What a brilliant debut!

I loved how the author weaved serious themes like racism with humour!

Overall, this is a fantastic debut that tackles complex issues head on while remaining funny and relatable. Highly recommend.

I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

Faiza has a glamorous dream life, but is on the brink of losing it all.

Trying to fit into a predominantly white, wealthy area, with her mixed race children attending expensive schools, Faiza is determined to avoid the bullying she faced growing up, becoming an expert at blending in, but in the process spending a lot of money on high-end luxury items. So much so that even though her husband Tom has a very well paid job in the City, she still finds herself dipping into their emergency savings.

It is only when Tom suddenly loses his job that she realises she has spent all their savings, leaving her with just 6 weeks to find £75,000 before Tom finds out, at the same time without letting any of her friends or family realise what is going on.

Faiza walks a fine line between desperately trying to earn a living whilst trying to avoid anyone discovering her secret, discovering what is really important to her along the way.

I went into this book blind and it is a very unique premise. Faiza is married to Tom, a banker who is made redundant. They have three children, some of which attend a private school where she has to keep up appearances with the white school mothers.

Faiza has had sole responsibility of the "emergency fund" for the past few years but, unbeknownst to her husband, she has been spending it frivolously and the full £75,000 is gone. Faiza begins lying on a small basis to Tom but her lies spin and grow out of control. But how far is she willing to go to keep her secrets?

I really liked the fleshed out characters throughout this book and they all have great backgrounds. We know them. Serious topics are covered such as finance, sexual assault, racism, culture, suicide and they are done well. For me, the book is very slow paced which made it feel a bit long. This is totally personal preference though, I just like a bit more fast-paced excitement. I did feel Faiza's anxiety grow as I read and was willing her to stop lying and tell her husband the truth.

This was a bit slow to start but it definitely made up for it, once it did it was fast-paced, tense and clever. It covers so many important themes - finances, especially concern of them, how these can affect other parts of your life such as your marriage. It also shows, racism (overt and casual) and mental health, it covers so much more too. You feel so much for Faiza, just a wonderful read that I highly recommend to everyone

Not my usual genre but a highly enjoyable read! Loved Fazia and really connected with her, read in two sittings it’s a book I thought I wouldn’t be too keen on and ended up loving it, fab!

I read this book across two sittings. It was super quick and easy to follow.

I enjoyed following the tangled web and really felt for Fazia. I actually felt quite connected to her and could have done with some more depth and more exploration of some of the side themes.

It was enjoyable enough and I understand the wider message of the story but I didn’t love it!

"At the school gates, Faiza fits in. It took a few years, but now the snobbish white mothers who mistook her for the nanny treat her as one of their own.”

thriller / mystery / suspenseful
women’s fiction
Interracial marriage

This was an angsty and captivating debut read about a woman who feels like she’s trying to keep up with the Joneses. Faiza is a POC, stay-at-home mom, who wants to fit in with the women within her social circle — many of whom are white — and does so through extravagant spending made possible by her husband, Tom’s job. What will she do when Tom no longer has that job and his severance is almost out? This plot draws you in and doesn’t let you go and highlights the lengths people will go to to maintain their social status, marriage, and what motivates them to do so. I think this will resonate with a lot of women and POC, especially those who grew up in a predominantly white environment.

Did not enjoy this one. Faiza felt too vain, and though I read hoping that'd change and she'd grow throughout, that did not seem to happen (at least not for me) so this left a weird taste in my mouth as I went along. Not really a ride I enjoyed, probably because I disliked Faiza and never got to like her throughout

A really interesting read , super realistic and it kept me guessing until the end ~ loved it.
I’ll be looking out for another book from this author :)

A gripping read, I could not put this book down. A wonderful combination of wit, warmth and real life issues.

When I read a book like this, I am overcome by a sense of relief that I have never had to swim in the shark-infested waters of YummyMummydom. The mothers at the fee-paying schools where Faiza and Tom send their two elder children are high-maintenance fluffed and preened examples of a life I'm happy not to know. Dripping with thinly veiled prejudices and overt over-consumerism, their lives have hidden shallows.

Faiza is the daughter of Pakistani immigrants, married to a white English guy who adores her. But she's constantly aware of the price she's paid to attempt to fit in with the school gate mafia. And that price isn't just metaphorical. When husband Tom loses his job, he's confident that they'll get by on the emergency savings he salted away over the years. The problem is that the cupboard is bare. Faiza's spent the lot and is soon going to ever more extreme measures to cover up her excessive spending.

At times, reading this made me feel almost physically sick. It was like watching an ultra slow-motion car crash where you can't be heard as you shout "No, don't do it! Step away from the bank account"

We all know lies are bad, don't we? Well, you could be forgiven for thinking that most of the cast of this book didn't know that. Faiza's not the only one at it - as we learn near the end. The efforts taken to make a life and a look seem so effortless is substantial. Would people really put their relationships, family, and employment at risk over trying to keep up with the Joneses? Apparently, they would.

I found the ease with which Faiza finds work in the lucrative world of Private Wealth Management pretty gobsmackingly unbelievable. After more than a decade of full-time mum-hood, has anybody ever stepped back into high finance (surely a highly regulated field) on the strength of speaking a bit of Russian and looking great in a tight dress? I wish it were true - though my Russian is O'level and Soviet Era when people weren't supposed to be rich enough to need PWM.

The book felt a lot longer than it needed to be. Faiza keeps on making the same dumb mistakes and it all drags a bit. I appreciated the addressing of middle-class prejudice and #metoo themes but a lot of this was a bit too silly for my liking.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy.

This book had my heart racing, it was so good with such depth and a brilliant setting. I loved every part of it.

Nothing from the story captured my attention so I had to DNF it. I wish there would have been more good factors in the book. More thrill and more mystery.

Debut Ali-Afzal brings endearing, interesting characters and a plot so pacy, tense and dramatic that meant I couldn’t put the book down!

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

A funny and interesting read. Quite fast paced. Will keep you interested to the end. Gives you lots to think about.

I did enjoy this book which had some unexpected plot twists along the way, though a great deal of it was quite predictable and the ending felt rather rushed and neatly tied up loose ends. I did feel that there was a lot I had read before, though Faiza's cultural background allowed the theme of different types of racism to be explored in an interesting way. I did feels sympathy for her as she tried to navigate her way through life, never quite fitting in the white world or the Pakistani one of her parentage. It was clever how the author showed this issue diluting slightly for Faiza's mized race children - though it is clear that society has a long way to go to eradicate racism.

I think the most poignant moment for me was Faiza's realisation that money is not everything; the perfect life does not exist and money did not 'insulate' her family 'against Life'. Faiza's mess compounds iteslef as she tells lie upon lie, so that at times I am not sure she even believes herself. Having said that, I liked the fact that she returned to work to try and unravel the mess she was in.

Her friendships felt a little shallow at times. The charge against her by Julia and Sam seemed to have little substance. I understood Julia's reasoning but found Sam a little insipid and quite to doubt her friend. For a long standing childhood friendship, I though Naila's actions were hard to swallow and I'm not sure I could have moved on so easily.

Warning: this contains themes of suicide, racism, stress/anxiety.

What a rollercoaster of a read from the new queen of the twist Aliya Ali-Afzal! Pacey, funny and intriguing—I really enjoyed losing myself in Fazia’s world.

A fantastic book which is well written and completely engaging. I have been completely pulled in and kept hostage by this one.
This is unique, intriguing and one that I have devoured.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters felt like parts of my own dysfunctional family. I loved exploring and learning about each family member and watching how they tried to navigate towards one another. It was a book i read in one day due to the gripping twists and turns.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for giving me this arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.