Because of You: The beautifully uplifting Richard & Judy bestseller

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A bright, brilliant and heartbreaking tale of two mothers, two babies and the far-reaching consequences of one fateful day - Yahoo! I really enjoyed listening to the audio version and definitely recommend this audio book – I do also now have a hardback copy which I will read as I’m sure there were some parts of the audio that I missed – my fault for late night listening! Hope's daughter, destined to follow in her mother's footsteps, but the person who brings Hope and Anna together a tragic and unexpected way. In her career spanning three decades, she has been nominated for six BAFTA Awards and also won a Fellowship BAFTA along with her best friend Jennifer Saunders.

For those not adverse to soap opera levels of melodrama and sentimentality, it may appeal, but I found it far too saccharine. In contrast to the three main characters, all of whom I liked and felt genuinely invested in, the male supporting characters (the women’s respective partners) are all very one dimensional, to the point of feeling like caricatures: we have the terrible husband, the wonderful, selfless husband, and the comic-relief joker. absent criminal father sends stolen daughter yearly letters, which she doesn’t receive until she is 17.I had seen so many good reviews of this, I couldn’t pass this by, especially as it was narrated by Dawn French. She did accents and inflections so well, it was so easy to tell which character she was voicing and she even managed to convey the frustration and eye rolling of some characters! Minne is brought up surrounded by unconditional love and encouragement to be her own, perfect, individual self. Because Of You is Dawn French's stunning new novel, told with her signature humour, warmth and so much love.

The humor in all situations felt forced to me, the characters and their behaviors illogical and unrealistic especially for the situations they were in, also no character actually had real characteristics. I could see the charm in the writing that others have praised in the narrative – it is indeed warm and heartfelt but sadly it really didn’t work for me. even though him feeling a true, deep need be a father is the reason he doesn’t turn his girlfriend in.These early scenes set the story up perfectly, with some heartbreaking moments, but also some humour, and it made me really invested in the lives of the two women right from the start. The exploration of loss felt no more than a lip service as it seemed like the author wanted to generate warm feelings for Hope in the readers' minds, so she conveniently chose to sideline the grief of Anna.

Family is obviously the key theme explored in the story, but class, wealth, politics, honesty, duplicity, morality are all simmering at or just below the surface. I listened to this as an audiobook and as it is narrated by the author herself, there is a real quality of diction and a good variety of voices and accents.The biggest irony here is, I don't think I would've read it at all if it wasn't longlisted for the Women's Prize. Her first three novels, A Tiny Bit Marvellous, Oh Dear Silvia and According to YES , are all Sunday Times bestsellers. The father was a ludicrous and cruel parody of a man; the real mother’s experience simply skimmed over (and I found her a one dimensional, unrealistic, wholesome paragon of forgiveness and compassion).

I mention this by way of ameliorating my negativity, perhaps had I read the DF in isolation I would have enjoyed it more. I hope French’s book will find the hands of the right readers, even if that’s not the literary crowd. But, when Minnie becomes pregnant as a teenager, the truth must come out and there are dramatic consequences as she's reunited with her birth parents Anna and Julius. I knew what Hope had done was so wrong and on many levels evil, but I also couldn’t help feeling sorry for her.I read this book due to its surprise (to me) longlisting for the 2021 Women’s Prize – an explicit sign from the judges (the chair of whom blurbs the front cover of the book) that they were looking for a range of books from literary to storytellers. Hope and Minnie, a happy, bright and joyful girl, have an unbreakable bond, with their own secret codes and Wawa. I've read a couple of Dawn's books, because I really like her as an actress, and to what we think we know about her. Julius, is a first rate egotistical idiot politician; his wife, Anna is grieving and bereft, for almost the whole story and hates her husband. Hope kidnaps Anna's newborn baby; and the story continues, telling how Hope raises Minnie, the daughter, and of the 'extraordinary' bond.