Forty and fabulous – but fading into the background and possibly the future … four friends have reached a stalemate in their lives and realise their talents are ignored and to a great extent wasted. A wild idea sets them free, awakens their independence at this milestone in their lives.
A fast read, a fun read, with plenty of ammunition to keep one’s attention. Plenty of ‘wake up’ calls for men, women, young and old. Bit of a predictable ending – but enjoyable and satisfying.

Amy, a 40-something plumber is angry. Called out to a job, she's refused entry and patronised because she's a woman and clearly knows nothing about plumbing. Irked by the blatant sexism, she calls together her best friends for a drink, because she has a plan.

Susan is a librarian with little confidence, doting on her 16 year old son who she does everything for. Teacher Lenore is a gym-bunny after being overweight and invisible as a teen. Frustrated that her ideas are ignored at work, her former partner left her for a younger woman, her solution is to bury herself in exercise and calorie counting. Glamorous Carole has a wealthy banker husband and 4 sons and her "work" is the home and the family. From the outside, she has it all, but incensed by the treatment of Amy, she examines her own life and finds something is lacking.

Living in the Scottish town of Hamilton where they all grew up and went to school, the 4 women share in Amy's anger, all feeling invisible, unfulfilled and under-appreciated. And so they meet up late at night and graffiti messages on the walls of the Miners Institute that had refused to allow Amy to do her job. And so starts the Graffiti Girls.

The novel then dives into the story of each of the women in turn - their growing up, their lives now, the injustices each have faced. For each of them, this small moment of rebellion ignites something big, forcing them to look at their lives and what has been making them unhappy, and make changes. Screaming about the injustices in spray paint somehow empowers them, and other women who read their words.

I loved this inspiring tale, how such different women have stuck by each other and back each other up always. The story is hilarious and sad in equal measure, but carries a message of hope. It's also empowering to see the women take back control of their lives, not just letting life happen to them, no longer accepting the cards they're dealt.

This uplifting novel is beautifully written and narrated, with such warmth, and I loved the friendship between the women, the acceptance that each of them is different, but the bonds they have are strong and lasting. The audio is brilliantly read with everyone well characterised, and I couldn't stop listening once I started!

Many thanks to the author, NetGalley and the published HQ for a digital advance copy of this novel.

What an. absolute breath of fresh air. The Graffiti Girls is heartwarming, funny, relatable and just a really lovely story I absolutely adored it. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this.

Four school friends now hitting their mid 40s. Life had not panned out the way they dreamt of.
Divorced and lonely. Single and angry, single parent with teenage son soon to leave the nest. Finally put upon mum to 4 boys and a husband working all hours.
Meeting up and taking action after a physical attack on one of the ladies.
Graffiti starts appearing round town. Gossip and attention lifts spirits and resolves to make changes.
Friendship and support is at the heart of this story. You will recognise yourself and your friends in the characters.
Enjoy their story, I did

Four women who have been friends since their schooldays are now in their forties and feeling discontented with their lives. Their mounting anger at injustices dished out to women spurs them on to make a statement, quite literally as they embark on a graffiti spree in their local town. Their joint feminist rage drives each of them to face their problems and take back control of their lives.
I liked the characters in this light-hearted and very relatable book, each of them different but with an unshakeable bond of friendship down the years which really leapt out of the page.

I wanted to like this but I found it terrible dull from the first paragraph and it didn't help that the book was hard to read on kindle. It's about four women sick of their lives who decide to become graffti artists and break the law.

I would request another book by her, though.

This is not the kind of book I would normally read however this was a brilliant uplifting novel which I really enjoyed.

I loved this book and read it in one go. Four women in their 40s, friends from school and all still living in Hamilton. Lenore, recently divorces, teaches at the school they all used to attend; Susan is a librarian, Carole is a full time stay at home mother and Amy has just started her own plumbing business. They all feel undervalued and forgotten, especially by society. Led by Amy they vent their frustrations.
Well written and engaging, I really enjoyed this book.
Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the copy.

I loved all of the women in this book. Amy, Carole, Lenore and Susan are great friends, I liked the way they bounced off each other.
It is an empowering read. Fair play to the characters and their propensity for graffiti.
This was an easy and important read. I started it this morning and I’ve just finished it.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.
#GraffitiGirls #Netgalley

A novel about four forty something old school friends finding they are invisible and taken for granted. I liked the premise, however the bland opening bored me and there was little spark to retain my interest

I loved the characters of this book, they felt realised and relatable. The friendship was beautiful and offered humorous moments with true drive and rage filtered throughout.

I enjoyed this - it was a lightweight, mildly funny,, despite the issues raised. Four women who have been friends since schooldays are now around forty. Feeling invisible and having suffered various put-downs from men, they decide to fight back. Their chosen method is to spray slogans on the walls of public buildings. They call themselves the Graffiti Girls. It is not very effective and in the end, they pretty much carry on with their lives as before, with maybe a different attitude. No men are harmed in this novel.

A very funny book about women and opinions and lots of other things that they get up to in this unusual story. I enjoyed it very much. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Graffiti Girls by Elissa Soave is a vibrant and empowering story of four women reclaiming their voices and shaking off the expectations that society has placed on them. Amy, Carole, Lenore, and Susan have been friends since school, but now, in their forties, they find themselves overlooked, undervalued, and struggling to reconcile the lives they envisioned with their current reality. Tired of being taken for granted and dismissed, they decide it’s time to take action and fight back.

Fueled by a sense of feminist rage, Amy leads the group in a campaign of graffiti, scrawling bold feminist slogans across their hometown of Hamilton. What begins as an act of rebellion soon becomes a powerful declaration of their refusal to fade into the background. The Graffiti Girls are determined to be heard, to reclaim their identities, and to ignite a revolution—one wall at a time.

Soave’s writing is engaging and fluid, capturing the complexities of life in your forties with warmth and wit. The characters are relatable and full of depth, each grappling with their challenges but united by a shared desire for change. As we follow their journey, we become invested in their friendships, their struggles, and their triumphs. The diverse range of personalities and experiences ensures that each reader will find a character they connect with, whether it’s Amy’s bold leadership or Susan’s quiet determination.

Graffiti Girls is a joyous celebration of female empowerment, friendship, and the courage to stand up for what you believe in. Soave has crafted a heartwarming and inspiring story that is as much about embracing who you are as it is about challenging the status quo. For anyone looking for a story that balances humour, heart, and a call to action, this book is a must-read.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

Light hearted read, easy going. A story about 4 women who have been friends for years. Each have their own issues with life.

The decision to air their views to the world by using graffiti is a bit radical but it makes people stop and think about women's role in society.

I enjoyed this book. Thank you Netgalley got letting me read this early.

This is a very light read about a group of 40-something women who embark on a campaign of spraying graffiti slogans when they become fed up with the every day sexism in their lives. Amy, Susan, Carol and Lenore have been friends since their school days, and all have gradually settled into imperfect lives; three of them impacted by the behaviour of husbands, sons and ex-boyfriends, and one of them, Amy, by a recent breakup with a girlfriend. Amy. the lesbian, becomes the ringleader who persuades her friends to start committing small acts of rebellion.

This isn't a bad book, but it is a lighthearted treatment of its subject matter, and it exists in a bit of a bubble. The women don't become involved in any of the many grassroots feminist groups or campaigns that are actually happening at the moment; instead, they kick back against the actions of some stereotypically bad men by making up slogans and painting them on walls, all while anxious about being caught, The vibe is more 'Calendar Girls' than 'Sheila Jeffreys'.

Set in the West of Scotland, this book could have been a lot more gritty for me. It's an enjoyable, undemanding read if you are looking for a tale of female friendship and empowerment.

Four best friends from high school, now in their forties, not entirely happy with their lot.

Lenore, teacher and reluctant divorcee. Never thin enough, never good enough. Wishes her voice could be heard, or at least listened to.

Susan, single mum to Fraser who has been raised to believe Susan is his personal slave (she is). Senior Librarian with stifled ambition, she is incensed by the unfair pay scales within the local council.

Carol, beautiful and talented, she put any dreams she had on hold to be a devoted wife to Dennis and besotted mother to four boys. In all she is the family drudge.

Amy, feisty and militant. Recently spilt from her live in girlfriend she is constantly angry, the main reason for the breakup. As a plumber she is often disregarded due to being female and this also makes her fume. A misandrist through and through, she is the activist in the group, and despite being a true and loyal friend she is sometimes a bit of a bully.

This book is something of a difficult one to review. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be funny, as there are certainly some very funny moments, but not enough to make it a theme. Then there is the ‘message’, so is the book supposed to make the reader think of women’s place in society? If the latter then it lost its way for me. Stereotypes galore, with dated ideals. A bully for a leader is never a positive thing, being released from one regime to be entrapped by another is not the way to go.

This was not the book I thought it would be from the blurb. For me it was neither one thing nor the other and quickly fizzled out. A twee if predictable ending.

Thank you NetGalley and HQ.

This book is about girlfriends who have known each other since school. They are now entering middle age and are questioning the choices they have made and the women they have become. The men in their lives get a very bad press. The women feel invisible and decide to make themselves visible by using graffiti in their home town of Hamilton. A unique idea! This book, although lighthearted, is thought provoking.and is a great tale of the power of female friendship,

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for this ARC.

Four women in small-town Hamilton, Scotland, have been friends for thirty years. They are in their forties now and have very different lives but still meet up periodically. There is Lenore, a divorced teacher on an endless diet, Susan, a librarian and single mother to Fraser, Carole, a stay at home Mum to four kids and husband Denis, and Amy, a gay self-employed plumber who's just broken up with girlfriend Tess.

One day, after the thousandth time of being overlooked in favour of a man, being sexually harassed or just being taken for granted as a wife and mother, they've had enough and decide (well, Amy does) to spray feminist slogans onto big building fronts in the middle of town. It sets events in motion they had never thought of when they started.

This is an empowering, funny, inspiring and witty read about four women who have had enough.
I liked the flashbacks to their school times in the 90s but there is still too much description of what they look like or their weight. There is a lot about parenting in there, and I didn't agree with Fraser being so molly-coddled by his mother (a 16 year old can make his own sandwich!), plus I found some remarks about Thomas's unconventional friend Jaxx tone deaf.

I enjoyed this book a lot as it is well-written, has interesting characters and makes some very good feminist points but I happen to think that graffiti is vandalism and not feminism. It only helps the four women, there are no wider consequences in the community, and they only don't get charged with criminal damage as the PC who catches them is, in his own words, besotted with Lenore. To be fair, the book makes all these points too and explains that the money it costs to paint over graffiti is money that will not go to the community.

If they'd been four female serial killers unaliving all the bad men, now that would have been the book for me! I would have been behind them 100%, alibis at the ready. As it is, the four women do get happy endings that are almost too neat for my liking, especially with all those sudden romantic interests popping up. But it is relatable, celebrates female friendship and shows up all the ways women are still holding themselves back. Each woman learns to value herself more and to go for things she wants, and that's not a bad outcome.

To be forty and female is to be downtrodden, taken for granted, or invisible.

But Carole, Lenore, Susan and Amy have had enough.

They need to be heard.

So they choose a noticeable way to do it.

With paint. On buildings. At night.

Welcome to the Graffiti Girls.

Fabulous!