The premise seemed aboslutely to my liking, and it hit close to home, though, unfortunately, my expectations were not met; I can stomach an unreliable and unlikable narrator, however in Gannon's case Olive was absolutely dreadful to spend time with.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with this book for free in return to an honest review.


The book was..ok. I think it would have benefited from more editing, but the spirit of navel-gazing/stream of consciousness was part of the charm...most of the time.

Some of the dialogues didn't read all that true to me, too.

As a self-proclaimed Anglophile, Emma Gannon's debut novel, "Olive", checked all of my boxes and gave me all of the feelings that I find in a book that I adore. The characters were fun, interesting, loyal, quirky and caring; the setting was all things that I love about Great Britain...pubs, parks, flats, cold rainy days; and the storyline was crisp, quaint, thorough and thematically important and brave. I will carry the main character, Olive, in my heart for a long time. The premise of the book is that Olive, a thirty-two year old, single, career-minded independent, is not the least bit interested in having children, while her three best mates are knee-deep in the child-bearing and raising years. Of course, this is a strain on all of their relationships, but the handling of some tricky situations is what makes this book such a delight. Thank you NetGalley, Andrews McMeel Publishing and Emma Gannon for this fabulous eARC. I wish you much success with this wonderfully written and genuinely appealing story.

Unable to download this book to kindle due to already being published and archived. This is a mistake on Netgalleys part as I was only accepted for the book today 27.12.2020

I was really looking forward to reading Olive - I'm in my mid-thirties and feeling some of the same feelings that Olive is. Unfortunately, this book didn't quite hit the mark for me. I enjoyed the first half, but started to lose interest after that. Things became a bit repetitive and Olive's close friend group became the focal point. I do appreciate how the friends each added a different perspective on motherhood, but I really wasn't interested in their constant squabbles. I still enjoyed this book, I was just hoping for a bit more depth I think.

Olive by Emma Gannon was a book that I think was aimed at 20 or 30 something women who like Olive, may be struggling to decide whether or not they want to have children. I, as a mother of three, was interested to see why women make a decision like that, as it is so different from my own experience.

This book explored that theme through a few different plot devices, the CFBC ( Child free by choice) group, the myriad experiences of Olive’s friends, and a meeting with a homeopathy focused family planning counselor. At the end of the book, I had a greater understanding of why a woman would choose that path. Even though it was not the direction that I chose in life, I respect women who made that choice and I now know a little more about some reasons why they may have decided to not have children.

This book had an enjoyable cast of characters with sometimes laughable and sometimes heart wrenching side storylines. I enjoyed seeing how her friends grew and changed throughout the story. Her friends were true to life and reminded me of people I have known and loved. They all had satisfying character arcs, and were very well written.

Having or not having children is a difficult choice to make, and I feel that Emma Gannon did a good job of using several side characters and plot points to condense that theme into a lighthearted easy read.

I was provided a free advance reader copy from Andrews McMeel Publishing in exchange for my honest review from Net Galley. The opinions shared in this review are my own.