4.5*. A hard but brilliant read which takes you on a real roller coaster of all the emotions. Such a difficult subject matter, wonderfully written. Lucy's story was just beautiful, a woman desperate to be a mother. One to recommend. My thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Another excellent book from Amanda Prowse. The characters are brought to life and feel like friends and you can tell the book is written from the heart.
Amanda always gets to the heart if the subject and you can see the story all around you in real life, the suffering and dilemmas that real people are facing.
This book will stay with me long after the last page has been turned.

This book made me bawl my eyes out from chapter three and onward. Never have I ever cried so much from a book. I don't even cry during movies and it takes books like the fault in our stars by john green to make me cry. I BAWLED this entire book. The reactions I felt to this book are so very real. I have never experienced anything from this book besides being a mother. But oh man I can only imagine the pain of these characters. I feared these things when I got pregnant. And still it's a very real thing for so many families. I did enjoy the happy ending as well but this book tore my heart out over and over again. I stayed up late when I had to work early the next day to finish it because I had to know there was a happy ending.

Title: The Idea Of You
Author: Amanda Prowse
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Five
Review:

"The Idea Of You" by Amanda Prowse

My View:

A good read that covered 'parenthood and family.' The author gives the reader quite a story that dealt with Lucy, Jonah[newly married] and Camille who was her step-daughter[coming to live with them]. But for some reason or another Camille took a instant dislike toward Lucy. Now, why was that? I found this read very tear grabbing with all that came out of this very intriguing emotional read. The characters were developed but also complex and complicated with human needs and wants. The author brings all of this out in such a unique way giving the reader such a heartbreaking read that you could feel as you are drawn into this emotional story. Will this marriage be able to stand against all of the trauma that they were going through especially with Lucy wanted most of all to become a mom? From the letters from Lucy's POV being full of emotions and then finding out what was the reason for them being presented was so very important and the up and down of feelings were so very important in this read. How was Lucy's relationship with her mom and sister? Were these insecurities and conflicts normal for Lucy and Camille? Yes, there was heartbreak with devastating effects of the ultimate loss, but also there was 'love, hope, courage and family.' I found that this author delivers to the reader not only the right characters to deliver such a important story but also does a wonderful job at giving the readers the right words that could only help one truly understand just what one goes through at a time like this. What will happen as this family has problems with 'anger, guilt, pain, and past secrets that will come out ['is what they don't have worth risking losing what they do have?']
and threaten all that this marriage as been built on? This is where I say you will have to pick up this emotional and challenging "The Idea Of You" to see how well this author presents it all out to the reader to see what Lucy gets as the end. This author really works this story so well with covering the subjects: 'miscarriage, [suffered a loss or infertility], teen pregnancy and relationship breakups.'

By the end the reader will gets a 'poignant love story that carries hope, love and forgiveness for all if it can only be accepted' as this love grows ever so stronger as it is given and received so freely. This is definitely a wonderful story of the ray of hope, happiness and love that needs to be heard every single day!

Thank you to Netgalley, lake union publishing and Amanda Prowse for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review. This novel was well done by this author!

So you pretty much know from the blurb where the story is going and if you have read anything by Amanda Prowse before you also know there's a good chance of tears. For some reason I didn't really take to Lucy and Jonah and it probably saved me from tears at their situation. That said I still found I was gripped by this emotional story and I'm sure it will be well received by fans of Amanda Prowse's previous books.

This is a new author for me and I really enjoyed it. Amy is turning forty, and like most women, it’s her time for reflection. She’s married to the love of her life, has her dream job, and desperately wants to become of mother. Her husband, Jonah has a daughter from a previous marriage that he rarely sees. When her stepdaughter comes to stay with them for a while, Amy learns more about herself, her marriage, and her job, and relationships with her family. She questions her priorities and finally reveals a secret that she has never spoken of to anyone. She is on an interesting journey that many women will be able to relate to.

The Idea of You is the latest emotional, domestic drama from the exceptionally talented Amanda Prowse, who always creates such powerful and realistic stories about real life, heartbreaking situations and tragedy with such empathy and compastsion. I wasn't able to put this book down, totally engrossed in Lucy and Jonah's lives and desperately hoping for a happy ending. With a theme of love, loss and family, The Idea of You reminds us all to value what we have in our lives.

Wonderful, poignant, heart breaking but at the same time uplifting.

I will admit to a few tears as this story developed, you could feel Lucy's pain over the pages.

A tale of broken hearts being mended. Truly beautiful.

3.5 stars.
I received an e-galley from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I think I liked the idea of this book better than the actual book. Although it was a fast read for me and I totally empathized with the main character, there were times that I just wanted things to resolve for her- with her husband, with her mother, with her step-daughter, and with her daughter. I would love to read some of Prowse's other books, though.

Another good book by Amanda Prowse, with a difficult story line, which is what she does best.

Another heartfelt and uplifting read, Amanda's books do this to me every time, they make me smile, they make cry, the characters in this read were no different, easy to get to know and to relate to, the subject matter as always is right on the money dealing with ordinary women and the trials and tribulations they face every day, never depressing always uplifting, bring on the next one.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

This is definitely an emotional read and a very personal one for the author. Lucy is an executive in a marketing firm in London when she meets Jonah at a baby christening and they begin their fairy tale marriage. Lucy is older and is desperate for a baby but finds out that things aren't as easy as she had hoped.

When Jonah's teenage stepdaughter comes to spend the summer with them, their relationship also isn't easy. Lucy struggles with jealousy and fears that Camille's arrival is taking the place of her dreams for a baby.

Interspersed are emotional letters that Lucy is writing whose meaning becomes more clear as you read the book.

This is a quick read, one I couldn't put down and one that deals with a subject that will resonate with so many. It also makes you think about motherhood and family and all the various forms that can take.

I would like to thank Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Idea Of You’ by Amanda Prowse in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
Lucy Carpenter has a wonderful husband, Jonah, and a successful career but although she longs to have a baby she goes through a number of miscarriages which puts a strain on their marriage. Camille, Jonah’s daughter from his previous marriage, arrives from France to stay causing Lucy to reveal a secret that she has kept hidden for the past twenty-four years.
I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed a great number of Amanda Prowse’s novels. Her latest, ‘The Idea Of You’, is a beautiful, poignant and sensitively-written account of a family’s love and strength that brought tears to my eyes. This novel was a joy to read and and one that I wholeheartedly recommend.

Beautiful and gut wrenching. This book will make you feel so many emotions and it will really speak to anyone with children.

Whenever I settle down to read an Amanda Prowse book I know that I am going to be absorbed in a wonderful, emotional story for the next few days. As expected, I have spent the weekend completely caught up with the lives of the characters in The Idea of You.

Lucy is an almost forty year old who has very recently met and married the man of her dreams, the rather wonderful Jonah Carpenter. With the biological clock ticking, they decide to try for a family but things don't go as they had hoped and they suffer disappointment after disappointment in their quest to become parents. To add to everything Lucy is trying to cope with, she has to deal with Jonah's teenage daughter from his first marriage coming to stay for the school summer holidays.

Amanda Prowse has a real talent for creating characters who you can completely identify with. She writes about ordinary people in situations so many people will have experienced. As is made clear throughout the book, many women will experience the heartache of not being able to conceive or will suffer miscarriage. There is often no reason and this can be so hard to deal with. My heart went out to Lucy as it seemed everywhere she went she was surrounded by women with children, women expecting children or shops full of baby things. Added to that, all the comments made thoughtlessly, insensitively or inadvertently by friends and family made her feel so awful and yet unable to talk about it.

I was particularly moved by the poignant heartfelt letters Lucy writes to the child she hopes is yet to come. I was especially touched by one letter when she thinks of the things she will miss if she doesn't have a child: their graduation, their marriage, soothing them if they are upset, becoming a grandparent. She longs not just for her own child but for all the possibilities that child could bring.

The Idea of You is a wonderfully warm read. There is heartbreak but it is beautifully balanced with hope and happiness. Amanda Prowse has once again written a most touching and uplifting book and I loved it.

Thank you Amanda for an unputtadownable book ! I read this in two sittings and loved it ! My heart went out to Lucy the main character, and time and time again as I read I felt I knew her so well, almost like a friend, the subject of miscarriage was very realistically portrayed and heart rending. I felt that although this is a novel, the way the miscarriages happened and the impact they had, might also offer some insight and comfort to the many women ( like myself) who have experienced one. Added into the emotional rollercoaster is the difficult undertaking of step parenting. Blended families are not always easy, and again Lucy's struggles with Camille are very true to life, and many step mothers may recognise themselves in her.
A joy from start to finish, I only wish Amanda could write a follow on book - Lucy deserves her own happy ending, for a moment when I read at the end she was wearing a white smocked shirt, I thought yes! She's pregnant but it was a bit of a red herring!
More please 😊

The Idea of You is a great book for readers who like weepies and modern family sagas. Not really one for me but I am sure it will be a great success. Readers of Joanna Trollope will enjoy it. Thanks to Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read and review The Idea of You.

This is the second book I have read by Amanda Prowse the first being The Food Of Love, I thought that book was very moving and a very good read.One thing Amanda does very well is write about relationships, she really gets under the skin of her characters, I mean that in a good way although it doesn't sound very pleasant! This book is no exception, I think she is very good at making the reader feel that the characters and situations they are in are very believable and it makes it very hard to stop reading because you want to find out what is going to happen.I enjoyed reading this book and am grateful to the publishers and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This could have potential, but sadly the internalised misogyny gets in the way. Not for me.

Lucy is a 39-year-old Londoner who, at the very start of the book, meets her future husband. She has a rewarding job in advertising but she feels as though something is missing from her life, a child, so when she meets Jonah at a christening she believes that her life is finally on the right track.

This story has a lot of tragedy in it as Lucy miscarries multiple times which makes her feel like a failure as she yearns for motherhood. The end of each chapter is heartbreaking as Lucy speaks to her lost children. These sections are in first person, unlike the rest of the novel which is in third person, and it really gives you an insight into Lucy's grief and how she's coping with her loss. Her multiple miscarriages sets off a heartbreaking chain of events that put strain on Lucy's new marriage and her new life.

As the book goes on you learn more about Lucy's past and it didn't shock me when Lucy's secret was revealed because Prowse left a lot of hints. This aspect of the novel added a lot to Lucy's character and it made me understand her motivations. I enjoyed the slow reveal of Lucy's secret because it added an extra layer to the novel that I didn't expect when I first started reading the book.

There's some of discussion about how women can't have it all, as Lucy considers her future as a mother but also all of the hard work she has put into her career. She notices at the awful culture of women being sidelined by their bosses just because they may want to become a mother one day. It highlights the struggle that a lot of working women have as they're unable to have both a career and a child at the same time.

Prowse also examines that tensions surrounding blended families as Jonah was previously married and has a 16-year-old daughter from his previous marriage. He has never lived with his daughter but bringing her into his new family home with Lucy creates a lot of tension, especially with Lucy's miscarriages.

The writing style is simple but I'm not a fan of it because some of Lucy's flashbacks don't feel separated enough from the main body of writing. This is probably deliberate to show how Lucy's past and future meld together as she drifts but I just found it distracting, especially the section where she remembers knitting with her grandmother early on in the story.

I also didn't like Jonah's character much because he feels too sappy and I never felt as though he grieved for his lost children. However, this is how Lucy thinks about Jonah so her narrative has influenced the way in which Jonah is perceived

Overall, I enjoyed the book but the writing style just wasn't for me. I liked the plot more than I expected to and I really liked Lucy as a character because she felt very human and was incredibly well written.

I wouldn't purchase this book for myself but I do think that it's a good read and that it covers several very interesting, complex topics.