The Fecking Fabulous Forties Club by Freya Kennedy:

Becca has a crisis of confidence, brought on the death of her best friend’s Mum.  This causes her to re-evaluate her life - socially, parentally, romantically. 

It’s a decent concept for this genre of book, but that market is so overcrowded, the book’s themselves have to be so distinctive to stand out.  It’s funny, where it needs to be funny, but structurally it’s too slow in the narrative.  That itself is propelled by dialogue, which leaves Becca as the only character in the whole thing with any depth.  Where it needs to say anything meaningful (about mortality, growing old, being a parent) the tone seems confessional, rather than what is pitched as a comic novel.  

If anything, it resembles a Marian Keyes book (the Irish setting, a wisecracking Mammy)… but it lacks the comic scalpel and mastery of plot.  It’s published by Boldwood Books on August 20th and  I thank them for a preview copy.  #thefeckingfabulousfortiesclub