Review: The Idea of You by Amanda Prowse

The Idea of You by Amanda Prowse
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve really struggled with rating this one. It’s one of those books that I have such mixed feelings about. I really enjoyed some aspects but had difficulty connecting with others. I do think it’s a nice, quick read and a fairly good book for the lover of women’s fiction. But, there were flaws that made it not such a great book for me.

This is the story of a woman who has it all … except the baby she’s desperately wanting. Getting pregnant isn’t as easy as they’d hoped and when her husband’s teen daughter comes to stay with them, it doesn’t go very smoothly since it just reminds her of what she doesn’t have herself … a child. I’ve read a lot ‘want to have a baby but can’t have one’ narratives and I think it’s difficult to do in a new and unique way. So, some of my frustration with the book had to do with it not bringing a lot of newness to this story. I had a horrible time getting pregnant so I could relate to those pieces – that felt very real and raw just as it does in ‘real’ life.

The stepdaughter pieces of the story were interesting and I was hoping they’d bring the narrative to life but I think it fell flat for me. And I think that is because the main character was just difficult to understand and relate to – Lucy is very one-dimensional to me. And I was hoping to relate to her a little if not a lot. But, I just never did. Some of the things that she did or said when dealing with her stepdaughter didn’t feel very real to me. They felt artificial and made me uncomfortable.

I did like how the author brought Lucy’s story (past and today) and her stepdaughter’s stories together by the end. I thought the growth exhibited in that relationship was really quite good and probably my favorite thing about the novel.

All in all, it was a fine book but I don’t think I’ll remember it or think back on it much. I just didn’t connect with it or the characters as I’d expected given the subject matter. If you love women’s fiction or domestic dramas, this might be a book you’d enjoy. Unfortunately, it just didn’t quite work for me.

NOTE: Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC for my honest review.