What should have been a happy fun filled baby shower ends in the implosion of a friend group amid a literal fire.

I absolutely raced through this book.
It shows how life change can create chasms between friends will they all try to be the picture perfect wife/friend/mother.

The format of past & present and the small inclusions of police interviews is a great format and keeps you hooked.

Such a great read.

I saw another reviewer comment that this book was 'so good she forgot she was reading' (I'm paraphrasing) and I had to repeat those words because I really resonates with them. I got absolutely lost in the world built by the perspectives of those 4 women - the way the 4 different voices interact with each other to illustrate each character's own unique way of seeing the world and the way they all navigate the same issues while repeatedly misunderstanding each other is pulled off incredibly well.
I'm being especially generous because I notably hate mystery / crime novels - and when I picked this book I did not realise that that's what it was (though it's definitely a bit of a mix of genres) so I was instantly turned off after the first chapter of two. But the book proved me totally wrong and showed that you can, in fact, have a good dose of intrigue while still doing real and incisive character explorations and painting a really painfully sharp picture of issues surrounding motherhood, fertility, being a woman in her 30s, sexuality, and just generally trying to figure out your place in the world.
I did find the end a little underwhelming, but then again I always do at the end of mystery novels so I'm trying not to hold this against the book. I do almost wish the ending was a little darker, a little less 'all's well that ends well'. The entire tone of the book is this downward spiral that intensifies with each page and reaches its climax (the fire) but then the last few moments felt like they went against that. I wish the book had leaned into the disaster and discord a lot more than it did (but maybe I'm just a pessimist!)

So Thrilled For You was a book I couldn’t put down.
Four friends, one baby shower and a fire!
Nikki is holding her baby shower at her parents home in the middle of nowhere, it is blistering hot but she’s lucky as Charlotte has organised everythIng for her. Charlotte has had several rounds of IVF and unfortunately hasn’t fallen pregnant yet but she’s putting everything into this event. Lauren is struggling with being a new mother herself and is finding the adjustment hard. Steffi is landing the deal of the century so doesn’t really want to be there as she has no interest in babies at all. Tensions are high and eventually arguments ensue but are cut short due to a fire starting outside the house. Who has caused the fire and why?
This was a really good read that I enjoyed. The book flowed well and all the girls were flawed but realistically. The storyline was different and the culprit even more so! A few sensitive subjects were touched on but done well.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

ARC - Thank you NetGalley For Advanced Review Copy

After reading the blurb for So Thrilled For You, I was so thrilled for myself to be able to read this on advanced review. This was my first book by Holly Bourne, but won’t be my last as 50 pages in I was already hooked by the writing.

The book opens on the aftermath of a baby-shower-gender-reveal party - where you know a fire has occurred, but is it an accident or arson.

Through the book post-fire there are interviews and news story snippets are peppered in, giving us more clues and reminding us through the happy build up devastation is coming, where 4 university friends now young-30-somethings dub their group as the Little Women are visited from their point of views with each chapter.

Within the group we have Nicki the new-mum-to-be whose baby shower it is, Charlotte the friend who has excessively organised the party with a slightly eccesntric and OCD personality, Lauren recent new mum with an under one year old, and Steffi the friend who actively does not want children.

We are building up to who or what caused the fire at Nicki’s baby shower - but honestly it feels like a subplot to what was more interesting to me of the journey of the characters, whilst it is quite predominately about motherhood from different perspectives, it’s also about the push and pull of long term friendships, bitterness that can long term reside and brew and also loyalty out of what feels like requirement.

It was a really interesting read and whilst I’ve not been through the motherhood part yet, I’ve definitely over the past few years gone through friendship adjustments, grieved the loss of friendships that were important to me and noted change in my friends in their journeys - and overall it felt like a really relatable book or women in their 30s navigating this change.

A 400 page book on average might take me around 5 or so hours to finish, this felt like a very long 400 pages - in some cases I was barely scraping 10% of the book done in an hour. There is a lot of internal monologuing in the POVs and pages where my kindle was wall to wall text - as a result there’s not pages of active conversation where there’s lots of gaps between lines which effected the pacing and felt like in places some of this maybe could have been edited down more.

I initially thought Woody, who started the fire was going to be a red herring and we'd find out that it was in fact one of the girls. My initial gut reaction was disappointment, followed by immediately thinking it was infact genius - metaphorical for the characters experiences with babies burning their lives down.

i really enjoyed this. It was raw and relatable. The characters were all a little flawed all had their own issues. It was a really good read and I recommend all women to read this. The ending was great I was so glad that the author wrapped it up the way she did. A few taboo subjects were acknowledged in this book such as post natal depression, women that don't want children and infertility issues

Four once close friends attend the baby shower from hell, an activity that ends not just in tears but in devastation by fire. Pregnant Nicki has chosen to do the conventional thing and allows Charlotte to organise everything at her parents’ strange, glass-walled hous, but is unsettled by a guest from her past.. Lauren struggles with her own baby and the chaos he has brought into her life, but tries desperately to be a good mother. Steffi, child-free by choice, is on the verge of launching an exciting new career project, but is hurt by the way the others treat her. Charlotte longs for her own baby and puts her all into the baby shower she has not been able to have herself. As tensions spiral in the sweltring heat, everything comes to a head as the event literally goes up in flames. Bourne writes brilliantly, skewering the instagram-friendly baby shower with a relentless eye- “fertilised” cupcakes! identify the baby food flavours in the nappies! the vulva pinata!-and ruthlessly satirising the natural birth brigade. The book is hilarious, often pretty dark but also compassionate and moving about the contradictions in the lives of young women and the price paid for whatever choices they make-whether to become mothers, focus on careers, pursue relationships or just have fun, and whether they will regret the paths not taken. The four main characters are all flawed but relateable, and the importance of female friendships becomes very clear. Biting, raw and emotional, this is a cracking and hugely enjoyable read.

This book has exceeded my expectations by light years.
I read it one sitting.
Four college friends in their thirties tell us of a few hours of baby shower going in all ways and their friendship over the years.
This was not normally a book that would be among my favourites, but rather among “enjoyable reads”, but Bourne crafts this story so well, via distinguishable characters, relatable situations and important themes, and the writing flows so well.
I laughed out loud in at least two instances, and wanted to cry in about two, mostly near the end.
Contemporary, witty, raw and genuinely engaging.

- At first, I thought a particular aspect of the plot that was sometimes given via interrogation ‘transcriptions’, would not be engaging. I was wrong! It was integral to the story.
- The reader’s attention and patience are rewarded.
- Well-paced.
- I absolutely loved the commentary on motherhood and everything that comes and is lost with it.
- Although especially two of the characters of the quartet have backgrounds and lifestyles that are very different from what I experience, they made sense and I could totally see them as described in this book.
- Steffi and Lauren.
- Woody Woody Woody.
- Very cinematic.
- Not representative of many diverse backgrounds but the dynamics and struggles in friendships and womanhood are relatable.

So Thrilled For You is structured around a police investigation into an arson that began at a baby shower, and it's written from the perspective of four friends from university who are now in their thirties. I found it to be a thought-provoking and emotional exploration of different experiences of motherhood, pregnancy, fertility issues, and choosing not to have children. It was slow to get going, but part way in it picks up pace and I was hooked. I was a little uncomfortable with the stereotypical attitudes towards social care services, which weren't challenged.  This is only the second book I've read by Holly Bourne and I'll absolutely be reading my way through her other books!

Thank you to Holly Bourne, NetGalley and the the publishers for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this so much!!! There’s just something about these types of lit fics that speak to my soul. I was truly hooked from the start, and I don’t think I was fully prepared for the journey it was going to set me on. There’s so much I want to say but I truly think you should go into this without knowing much. Just… trust me! I absolutely cannot wait to read more and get a physical copy.

This is a wonderful funny true to life story about friendship and motherhood. I absolutely enjoyed this book. Absolutely amazingly written and so heart warming and relatable. Thoroughly recommend this for anyone that needs some comfort, encouragement or some light hearted entertainment whilst going through the joys of motherhood.

5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to review this amazing ARC copy.

I loved the storyline and was engaged with all the characters. As far as they were concerned it would have rated five stars. I just find it distracting when there is too much unnecessary swearing, which is why I’ve reduced it to four stars. For anyone not finding that a problem then I would heartily recommend this book.

This book viscerally hurt to read at times - it was simultaneously easy to pick up because I wanted to know who started the fire but also so hard because it was just so painful to read the experiences of some of the characters.

Starting early chapters with a police interview with the character that the chapter is from was a really good and enticing way to introduce the reader to a bunch of different main characters. The four main character's plots are so different, however, that they'd be hard to mix up.

Two of the plots are so pro-motherhood and the other two are so anti-motherhood that it's kinda funny, in a way. Although, also, it's really not funny because what both Charlotte and Lauren are going through, in contrast to each other, is so tragic and heart-breaking. Yet this book manages to keep being darkly humorous most of the time.

So dark and hopeless. I never felt the usual message of "motherhood is worth all the trouble" that you usually get from books about people who've just had children. Which is refreshing, in a way, but also it was so hopeless. For example, men are literally useless in this - every male character is pointless at best and harmful at worst. Healthcare services, according to this book, are so useless that they're actively trying to kill you - doctors and nurses won't listen to you at all and will just do things against your will because they're monsters and they don’t care. IVF is a pointless waste of money because you'll either conceive naturally or you won't.

I have to say that Steffi's career and friendship-focussed plot was a breath of fresh air when we got her chapters because she was the only one not obsessed with babies. Which is a wild prospect when you go into a book expecting it to be all about motherhood and you find yourself yearning to read about the only character with no interest in it at all because the motherhood-centric plots are so depressing.

I wasn’t especially fond of the first world problems at times - most of these women are the kind of rich where they don't have to worry about money at all, especially Charlotte and Nicki. I can't fathom having or wanting a child and not having to worry about how to afford a child, it's a very foreign concept to me.

The way the women turn on each other based on old resentments they've kept buried for years was so well executed and realistic of friendships that have been going for years. The fact that, as a reader, I felt compelled to sympathise with all of their plights whilst simultaneously empathising with their feelings of injustice at one another was fantastic writing. I couldn't help but hope for a happy ending and a reunification of the friendship group at the end of the story, in part to offset how dark the rest of the plot was, and in part because I didn't want to see 10+ years of friendship die between 4 women just because of one horrific disaster of a day.

I absolutely loved this! I read it over a weekend, unable to put it down. It has a great opening hook - who started the fire, and what are the characters covering up, but what follows is a beautiful account of what it is like to be a woman in 2025. The pressures of work, family, and motherhood. The characters are all really rounded and compliment each other perfectly which makes for lots of secrets being kept - I loved it!

So Thrilled For You is the first book I have read by this author. I felt that the start was a little slow but as the story progressed it became more entertaining.
The four friends who call themselves the “Little Women” meet at University in Sheffield. Their friendship appears solid but it soon becomes apparent that now in their 30s their lives have taken different paths and they are not perhaps there for each other when things are difficult.
Lauren has a nine month old baby and has gone through a traumatic birth and as a result she is finding it hard to cope. She thinks that her friends won’t understand what she is going through so she keeps her struggles to herself. After all, Charlotte is going through IVF and is desperate for a child and she would feel insensitive to let her know how she feels. Steffi is a career girl and makes no secret of the fact that motherhood is not on her radar. Finally, Nikki is about to give birth and as these four friends and other guests meet together at Nikki’s parent’s house in the country on a hot Summer’s day in drought conditions the Baby Shower meticulously planned by Charlotte will not go as planned. Resentments simmer and the pyrotechnic to be set off for the surprise gender reveal is going to give more surprises than anyone bargained for. An entertaining read with a satisfying conclusion.
Thanks to the author and publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I have been a big fan of Holly Bourne's work for years now. I really enjoyed this story and the way it was told through multiple perspectives. Definitely will be recommending to everyone to read!

I LOVED this book!

When a baby shower ends in a massive fire ripping through the Surrey countryside. There are 4 best friends, hiding their own secrets could one of them set the fire in anger …..

This book relates to all women, how we manage adult hood and becoming parents.

A must read for all

So Thrilled For You is a book about motherhood in all it's glory. We find ourselves beginning at the wrong end of a baby shower/gender reveal party where things have clearly gone very wrong.

We then work our way backwards with all the group (who call themselves The Little Women) who have been friends since university, giving their version of what happened at that party to cause such a disaster.

This is a character led book and these women, who were clearly once friends, have lives which have diverged to the point where they have little in common and there is where the problems begin.

I enjoyed reading this novel despite it not being my usual fare and knowing precious little about motherhood but the emotions are key in this piece of work- there is new motherhood, imminent motherhood, desperate longing for motherhood and one whose choice is for a career. They are disparate characters and that is what makes the book work.

I found the end almost superfluous because it was the journey to get there that was so interesting.

Definitely recommended.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the advance review copy.

This is my first book by Holly Bourne and It was a really enjoyable and relatable read.
A group of friends meet up for Nikki’s baby shower and tensions rise as the day progresses. A fire then breaks out and everyone is a suspect.
The characters are well written and very relatable especially Lauren who is a first time mum.
A brilliant book with a great unexpected ending.
Thanks to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Holly Bourne for an advance copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

A group of friends that met at Uni, life changes, relationships, babies, arguments and a gender reveal firework on the hottest day of the year, what could go wrong and more importantly, who did it? I loved this story of the friends relationship and more so the honesty about childbirth and having a new born, it’s not a,, scented candles, soft blankets and love, sometimes it’s really hard, painful, life changing and this story showed this.

Nicki, Lauren, Charlotte, and Steffi—friends since their carefree university days—find themselves at a crossroads in their thirties. With life pulling them in conflicting directions, their reunion at Nicki’s baby shower becomes a pressure cooker of unresolved tensions and unspoken grievances. The suffocating heat only heightens the drama, culminating in a shocking fire that leaves everyone questioning who’s responsible.

What sets this novel apart is its nuanced portrayal of female friendship and the complex emotions tied to motherhood and societal expectations. Each character has their flaws and fears, making them very real. Steffi’s defiance of traditional roles, Charlotte’s consuming desire to conceive, Lauren’s struggle with the reality of motherhood, and Nicki’s questioning of her sexuality showcase the reality of life.

I did enjoy this book on the whole; there were parts that felt very unbelievable, like the police interrogation (what was with some of the questions they were asking!) but overall, I could relate a little bit to some of them - not Nicki, she was just awful and needed to be booted from the group.