Very readable, the interaction of family members seemed quite realistic. This author can really get inside the heads of her female characters- the two male characters seemed kind of flat in comparison.
Lucy is completely self absorbed and seems to have a borderline obsessive compulsive personality -I wanted to tell her to lighten up about order, home furnishings and all things related to reproduction. I thought her husband was a saint - having so much patience with her regarding babies and pregnancy. He was so lovey dovey and namby pamby that it kind of turned me off, though.
I thought it was quite authentic, the way the author had Lucy completely misread Camille, her step daughter, when she first came to visit with them!
Lucy kind of redeemed herself to me when she grew and matured due to the situation towards the end. I love it when a character shows growth. In fact, I felt good and optimistic about the whole family dynamics by the end of this book.

This was a good book. The main character was realistic and likeable. The story was a bit sad, but ultimately a rewarding ending with a well developed plot.

I love this author's books and find them to be well researched which makes for a brilliant story. Lucy is nearly 40 years old and has recently married Jonah. He has a 16 year old daughter Camille who lives in France with her mother. Lucy is desperate for a child of her own but has recently had some failed pregnancies. When Camille comes to stay for the summer, will Lucy and Jonah's marriage survive?

This was clearly not the book for me. I just couldn't relate to the characters or the subject matter. If you're a 40+ female who's experienced a miscarriage and the emotional toll it will take, this is the story for you. I did feel for the Camille, the teen who desperately needed a mother and guidance. However, the adults appeared clueless.

What a truly amazing story that swept me away! The evolution of this story is magnificent; from Lucy and Jonah meeting, to experiencing their hardships, to Camille, Jonah’s daughter, coming to live with them, to Camille’s hardships. Watching how each piece of the story evolves and unfolds is emotional and touching. The story speaks to you.

There were times a struggled with Lucy. She could be melodramatic, oversensitive, and selfish. Granted she was going through a lot emotionally throughout this story, there were many times I sympathized for her, and times I think she should have listened to her sister and friend and stepped back and taken a closer look at herself.

I loved the "letters" in between the chapters! They added so much to the story and really set the feelings and emotions. I was so touched. And I really enjoyed the revelation of finding out to whom they were for and just what they meant to Lucy.

The writing is amazing! It's not overly descriptive yet still manages to give you all the feels. It's very heartfelt and emotional. There are so many beautiful messages throughout this story filled with strength, hope, and love. This was a spellbinding story of dealing with life's tribulations. It’s real and raw and emotional. I smiled and cried and my heart swelled with love.

Healing, acceptance, grief, apprehension; there was so much depicted throughout this story and it's told beautifully. I could feel everything each character was going through.

This story painted an excellent picture of life and its hardships and the feelings and emotions of dealings with them, as well as finding your way and seeing and appreciating the gifts of your life.

“I think I’m learning that maybe you don’t get everything in life, but you can be happy with the gifts you have.”

This is my first Amanda Prowse book and it won't be the last. I see now why her writing has snared such a following.

What a great story and so heart wrenching! More than once did I find a need to reach for my tissue box. Very well written, a must read!

Amanda Prowse certainly knows how to craft a story so it really touches your heart. Being adopted and childless this resonated on so many levels for me.

Lucy unexpectedly meets and falls in love with Jonah at a christening. They marry and look forward to becoming parents. Lucy is desperate for a daughter- quite why is hinted at from the very start of the book. But there is heartbreak ahead.

When Camille, Jonah's 16 yr old daughter comes to stay for the Summer Lucy longs to befriend her but feels more and more shut out. It takes a life changing event for them all to gel together.

I loved this book. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review it.

A heart wrenching story which has you crying early on. This book is beautiful written and you feel a huge amount of empathy for the main character. I couldn't put it down for fear that I wouldn't find out if Lucy got her happy ending. I loved the main characters and the whirlwind character of Camile (the step daughter). This book will have you reading into the early hours of the night wanting to know Lucy's fate.

This book was not like I thought it was going to be when I read the synopsis. In reading the synopsis, I thought this was supposed to be a book about a working woman trying to balance a work life with motherhood. But the first half of the book was pretty different from this. Well, the second half too, but there is far more emotion and there are far more issues in this book than I picked up on by reading the synopsis.

In the beginning of this story, Lucy meets Jonah at a baby dedication ceremony. Falling fast and hard for one another, they soon marry and find themselves expecting a child. Unfortunately, Lucy isn't able to carry that child to term, and the couple goes on to experience hardship trying to grow their family. While this is going on, Jonah's teenage daughter from a previous marriage comes to spend the summer, and there is a major shift in the house. Basically, everything changes for Lucy and she is forced to confront some issues from her past and face some difficulties for her future.

Honestly, I thought the book was just okay until Camille arrived. There was great emotional depth packed into the first part of the story, with Lucy's pregnancy and loss issues and all of the other issues surrounding this. But for some reason, I just didn't click with Lucy at this point. I almost hate admitting this, but because of my lack of emotional connection to Lucy, the first half of the book felt redundant in certain parts. No spoilers, but it was a really good thing for me when Camille entered the story. The addition of Camille to the story brought tension and drama (the good kind!) to the story in several different and interesting ways. Plus she gave Lucy a chance to confront her emotional upheaval, she gave Lucy a chance to bond with her in a mother-daughter way, and she encouraged Lucy to work out some things from her past, even though it was hard.

While I didn't click with Lucy's story initially, I absolutely loved the truth she shared -- whether it was spoken to her husband or her friends, or whether it was something she was thinking. I feel like she said/thought things some people are afraid to say. I also loved that she was vulnerable and fearful, which are both very real things, and that ultimately she had to work through these hard emotions to come out very strong by the end of the book. It took Camille's arrival to make that happen, but I appreciated her journey.

Ultimately, it wasn't the main plot point that I loved the most -- I cared mostly for the side plots. Lucy's growing relationship with Camille was particularly engaging, and Lucy's story with her mother and sister were endearing. I wish there would have been more of these scenes in the book, particularly more development of Lucy's family, but I'm happy for what was available in the second half of the book because I think it made this book better. And for the record, Lucy's husband Jonah was barely connected to much of anything throughout the entire book. I would have loved more development from him at all points in the story - from his dismissive attitude to Lucy's pregnancy/loss concerns, to his nonchalance at everything related to Camille's behaviors, to his odd reactions to the Big Major News that both Camille and Lucy share toward the end of the book. His character feels unevenly written, almost like a prop for the rest of the story. Okay, but I wish I could have had more than that from him - he had such promise in the first scene.

This was very well written. I found myself changing my feelings towards all of the main characters as I progressed through the story. I found Lucy at first to be selfish and self centered but by the end I had warmed to her as I also did towards Jonah's daughter. A very insightful novel into the issues of miscarriages and problem pregnancies.

I know the baby thing was central to the story but felt it got dragged out a bit too long, kept wishing something exciting would happen to reward me for my perseverance but to no avail...

This is the first book I've read by Amanda Prowse, and I really liked it.
Laughed, cried, and shouted; it's an emotional book and good one for any woman wanting a baby and family.
Looking forward to reading more of her books!

A very emotional and compelling story to read. Amazingly written!

The Idea of You is about motherhood and the many emotions that mothers face. Life is not perfect and our ideas of motherhood are not always realized. The main character, Lucy, has experienced the joys, difficulties, and sorrows of many aspects of being a mom. The story is easy to read, but probably could have been edited to be shorter without losing any of the main ideas. This book was great for summer vacation reading, as it was light, with a minimal number of characters, and not so many twists and turns to make it difficult to follow.

Excellent book with a twist. Relationships develop between family members with flashbacks revealing hidden secrets.

An honest, emotional journey of miscarriage and family.

Nearly 40 Lucy has finally got everything she wanted, a new perfect husband, Jonah, and a baby on the way. However when Camille, Jonah's teenage daughter comes to stay, everything is put under pressure.

This is definitely a book that will get your tears flowing. Although not something that I would normally read, Prowse is awesome at pouring out emotions perfectly on the page, in a way that makes you feel as if you are apart of the story.

From the very first page, I was drawn into the story. I really cared about all the characters even though I didn't always like them (sort of like how you sometimes feel about your family). And like real life, this book was not predictable. In fact, pretty much everything I expected to happen didn't. Initially, it troubled me and left me unsatisfied. But the more I thought about the book, the full story, and all the pieces I changed my mind. The unpredictability of it kept it real!

This was the first Amanda Prowse book I have read and it will certainly not be the last!

A moving story about the complexities of parenthood and the dynamics of being a step parent. Raw, full of emotion, passion and strength -- this is a book that will pull at your heart strings. I thought the characters were well written and I enjoyed Amanda's writing style. Many thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Idea of You follows Lucy as she struggles to have a baby, and to be a stepmother. As a woman who has always wanted her very own baby, her troubles rip holes in her otherwise perfect life. When her stepdaughter arrives, she starts to doubt even herself.

Within the first chapter I realised this probably wasn't the book for me. It wasn't a bad book at all. It was well written, it wasn't boring and the characters were likable. The plotline just wasn't something that mattered to me personally. As someone who's life isn't focused on having babies, I didn't understand Lucy's one goal to have one. 

The Idea of You deals with the topic of miscarriage, being a stepmother and giving up a child. Since I haven't experienced these and I hope not to experience in the future, I didn't relate to the struggles. I definitely sympathised though. Prowse was brilliant at making Lucy a character to feel for, without making her feel like she's too negative. But I couldn't emphathise the way other people could.

The books focuses a lot on relationshups between characters and the two characters I enjoyed most were Lucy and Camille. The stepmother-stepdaughter relationship is usually an odd one, and we see the relationship develop realistically. Lucy may act like an unreliable narrator though, as we see Camille through Lucy's POV. Therefore Camille may seem worse through Lucy's eyes at some points.

The Idea of You focuses on so many issues that many women go through in their lives. It's emotive and real. Or at least it feels real for someone who hasn't experienced it. I would recommend it for someone who prefers contemporary fiction. 

I received The Idea of You* by Amanda Prowse as an e-book from the publisher via Netgalley. This is an unbiased and honest review.