The Idea of You follows Lucy as she struggles to have a baby, and to be a stepmother. As a woman who has always wanted her very own baby, her troubles rip holes in her otherwise perfect life. When her stepdaughter arrives, she starts to doubt even herself.
Within the first chapter I realised this probably wasn’t the book for me. It wasn’t a bad book at all. It was well written, it wasn’t boring and the characters were likable. The plotline just wasn’t something that mattered to me personally. As someone who’s life isn’t focused on having babies, I didn’t understand Lucy’s one goal to have one.
The Idea of You deals with the topic of miscarriage, being a stepmother and giving up a child. Since I haven’t experienced these and I hope not to experience in the future, I didn’t relate to the struggles. I definitely sympathised though. Prowse was brilliant at making Lucy a character to feel for, without making her feel like she’s too negative. But I couldn’t emphathise the way other people could.
The books focuses a lot on relationships between characters and the two characters I enjoyed most were Lucy and Camille. The stepmother-stepdaughter relationship is usually an odd one, and we see the relationship develop realistically. Lucy may act like an unreliable narrator though, as we see Camille through Lucy’s POV. Therefore Camille may seem worse through Lucy’s eyes at some points.
The Idea of You focuses on so many issues that many women go through in their lives. It’s emotive and real. Or at least it feels real for someone who hasn’t experienced it. I would recommend it for someone who prefers contemporary fiction.
I received The Idea of You* by Amanda Prowse as an e-book from the publisher via Netgalley. This is an unbiased and honest review.
