Other Parents by Sarah Stovell
Pub Date 20 Jan 2022
Rachel Saunders knows gossip is the price you pay for a rural lifestyle and outstanding schools. The latest town scandal is her divorce – and the fact that her new girlfriend has moved into the family home.
Laura Spence lives in a poky bedsit on the wrong side of town. She and her son Max don't belong, and his violent tantrums are threatening to expose the very thing she's trying to hide.
When the local school introduces a new inclusive curriculum, Rachel and Laura find themselves on opposite sides of a fearsome debate.
But the problem with having your nose in everyone else's business is that you often miss what is happening in your own home.
I have previously read Sarah Stowell's novel Exquisite and thoroughly enjoyed it; I liked her descriptive writing style, so I was keen to read this one.
Other Parents is a well-written, sensitive, intelligent, gripping, funny page-turner with realistic and relatable characters. It was twist after twist right until the very last page.
I am happy to recommend it.
I want to thank NetGalley, HQ and author Sarah Stovell for a pre-publication copy to review.

Everyone has opinions, Everyone has secrets and in a small town it’s almost impossible to keep them quiet, Howe it’s also sometimes easy to miss what’s staring you in the face when you’re so engrossed in other people lives

Rachel Saunders knows gossip is the price you pay when living in a rural, small town with outstanding schools.. The latest scandal is her recent divorce and the fact her new girlfriend has moved in

Laura Spence is a single mum living on the wrong side of town, with her son Jake who’s struggling with his violent tantrums

When the local school introduces a new LGBTQ+ curriculum Laura and Rachel come head to head in a fearsome debate

This book highlights the bigotry around the LGBTQ+
Opening with a courtroom scene we follow 5 main characters, switching between each as we discover what leads to that opening
I found all their stories fascinating, I did t like all the characters and loved others but that’s true in real life too

I found the book well written and enjoyed the battle between the characters as they clashed over the introduction of a more open curriculum

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

I read The Home by Sarah Stovell a few years ago and it was a heartbreakingly, beautifully written masterpiece. So I was really looking forward to reading this, the author has a real talent for throwing a bomb of controversy into a group of people and detailing the fallout. This wasn’t as dark as The Home and had some lighter funny moments, mostly down to Rachel and her wonderfully potty mouth. She may have meant to say shove it up your arse to Kate but we all know vagina is what came out and what is the main source of her current scandal.

With Rachel leaving her husband for, shock horror, another woman and LGBTQ inclusion being added to the curriculum. Lines are drawn along with a petition and the war is on with poor Jo the headteacher and friend of Rachel stuck in the middle.

Most mothers will know of the cliques that parents form in the school playground, this exaggerates it in all its glory with the PTA and the thoroughly unlikeable Kate. Who you just know has Mary Berry on speed dial and probably Kirstie Allsopp too.

This highlights the existence of bigotry and even the ones throwing stones are living in the proverbial glass houses. And you know the thing about glass is that it can shatter!

Like the characters here I’ve always been opinionated and my opinion on this is read it. Read it, choose a side, add some war paint and get stuck in.

I wasn't sure where this was going but glad I stayed for the journey. It turned out not to be a fluffy look at parenting and its ups and downs but a hard hitting commentary on social injustice, poverty, prejudice and other meaty but really current themes.
I'm not sure I liked any of the characters, but I had emotional reactions to all of them, empathising with some and active disliking others.
This is not a trashy paperback but an engaging, meaningful novel worth engaging with as it challenges your own deeply held beliefs.

This was a slow burner for me and it didn't grip me like I thought it would. I didn't warm to the characters and found it hard going..

Other people by Sarah Stovell is a drama based around three families and a school. The new head teacher, Jo, has her work cut out for her as a newly divorcee with grown-up children and as the powerful PTA want to show who they think is in charge. High flyer Rachel has another marriage broken. She has now moved her new girlfriend into the family home with three children. Yes, the PTA has something to say about it! Laura, the hardworking single mum with a troublesome child, is just trying to make ends meet, although she has plenty of time to sit on the PTA.
The drama is high, the emotions are wrought and the timing comedic.
I can only imagine the petty nonsense that carries on at the school gates, and this paints a picture terrifyingly believable! The characters are spot on, all having their faubles yet also strengths and resilience. A few difficult topics are covered, the teaching of primary school children about homosexual relationships, sex working and sexual assault which I think are discussion with compassion and understanding.
I enjoyed this book, Rachel was my favourite as she just gets shit done! Erin, her girlfriend, was very nice, nobody's that nice in real life, right?
The plot was unfolding all the time, interlinking the families, which I found interesting.
I would recommend to anyone who's rolled their eyes at a petition at the school gates😁
Thanks to HQ DIGITAL and netgalley for the ARC I would give 3.5 stars

This is a fabulously clever and engaging book that I guarantee will keep you turning the pages. Not afraid to tackle some serious issues but with some real humour in it as well, I flew through it and have no doubt it is destined to be a much talked about book.

The book centres around the small town of West Burntridge and the local primary school. Told from the perspectives of five very different women – Jo, the school’s headmistress, Rachel, her daughter Maia, Erin and Laura - it is very much a tale of “what lies beneath”, with a myriad of secrets lurking in this seemingly idyllic community. The characters are all well developed and their personalities shine through, from Rachel, successful and outspoken but the subject of local gossip having recently left her husband to live with a woman, to Laura, a struggling single mother. They are very “real” characters, all flawed in their own way and I am sure lots of us can relate both to aspects of the characters and the situations – playground politics are all too familiar to many (and as someone who has been on the PTA there were moments that felt scarily close to the truth), as are the challenges and frustrations of trying to be the perfect parent.

Stovell is to be applauded for writing a book that manages to be hilarious in parts and yet dark in others, tackling some difficult issues but in a way that never feels heavy handed. Her astute observations on small town life, the dynamics of female relationships and the impact of class, prejudice and ignorance made this an unputdownable book for me. This is the first book I have read by Stovell and I now wonder how I have never read any of her other books – I intend to rectify that very soon.

A sharp and incisive deconstruction of what goes on at the school gates and in the family home. It is in turn, funny, heartbreaking and touching.

Everything in small community kicks off when two women question the need for their children to be taught about LGBTQ matters within an inclusive curriculum. The narrative is shared between five characters and that is important in understanding the forces which drive each individual and the opinions they hold.

Brilliantly exploring a range of issues, this extremely well written novel is a complete joy. It is provocative, thought provoking and very clever. I loved it.

Thank you to Net Galley and HS Stories for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of ‘those’ books; the kind you open and just keep reading . . .

West Burntridge is a mixed community of large posh homes and blocks of council flats but it does have a top ranking school. However, gossip is rife and everyone knows everyone else’s business. Rachel Saunders is a high achiever with three children – and has swapped her husband for a lesbian lover which makes her the hot gossip of the day. Laura Spence lives at the other end of town and is a struggling single parent; financially things are beyond hard and her son, Max, is more than a handful. His temper tantrums aren’t going unnoticed and Laura lives in fear of the do-gooders noticing her predicament. Then the school introduces a new inclusive policy and both these women find themselves on opposite sides . . .

This is a delicious read! Here is an author who is, without doubt, a keen observer of people. I was entranced from the very beginning and read long into the night, eager to find out where it was all heading. Both sides of each argument is clearly shown, along with subtle pointers as to the rights and wrongs. I actually learned quite a bit – if only legislators could define things quite as clearly! Beautifully written with wonderful characters, I adored the various true-to-life story lines and thought we could all learn a lot from this book. However, it isn’t so much educational as a pure joy to read. There is no way I could give this novel any less than all five glowing stars along with my highest recommendation!

Immersive, insightful and inquisitive are three adjectives that reading this novel conjures in the reader's mind. It is an intriguing study of small-town/rural life from the viewpoint of five women. It explores disturbing contemporary issues, astutely exposing them to the reader. The narrators have an unreliable quality that makes it difficult to know who to believe and whose opinion to trust. It is addictive reading.

Believably flawed characters all have secrets, and there are relatable dynamics in the acquaintance, family and friendship groups. The writing has a lyrical quality, but the characters and situations are easily recognisable. Vivid settings and vibrant characters bring the story to life in an engaging way.

I received a copy of this book from HQ in return for an honest review.

This is the first book by this author that I've read but I loved it so I really want to check out her back catalogue. Stovell writes so eloquently about family and I was totally drawn in to this story about life in a small town. Having been a member of the PTA and a governor at a primary school the descriptions of these interactions had me hooked! I think Stovell is a very astute studier of people and she is so good at describing a variety of different characters genuinely and honestly. There is a lot of darkness and sadness in this book but I love the way people pulled together to support each other, despite numerous attempts to pull them apart. I thought the focus on an LGBTQ couple was great and I adored Rachel - I wish she was my friend! Such a straight talking, no nonsense, strong female character - loved her.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read an early copy. Loved it.

Loved this book so much.It certainly pulled me in instantly. I felt sorry for all of the characters in one way or another. Not all of them were the nicest, but they all had stories, which made me a bit more understanding. Some parts I did find massively humorous, which I loved, made it not so serious. I would love to read more by Sarah so I will be on the look out. Highly recommend it!

What a great book. First time reading this author and I wasn’t disappointed. I loved how it was written from 5 different characters, switching between them throughout. It has you laughing and crying, I couldn’t put it down and didn’t want it to end. It was written in a small town, where everyone knew everyone’s business, your pulled in by the great characters and the many different characters, twists and turns throughout. I just loved it. 5 star reading.

Other Parents by Sarah Stovell, is a really great read. It’s about a small, affluent town in Northumberland named West Burntridge, which is situated in the Tyne Valley. It centres around some of the parents of the children who attend the Primary School and their terrible yet entertaining behaviour.

The school has recently appointed a new headteacher, Jo, who lives locally and soon realises that the PTA, lead by professional busybody, Kate, wield a lot of power. She is close friends and neighbours with Rachel Saunders, a dazzlingly impressive woman who is enormously successful and lives in a huge house with its own swimming pool. She is gregarious, outgoing and generous to a fault. She’s also not afraid to say what she thinks. Her three children are equally as dazzling, but the family have found themselves the centre of gossip in the town, after Rachel and her husband separated and she moved her female lover, Erin into the family home.

When two of the women on the PTA, Laura and Kate, object to the school’s plans to teach classes on LGBTQA+ issues and promote inclusivity, battle lines are drawn. They are convinced that such teaching will harm their children, ruin their innocence and make them become homosexual (can you hear my eyes rolling?). No amount of reassurances that the lessons will be age appropriate and are a good thing can calm the women down and they go full throttle into a petition, with Kate thrusting a pen and her red clipboard into the faces of unsuspecting parents in the school playground.

Written from the viewpoint of five different female characters, we are transported into this small, nosy town and are privy to the secrets that are bubbling beneath the surface. The five women; Rachel, headteacher Jo, interloper Erin, Rachel’s teenage daughter Maia and Laura, a single mother struggling to make ends meet give us a broad view of West Burntridge. This is a place rich in money but poor in empathy. The reaction to Rachel and Erin’s relationship is almost vitriolic and the views outdated and bigoted. Stovell writes this sort of thing incredibly well, drilling straight to the heart of small town mentality and using it to shine a light on a myriad of themes.

Social inequality and injustice is brought to the fore with the disparity between the haves and have-nots being made clear. There is real rage within these pages at the way women are treated and how they treat one another. It shines a spotlight on how we can be pitted against one another and how easy it is to judge without knowing the facts.

This is an intricately plotted book, with a lot of different threads weaving together to create a compelling page turner. It deals with some huge issues, some of which are quite difficult and emotional and is quite dark at times. But let me tell you that running through the book is a lot of humour. I laughed out loud on more than one occasion, particularly with Stovell’s depiction of the Alpha Mums who run the PTA with an iron rod, guilt tripping others into manning stalls at school fairs and never missing an opportunity to stick the knife in.

Other Parents is a real page turner of a book – I read it in almost one sitting – I was absolutely gripped. I want to be friends with potty mouthed Rachel and sit in her gorgeous kitchen sharing a bottle of wine and I want to hug Laura. These women became real to me, I could see them in my mind’s eye and felt like I knew them. If you’re a fan of the TV series Motherland or Lesley Kara novels then I think you’ll really like this. Just watch out for Kate and her red clipboard.

Other Parents is a compelling, intriguing study into various characters living in an English town called West Burntridge. They’re people with very different backgrounds but the majority of them either attend or send their children to the same school, and they all have their secrets…

The characters in Other Parents really make this book. Sarah Stovell has created convincing people who you want to read more of. They’re well developed and interesting. Reading about their thoughts and feelings kept me turning the pages eagerly.

The book isn’t action-packed or fast moving but it is intriguing, and as we slowly learn more about each person we have more of an idea why certain people are behaving the way they are. We observe the gossipy, tense relationships between parents at the local school and the pressure on parents to act a certain way.

Lots of important issues are touched upon in this novel, and to me it felt like they are dealt with sensitively. It never felt over dramatic but there were both humorous and emotional parts to the story.

I really enjoyed this absorbing book and would highly recommend it!

I loved this book from cover to cover. So interesting and I never realised how powerful parents opinions are about each other in the playground and also in the PTA's too!
This was a powerful story that you wanted to shout at the other parents to open their eyes and look at what is going on in the world and not indoctrinate their children into their homophobic views. The storyline was gripping and made you invest in each character. A great read and I will certainly be looking for more from this author.

Other Parents by Sarah Stovell was without a doubt one of my favourite reads of 2021. I absolutely devoured it and then immediately added all of the author’s back-catalogue to my wishlist!

It was the school backdrop that originally drew me to this book, but it was Stovell’s sharp and compelling writing style that kept me hooked. Her perceptive observations had me nodding and, at times, laughing along; her characters certainly pull no punches.

But the plot is also, I found, very hard-hitting (there are a few trigger warnings) It’s a supremely cleverly woven drama, with totally believable and relatable characters, which I could see working really well as a TV series.

With thanks to HQ for gifting me digital copy to review.

I was intrigued by the comparison between Other Parents and The Slap, which I read years ago, so I decided to request this book. This is an honest review based on a free ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for granting me access to this book.

Other Parents is a novel told from multiple points of view, all of them women. We have Rachel, Erin (her lover), Maia (Rachel's daughter), Laura, and Jo. Rachel is a famous academic who publishes books and does research on social welfare. Her kids go to the same school as Laura's, a single mother who struggles to put food on the table for her and her son, who has some sort of issue that's never fully defined. Jo is the headteacher of that school.

I loved the small town ambiance of this book, which feels so claustrophobic to young Maia and Erin (who's moved from London to be with Rachel). The characters had distinct voices and features, and I liked all of them. I felt like they were well-defined, and that allowed me to understand their choices and not want to scream at all of them (for once). My heart broke for Laura and her struggles, which appeared in juxtaposition to Rachel's seemingly wonderful life. Some parts of the story (the APA mostly, with Jo fighting the bigot parents) were hilarious -- I loved Jo's sarcasm, and it provided a much needed respite from the much more serious topics covered in the book.

I should note that the latter part of the book focuses on a sexual abuse story and how it rocks all the women, so I think a trigger warning is needed. This book might not be for everyone, but I think it's a prime candidate for a book club, and it will give rise to many conversations and discussions.

Other Parents centres around the rural town of West Burntridge and the local school. The main topic of conversation currently is that high flying mother of three, Rachel Saunders, has split from her husband and moved her new girlfriend Erin into the family home, much to the dismay of her children; Rueben, Maia and Tess, although Rueben is warming to the idea.

Single parent Laura Spence, is living hand to mouth with young son Max who also attends the local school, but she is struggling with day to day life and Max's tantrums aren't helping matters.

Jo Fairburn is the new headteacher at the school, best friends with Rachel and is thrown straight into the middle of a fierce debate when the school decides to introduce a new subject to the curriculum which some of the parents don't agree with, so Kate, head of the PTA and Laura, begin a petition to stop it happening.

The story begins with a courtroom drama, with the defendant asking how they plead, it then moves to the story that leads up to this event which is told from five perspectives, all of them the main characters in the book; Jo, Rachel, Erin, Laura and Maia. Usually that would seem like a lot of character views but with this book it works, the chapters are short and seamlessly written, each of them interwoven into the next effortlessly. The characters all had their own traits and appeared very realistic, casting my mind back to being a parent at the schoolgates, they were very relatable. I especially loved Rachel, a no nonsense type who said what she thought, no holds barred, especially when it came to people poking their noses into her personal life and she evoked much of the humour throughout. Erin seemed to be the calmer of the couple and did her best to keep Rachel well grounded when things got heated. I felt for Jo who became piggy in the middle between Rachel and the PTA ladies and then later when events in her personal life started to crumble. There are some very delicate subjects covered in this book, but the author writes them with sensitivity and integrity. This is the first I've read by this author, although I do have two others on my kindle that I will definitely be bumping up my tbr list. I loved the whole concept of this story from beginning to end and raced through the second half of it in a matter of hours. It's definitely one not to be missed.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and HQ for the auto approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

I liked the writing style of this book. Each chapter is from someone else’s perspective and they were usually quite short so it was easy to fit in one more chapter before putting the book down.

It was mentioned that this was similar to Liane Moriarty whose books I have enjoyed so was looking forward to this. It started off well and then, for me, I struggled a bit. I think it’s because I did not like any of the characters. The book covered several sensitive topics but perhaps maybe one or two too many. #OtherParents

The other feedback for this book seems very positive so I am sure it will do very well.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publishers for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.