Blog tour: Tiny Acts of Love by Lucy Lawrie (review + giveaway)

My edition: ebook, to be published on 6th March 2014 by Black and White Publishing.

Description: Arriving home with her new baby daughter Sophie, employment lawyer Cassie opens her email to find she has 104 new messages in her inbox, all with the subject '48 Stitches Later'. To Cassie's horror, her overly-excited husband Jonathan has sent a grisly blow-by-blow account of Cassie's labour - plus attached photo - to everyone in her contacts list, including her clients!

Amid mood swings, post-natal hypochondria and the side effects of the fated email, who saunters into her world again but her sexy, swaggering ex-boyfriend Malkie - the one who got away? Unlike Jonathan, Malkie seems to get her - and he'd like to get her into bed again too!

She also finds herself advising a funeral director on ghost protocol, discovers in the taskforce of Babycraft mums and dads just how competitive parenting can be, and becomes (possibly) involved in an act of hotel spa fraud - never mind trying to tackle her own emotional rollercoaster through her first year of motherhood! Is she strong enough to face everything her new life has to throw at her? And will tiny acts of love be enough to help her cope with it all?

Rating:



I have a weak spot for pretty covers and how adorable is this one? The beautiful pastels, the lovely leaf-shaped heart and the bright yellow have "fun spring read" written all over them - perfect for the (reluctant) sunny weather we're currently having in the UK.

The book's opener was simultaneously hilarious and excruciatingly embarrassing, setting up what I expected to be a very funny story, but it turned out to be much more serious than that. Main character Cassie is a new mum and she's struggling to juggle the job of mother with that of being an employment lawyer - and her seemingly clueless husband isn't much help in the matter.

The novel gives a fascinating insight into the difficulties of becoming a new parent; it turns your life upside down in more ways than you can possibly imagine and prepare for beforehand and you have to work hard to ensure your sanity and marriage don't succumb under the pressure of being a good parent.

Perhaps it's the fact that I am not in this stage in life myself yet, or it were the characters of Cassie and her husband Jonathan, but despite the many problems they were faced with over the course of the novel I found it difficult to feel sympathetic towards them. I understood how incredibly difficult it was for them to adjust but at times I just wanted to slap some sense into them.

Jonathan especially got tremendously on my nerves as he seemed completely oblivious to how hard it was for Cassie to cope with it all. In fact, it started with the very first email that opened the novel, which while funny from an outsider's point of view, was actually an incredibly stupid and thoughtless act on his part - and it just went downhill after that.

While the novel was certainly funny at times and I appreciate author Lucy Lawrie's efforts in conveying the difficulties of becoming a parent beyond sleepless nights and smelly diapers, for me it didn't work and I felt there was something crucial missing that would make me feel more interested and invested in the characters and as a result the story as whole.

You can purchase a copy of the novel from Waterstones, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com or your own preferred retailer.

* * * * * GIVEAWAY * * * * *

The giveaway on this blog tour is a paperback copy of Tiny Acts of Love! For your chance to win just enter the Rafflecopter below :)



a Rafflecopter giveaway


Would you like to know more about the author? You can connect with her online at:

Website: www.lucylawrie.com

Twitter: @LucyLawrie1


Many thanks to Fiction Addiction Book Tours for organising this blog tour and for an advance copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.