As an actress, and a presence on social media I enjoy Laura Prepon. Her writing style unfortunately did not mesh with my taste. It did not feel authentic and I could not finish it. I wanted very much to love it, but I just was not interested enough to pick it back up once I stopped reading.

Okay let me just start off by saying that I am not a mother (nor do I, honestly, ever wish to be) so since this is a book about parenting and motherhood, I'm not entirely the right target market for this book. I picked this one up because I am a fan of Laura Prepon and, despite not being a mother, this book sounded really interesting.

And even though I'm not a mother, I enjoyed this book a ton. Yes, a bit of the information is mother specific but, on the whole, I found this to be a wonderful self help style book that could honestly apply to anyone (mother aside). This book has a lot of good information about relationships (both romantic and platonic), heath and wellness, stress and just life in general. Although she provides this information specifically with mothers in mind, these items affect us all and I definitely related to so much of the information in this book, motherhood aside.

This book is also part memoir, which I deeply enjoyed, and is written with such a wonderful voice. It felt more like talking to a friend than reading a book. Plus a lot of research went into this book and it is filled with conversations and advice from Prepon's close friends. All of it was good information that I'm really glad to have read.

So overall, I enjoyed this book a ton! If you're reading the title and you're not a parent, don't be put off by that. I wasn't the target market for this book but I still got a lot of out of it and really enjoyed the reading. It's also a really quick read. I read the entire thing in under 24 hours. And this is a book I could definitely see myself purchasing and referring back to. (Especially the recipes!) I'll definitely be picking up a copy of Prepon's cookbook and reading anything she writes in the future!!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Abrams Press for allowing me the chance to read and review this book!

You and I, as Mothers by Laura Prepon is a fun, insightful, helpful book written by the amazing Laura Prepon herself. I have always been a fan, so I was excited that she had written a new book.

This book presents several subjects. We get to learn a bit more about Laura’s upbringing, her family, and how she felt and responded to her pregnancies and thereafter. We get to see her as a woman, mom, friend, and professional through her experiences, successes, mishaps, learning experiences, and suggestions.

The next few parts help in discussing that us Moms are certainly not alone, not perfect, will make it through this, and that we are not alone. Finding out how to focus on the here and now, how to improve our attitude, health, relationships, our self-image, and expectations really will help in our path to making ourselves a better person and mother. It just really hit home and felt so real to me to see that she struggles through similar things...and like me, survived a changed and better person. Like me, she still acknowledges this is an ever-changing path and we will always have room for improvement...that we need to just take one day at a time and believe.

The last part has a few recipes and suggestions. My personal favorite suggestion in the book is the concept of Box breathing to help elicit a calm when it gets to just be too much. Readers should check it out and find their own mechanism.

Excellent book. I am so glad I read this.
5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Abrams for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.

This book was received as an ARC from ABRAMS - Abrams Image in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I have been a fan of Laura Prepon since she was Donna on That 70's Show and now coming out with a book about being a mother is really touching and inspiring. The last celebrity 'motherhood" book I read as I may recall was The Kind Momma by Alicia Silverstone and remembering the insights she had from adopting motherhood to her hectic but healthy vegan lifestyle. Laura offered a lot of great insight and inspirational stories of herself and her mom squad friends such as Mila Kunis and Amber Tamblyn was very fun to read as well. A lot of people will benefit from this book and I know it will do very well at our library.

We will consider adding this title to our Non-Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

So I've loved Laura Prepon so much before ever reading this book. But after reading this book, I felt like life was so much more relatable to her. As a mom to four myself, I haven't learned how to take care of myself very much and I LOVE how she tackles this book.

As a small-time writer myself, I have always found that writing to myself, or to one specific person is the best way to get my message across and Laura did just this. I felt like the book was written directly from her heart to mine.

Her stories, her feelings, and her journey will leave you feeling just a little less alone in this journey called Motherhood.

This book opened my eyes a bit more to what I've been missing. It was really good, and the authors perspective on the subject really came through. I highly recommend!

I wasn't able to properly download this book. Normally there is a button to send to my kindle, but this time it only had a download button which isn't the book. I am disappointed, but I will check out this book when it is available at my library.

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. Even though I am not a mother, it did not take anything away from reading this book. I love Laura Prepon as a person and as an actor on t.v. and her personality definitely comes through this book. I felt this book was very powerful and had great messages for women in general not just for mothers. The book is full of lessons along with her personal struggles.

It takes a certain level of self confidence for a Hollywood actress with one very young (toddler) child to consider herself an expert on mothering. Laura Prepon has that self confidence and more, as she tells mothers earth-shattering new advice like find a "mom squad," practice self care, and don't feel guilty, all with the tone of a seasoned expert here to save you.

The good news is that this book is written with a very large font and few chapters, so it's a quick read. It's also not a bad read, especially if you love name dropping and want to peer into her Hollywood world. She talks a lot about what her friend Mila Kunis says about mothering, for instance, or what some famous director told her. She also does a lot of humble bragging, only it's not even humble. She talks about how brave she is and how she hang-glided into a German castle and she's just like one of the boys and has this and that huge poker planning honor and on and on. And on. And on.

The book starts with a view of her nontraditional childhood and Prepon actually printing advice she got on how to do bulimia right from her mother. Oh my goodness. Do I really have to say why it's never a good idea to share tips on how to be better at having an eating disorder, even if it's to show how crazy your mother was?

From there, Prepon goes chapter by chapter on what you have to do as a mother to take care of yourself. Let your baby cry it out. You do you, but you're an idiot if you don't. Don't feel guilty for leaving your baby. She worked 18 hours a day when she went back to work when her baby was a few months old, and later realized she should ask for more next time (but mostly I think for herself). Take trips away from your baby. Hire people to take care of your baby. Be proud that your baby will learn that you prioritize yourself, your career, your health, your friendships and your marriage (sorry single moms, you don't seem to exist) over your baby. Oh, and learn from the French who teach babies to just wait to be tended to, and Italians, who sit around drinking with friends while their young children run around and swim taking care of themselves. Oh, and did I mention yet not to feel guilty and to do more to take care of you? Here's advice on straight ironing your hair. Here's a chapter on how to make foods like hard boiled eggs and bone broth 10 ways. Have I mentioned she wrote a book on cooking healthy? She mentions it often. Really often.

Yeah, I don't know. The basic gist of it is don't feel guilty and take care of yourself. Babies and children aren't mentioned at all other than it's normal to go through various things as a mother regarding them (postpartum OCD, the aforementioned guilt, etc.). She clearly loves her daughter, but this is not a book about meeting children's needs but only about meeting your own. She seems to do that well.

One chapter dealt with her heartbreaking second pregnancy where the baby's brain was not developing properly, which she terminated. This section is very real, but also rather short before it moves on to practicing gratitude and grounding yourself physically, and that grief is not really mentioned again. I'm not sure how helpful this will be for mothers who have lost pregnancies and feel a need for more than putting hands on their bodies and thanking each part.

Prepon does not go into her Scientology beliefs or experience with that at all in the book. After hearing quite a lot about Scientology's teachings about children, I wonder if this isn't a silent part of why she is so comfortable not worrying about doing enough for her child and how she dealt with her pregnancy loss. It would have been helpful and interesting to hear her thoughts and to know whether the church's teachings play a part in her mothering philosophy.

All in all, this was a mildly interesting read but rather preachy and condescending for me. I don't relate to Prepon as a mother or in life, and I already have a good hold on things like why it's important to eat non-GMO and get enough sleep. Fans of Ms. Prepon's are likely to really enjoy it.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

This was a great book for ANY woman, whether they are a mother or not. This was a book about accepting the imperfections many mothers feel. Laura did a great job of balancing advice on self-care, asking for help, stress reduction and other important topics that any woman would find beneficial whether they are a mother or not. The personal stories made the author relatable versus feeling like you were reading a book that someone else wrote and then the celebrity put their name on it to sell more copies. I also enjoyed the pieces about the journeys of other women that were included, such as from Daphne Oz, Amber Tamblyn and others. I recommend this book to any woman looking for a great read.