Title: Wife Support System
Author: Kathleen Whyman
Genre: Women’s Fiction
My Rating: 5 out of 5
Synopsis
We’ve got the balance all wrong. Instead of living with our partners, struggling to do everything by ourselves and only seeing each other now and then, we should do it the other way round. We should live together and see them now and then.
Erica knows her suggestion sounds extreme, but when her nanny leaves without notice, she’s extremely desperate. Polly and Louise aren’t convinced, but when circumstances force them to move into Polly’s enormous but run-down house, they have to admit life’s much easier when the childcare and work is shared.
At first, communal living seems like the answer to their prayers – childcare on tap, rotas for cleaning and someone always available to cook dinner (no more last-minute pizza delivery!). But over time, resentment starts to grow as they judge each other’s parenting styles and bicker over cleaning, cooking and whose turn it is to buy toilet rolls.
And as one woman has her head turned by a handsome colleague, one resorts to spying on her husband and another fights to keep a dark secret, they need each other more than ever. But can Polly, Louise and Erica keep their friendship and relationships strong? Or will their perfect mumtopia fall apart?
My Review
I really enjoyed this book. We are introduced to the characters of Polly, Louise and Erica when the 3 friends and children are all on holiday together. Erica comes up with the idea that they should all live together. She thinks it would provide a solution to the main issues they struggle with as working parents – childcare. What follows is the trials and tribulations of Louise and Erica, plus children, moving into Polly’s big but old house. Things start off really well with all of the woman really enjoying the friendship, shared responsibilities and no childcare worries. However, it doesn’t take long for things to go wrong.
The story follows Louise, Erica and Polly as they battle with their own personal issues, getting used to all living together and trying to manage careers and childcare. The story throws up some surprises along the way and also some quite heartbreaking moments as well. We see the 3 friends start to drift apart when Louise and Erica start taking Polly for granted. They both seem to use Polly just for childcare and don’t see that deep down Polly is a real mess. Until a huge argument between the 3 of them reveals the real reason for the way Polly is. What follows is some very emotional scenes, which ultimately cements the friendship between the 3 women.
Wife Support System is a refreshing and fun story, full of love, laughs, life and friendship. The characters are all really well written and the dynamics and friendship between them all is fantastic. Wife Support System delivers an important message to all of us – friendship, in whatever form that takes, is so very important.
Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources for providing the materials for this post and organising the Blog tour. Be sure to check out the other blogs who participated in this Blog Tour.
