The Idea of You--ARC Review

The Idea of You by Amanda Prowse
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

TW: miscarriages

This book so beautifully sums up motherhood, the pains, losses, and joys that come along with it. Lucy Carpenter, newly remarried to her wonderfully loving husband, Jonah, and feels like her biological clock is running out at thirty nine. She has a fabulous career that anyone couldn't help but be envious of. However, all she wants most desperately is to become pregnant and carry to term a baby, so that she could complete her family.

When Camille, the rebellious teenager, who's the daughter from Jonah's first marriage, comes to live with them, Lucy feels like her world is starting to tilt out of orbit. There are so many new things that she has to deal with, all of the teenage drama and woes, and also the fact that Camille being the only and favored daughter starts creating a wedge between her and Jonah.

From there the story takes it to a roller-coaster of ups and downs that made you cry your eyes out or laugh until your stomach hurt so much that you can't breathe. Probably the most emotionally touchy thing was when the letters were revealed at the end of the story, it made me actually ugly cry. All in all it's a beautiful and poignantly written of a women's journey to motherhood. While I have no personal experience in that area, I just couldn't tear my eyes away from all of the hormones that were going on (ha!)

One of the fascinating contrasts that I noticed was the extremely slow budding relationship between Lucy and Camille compared to the whirlwind of a romance between her and Jonah. Fast forward to the ending though, I thought that it tied loose ends and wrapped up perfectly, which is always an added bonus.

The only problem is, I can't quite decide if this book was my cup of tea. It was great while I was reading it, but after I felt the acute disappointment that this just isn't my type of story afterall. I think that's an important realization that I needed to make personally, but I still would hope that this book gets into the hands of someone who needs it.

**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.**



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