I  loved this story and related to the main character in so many ways. Never feeling like she fit into society’s cookie cutter idea of what a woman’s role should be. Or what a relationship should look like, she casted herself a “fuck up” and this book follows her on a journey of figuring out what life’s joys are truly about and her finding herself in the process. I laughed, cried, found myself nodding along to many of her acknowledgments of society’s pressures on women. And women’s pressures on women. This may be one I’ll read again in the future as I found the characters lovable- especially Cricket. I listened to the audio version and found the narrator‘a voice perfect for this book! 

A good book concerning Nell (Penelope) coming back from America with a failed relationship broken engagement and failed business returns to the UK to find that rents have sky rocketed whilst she was away so she rents a room from Edward, who is controlling the thermostat and very environmentally friendly. He is not in the house weekends, so she looks after his dog for him whilst he visits his wife and children in the country in exchange for a cheaper rent. She gets employment by writing obituaries initially meeting Cricket, who is my favourite character in the book, who is grieving the loss of her husband. Some very lovely moments between the friendship of Nell as a forty something year old and Cricket in her 80s. Nell also starts a pod cast rebelling against the women having it all and #soblessed brigade. She does list positives each day, which whilst funny are also contrite. Her friends are all married with children, and her relationships with them changed, especially with Annabel, being new in the group, a power mum who dislikes Nell. Nell does drop everything to assist her friends, which did seem one-sided especiallywhen the group dynamics had changed. I didn't like the hot dad character as that needed more explanation/ development and how this and the rivalry between Annabel and herself was solved neatly at the end of the book. I thought both should be more messy rather than being tied up in a neat bow. So it was funny, but the previous points brought the rating down.