but unconditional love makes you know what you have to do but postnatal depression blocks this out.
It was refreshing to read something real.

This is a very good read, tough at times as we follow Sonya's meandering mind as she tries to navigate her alcohol fuelled world while trying to care for her young son Tommy and her beautiful fur baby Herbie. It's a powerful story, honest and raw. It strips bare her struggles and temptations. It shows the effects that a dysfunctional upbringing can, at time, have on the life and future of offspring. It's another very well written and well researched piece of writing from Lisa Harding, a piece of work not to be missed.

Thus was a poignant and somewhat difficult read about Sonya, former actress and her complex relationships: with her son Tommy, her father, with food and arguably most significantly, with alcohol.

It was heartbreaking to be a helpless bystander in Sonya's demise, especially knowing that a vulnerable little boy was centre stage. This book was brilliantly written and realistically delivered on the detail of the devil that is alcoholism. I would love to find out what next for the protagonist because I feel a lot was left unanswered, this was make a fantastic mini-series.

A superb read, thanks to netgalley for the advance read copy.

A really tough read, the protagonists struggle to deal with her addiction is palpable on every page. The suffering it causes is as well. You can't help hoping for the best but fearing the worst as it draws to a close.

This book was impossible to put down! Such a harrowing story with such a hard topic running out through out the book! May be a hard book for some people to read due to the trigger warnings that come with this book, but overall a really great read!

Hard hitting narrative about a mother struggling with addiction. Hard to read at times but compelling nonetheless. Was difficult to get into but worth persevering

I loved this book and read it one sitting. It is an interesting and and often uncomfortable topic, but Lisa Harding deals with it perceptively and with real skill and sensitivity- I will be seeking out this authors other books very soon!

Thank you Netgalley & publisher for this advanced copy of this book.

Unfortunately I was hoping for an audio version as I am visually impaired and the version of this pdf means I am struggling to increase font to read

Therefore sadly I am unable to provide a review in this instance. So frustrated!

I look forward to an audio version as i was very excited as it looks great!

Sorry and thank you once again for the opportunity.

Once a dazzlingly-talented ingenue actress taking London’s stages by storm, we meet Sonya Moriarty five years on from her brief moment in the spotlight: she’s stricken with an addiction to alcohol, desperately clutching to anything that might help her outrun the voices in her head – including the beautiful, totally-unconditional love from her four-year-old son Tommy and dog Herbie. She has pitted the three of them against the world, weaving compelling but dangerous fantasies about the motives of the other adults in their lives, pushing offers of help away based on her own childhood trauma and crushing betrayals – but a near miss with a kitchen fire while she’s black-out drunk causes the neighbours to alert Sonya’s father, who forces his daughter into rehab. Sonya struggles with an unnamed “condition”, emotion crashing through her like gales, extreme and electric, and seeing events through her eyes is an experience that’s both exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure. The almost-modernist prose becomes freeform in places, and following Sonya’s train of thought – especially when she’s drunk, under the influence of the “bad fairy in the bad bottle”, as her son calls it – requires a combination of close focus and total surrender – but in the middle of these emotional maelstroms are searing moments of insight and self-awareness. Readers may find themselves torn between judging Sonya’s terrible, selfish behaviour, and brought to tears with sympathy for the disappointment and mental anguish she experiences while on this journey to steadier ground. A heartbreaking book that’s also painfully funny in parts, giving a grim-faced glimpse into a perspective that’s hopefully unfamiliar territory for most readers.

Featured in June’s Book Club in Cambridge Edition Magazine – thanks to #NetGalley for the advance copy! https://online.bright-publishing.com/view/765983352/15/

I have just finished this book and unfortunately it wasn’t for me. I didn’t like the writing style it didn’t flow, I really struggled with the characters and the end of the book was so abrupt I thought there was a problem with my kindle.

Really well written but quite hard hitting at times. Everyone assumes that motherhood is easy and straightforward however what if it’s not? What if that little drink turns into two and two becomes a bottle? Loved this book and would recommend!

I personally found the writing style very difficult to get into and it was thus a hard read. The story is slow and so it wasn't the best for me.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Yaya (Sonya) is an alcoholic although you could be forgiven for thinking she is bipolar or schizophrenic at times. She has a 4 year old son and a large and untidy dog neither of which she can really care for. Things come to a head and Yaya has to go into an addiction centre run by Irish nuns, her son ends up in care.

I suppose the book is about her rehabilitation and her struggles in getting back to normality as a family. I don't think Yaya was a likeable character much like the rest of the supporting cast, and I think some of the interactions with bit players (in shops and takeaways) seemed extreme and unnecessary. However there were parts where i was fully involved in the hope that Sonya would succeed. Whilst looking at the tabs with this book I saw that someone has shelved it as "messy and complicated". I think that is a really good description.

There are things that seem to be in the narrative for no reason, there are characters (David especially) that are never truly explained, there are parts that ask the reader to suspend disbelief (social work input) but it remains a reasonably good read.