Super characters, great relationships, some questionable content …
Title: What Happens Now?
Author: Sophia Money-Coutts
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 22 August 2019
Lil is finally back on the dating scene, after a long relationship ended badly. She is pleasantly surprised to find herself across the table from Max, an attractive and interesting mountaineer. One thing leads to another, which leads to … a baby?!
As you might expect, this book was light, fluffy and definitely in the ‘prosecco and babies’ category, with a smattering of the aristocracy and finer things in life (think art gallery openings, mansions, money no issue).
What made it stand out from the rest, however, was the character of Lil, who was fiesty, rational (where possible) and showed some sense in the decisions that she made. She also had really good relationships with her Mum, step-dad, friends and colleagues … it was genuinely nice to read about these strong relationships that were written in a wholesome, yet lightly realistic way. They felt wholesome, and rightly so.
What let this down for me, however, was a couple of things:
- The Prologue and first few chapters – these were rough going. I’ve never read anyone explain the process of peeing on a stick in so much detail. Only to then spend the next 60 pages reading about how Lil had got to that point.
- And next … referring to the baby at 7 weeks as a particular gender (when it’s not even possible to tell the sex of a baby in a scan at that age). Lil appears to do this for quite a few pages, before justifying that she thought the baby was a particular sex. Before she justifies it, though, it read like an editing error.
I’ll happily forgive the ending, though – it could have been a lot more over the top, and I wasn’t expecting anything less from this kind of book (thank goodness the baby-Daddy is handsome, aristocratic and loaded**!). For an old cynic, it gave me enough of the warm and fuzzies, as well as a less rose-tinted look at pregnancy than you might expect from the genre. Definitely an easy summer read.
Overall, 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
** I do have an issue with the way that some information was revealed towards the end. I can’t discuss that here because spoilers, but if you’ve read this book and want to discuss (as it might just be my reading of it!) then let me know!
Alpha-Beta-Hannah 