The Saturday Night Sauvignon Sisterhood

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Are you having wine, Mum? You know you're not supposed to have wine every night. We did about alcohol units at school. That's quite a big glass of wine, how many units do you think are in it?' From the outside, Claire’s life is practically perfect, married, with a great job and 2 children, what more could she ask for? Unfortunately, life isn’t that perfect, her marriage is rather stale and then she discovers that her husband and best friend have had an affair! What hurts more the loss of a husband or the loss of a life-long best friend? Where does Claire go now? What does she do? The Gill Sim's series of Why Mummy.... books have been on my radar for a while but I've never quite gotten around to reading them, therefore when I got the opportunity to read The Saturday Night Sauvignon Sisterhood I leapt at the chance. Through a series of days out and trying new things these women provide us with much hilarity but there were also moments of emotion where you saw the bond that they had all formed. It was also refreshing to see many different forms of motherhood, relationship status and stages of life. This wasn’t a book about divorced women coming together to hate all men, this was female solidarity at its best and showed what it meant to be a part of a true sisterhood. I give it 4/5 as I felt that we spent a long time in the book before the Saturday Night Sauvignon Sisterhood is formed and I'd liked to have discovered more about the other women, as well as Claire's new man. An enjoyable read though, but be prepared for a few potential triggers relating to cheating partners and unexpected death.

Enter the Sauvignon Sisterhood, a new set of friends brought together by a shared love of liquid therapy. Together they might just be able to convince Claire that, like a good bottle of red, life really can get better with age. Or at least there's more to it than the joy of an M&S non-iron school uniform. The most entertaining part of this read is when each lady has to choose an activity they've always wanted to do but hasn't yet. Some of them have some very 'different' suggestions, all of which 'The Sisterhood' embraces and provides some fantastic comical, heard to forget moments.

Yet again, a romping good read from Gill - the story follows a chronological pattern, drawing on family, school, work and friendships to set up this tale of Claire’s life as it unravels and then re-forms in a different, stronger way. When Claire’s life is turned upside down by her husband’s affair with her best friend she feels like she has to start all over again. The two most important people in her life (besides her children) have now vanished and she feels she has no one. Through sheer coincidence she meets Lucy, Kate and Mary. These three women are fantastic! Whether it’s Lucy with her candid nature and ability to make a joke out of any scenario, Mary the tired young mum wanting to escape the endless drama and tantrums or Kate the mother hen of the group coping with her own loss they each brought heart and soul to the story. Then Claire’s life goes into meltdown when she accidentally discovers that Andrew is having an affair with her best friend, Emily. They separate and she realises that she needs to find a new circle of friends given most of the couples she used to socialise with are uncomfortable with her single status.

Bet the bastards didn't tell you that wine is remarkably good at cancelling out whining though, did they?' muttered Claire.

Summary

Enter the Sauvignon Sisterhood, a new set of friends brought together by a shared love of liquid therapy. Together they might just be able to convince Claire that, like a good bottle of red, life really can get better with age. Or at least there’s more to it than the joy of an M&S non-iron school uniform. PDF / EPUB File Name: The_Saturday_Night_Sauvignon_Sisterhood_-_Gill_Sims.pdf, The_Saturday_Night_Sauvignon_Sisterhood_-_Gill_Sims.epub As expected the story is full of laugh out loud moments though there is also a degree of drama given that Claire has to not only confront a double betrayal but also establish a new life for herself and her children.

When fate intervenes and Claire realises she's stopped being a person in her own right, she is then in the predicament of how do adults make friends. This leads to some funny situations and some extremely strange characters. I appreciated the fact that the author didn't tie everything up at the end with a nice tidy bow, life doesn't always have a perfect happy ending. Having previously read the Why Mummy Drinks series, I was really looking forward to a relaxing, fun and relatable read that would take me away from the real world, and once again Gill Sims delivered.Claire's family has gone nuclear. Her precious moppets keep calling Childline when she feeds them broccoli, she's utterly Ottolenghied out at weekends, and her darling husband is having an affair with her best friend. Busy Mum Claire is having to deal with it all; a hectic job. two primary aged children who are convinced that being made to eat vegetables is classed as child abuse and a husband who is so busy he can't possibly lift a finger to help around the house. Thankfully Claire has her best friend Emily to keep her sane. Claire is just about able to keep everything under control until one day she makes a discovery that will have far flung implications. I am pleased to say that Gill Sims did not disappoint! The tears of laughter were falling by then end of the first chapter and there were many more moments after. The way Gill Sims captures not just the parenting moments but life as a female and the tangled friendships is pure perfection. The delivery was sublime and by the end I felt like one of the Saturday night Sauvignon sisterhood. Overall, I found the book an easy, pleasurable read, however it may have been more enjoyable if the author had made a more obvious attempt to distance this from her other books, seeing as it was supposed to be a stand-alone. Although, contrary to this, I did enjoy the crossover with Louisa, from the ‘Why Mummy…’ books, even if it was a tad too vulgar for my liking! God I love Gill Sims. As a single mother of four children, she could be writing my life and that’s what makes her books so enjoyable for me. I’m not alone!!! “The Saturday Night Sauvignon Sisterhood” is the latest instalment in Claire’s hectically hilarious life. Fans of Gill Sims will have read her previous books, all of which were riotously funny and SO DAMN RELATABLE. The author nails the frazzled middle aged mother perfectly. Mothers everywhere will read this and relate and that’s why I love these books so much. Gill Sims writes the stuff we’re all probably thinking and feeling but won’t say out loud. Fans of this author will know her ‘Peter and Jane’ blog which is hilariously spot on and never fails to make me laugh.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Harper Collins, UK for granting my wish for The Saturday Night Sauvignon Sisterhood by Gill Sims.

This item contains adult content

I own, and have read, all of the ‘Why Mummy…’ books by Gill Sims, enjoying some more than others. I originally made the mistake of thinking this was a part of the series, but it is a stand-alone story, although this was an easy mistake to make due to the glaring similarities. The author uses near-identical storylines - marriage break up, woman navigating her way through life after suddenly becoming a single mother, LOTS of alcohol being consumed… also the same language is used throughout, e.g. calling children ‘moppets’. The author had dealt with sooo many emotions in her book, there was betrayal, grief, disappointment, so some of them really heavy, but the overwhelming humour and wit and the way she can cynically laugh over almost everything made the reading experience almost perfect. I actually loved the whole book, but I am still not sure about the thing she has done with Emily. Really not sure. It somehow did spoil the book for me as I'm not sure if it was necessary, to be honest. As a big fan of Gill Sims "Why Mummy..." series, I was eager to read this one and although its still got the same elements of humour that I suspect only a mum in the UK will completely understand, it is a deviation from the series. The characters within this book are primarily relatable, and there is someone for everyone. (They did remember me of a few in my social circle - but they will remain anonymous to protect the guilty!)