Entertaining comic lit aimed at the motherhood-inclined warriors who've walked the 3am hallways while their breasts leaked. It is every bit as well written as any of the British books I've read in the same vein. It was a pleasure to see a light-hearted genre story that is very much set in South Africa and accurately reflects the posh SA life without being 'South Africa attempts to do genre lit.' There are notable exceptions to this, and I tend to shout about them. But sadly, I've also come across too many that are written at a 1980 standard Mills and Boons quality control (who, I confess I've read last year and can safely say they've improved dramatically). Not that this is romance lit. No. Comedy entertainment.

It is an ebook. I have had problems with ebook editing, especially with literature. This book proves my theory that genre books in the ebiz are heads and tails above the Bookers on Kindle. No %£$@ randomly inserted into words, odd spacing and the layout is professionally done. This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine in e-reading, so hats of to eKhaya. (Yes, an epublisher should know what they are doing, but given this is South African and South African publishers have been given a bad rap, I want to stress that this has been done well.)

I enjoyed the book. Read it on a lazy Sunday when I wanted exactly that sort of read. Would recommend it to any other person (probably a woman) who wants to read something along the lines of

That said ...

Spoiler

Much of the book has been written before. The troubled marriage is a common theme in the comic lit of motherhood that it would be nice to see something new. Not that this is a reflection of the book itself. Standing on its own, the book reads very well.

Except I didn't like Nick. Ever. I didn't see any part of him that made him loveable. I could understand the need to want to make things work because of children and so many other factors. But Nick was loathsome. He was like a child but dressed in a suit. It isn't that men never display lack of understanding / laziness / obliviousness - it was that he had all the traits in such large quantity he became a cartoon of every. cursed. husband.

He even baulks at picking up his son (still leaving his wife to deal with the other son) when she has a meeting that may mean losing her job. They need the money. I understand in the normal day to day her job + nanny gives her the flexibility to do these tasks his job does not. But given the circumstances and the fact she was trying to save HER job that THEY needed you'd have thought he'd step it up or take sick leave or anything else that any other working person with children has had to do once in awhile. (This is where I lost my sh!t, so to speak.)

The main character has faults. I know. Everybody does. But given what a giant arse Nick is it made my blood boil near the end (sign of good book, I became emotionally invested) to see an attempt to make the issue balanced:

'Some of what he said made sense. It's not only that I spend too much time with the kids. It's also that I'm always thinking about them.'

Um, this is a jerk who can't iron his own shirt when she is busy nursing and making breakfast and the packed lunch and the...who can't give his wife a decent hand when her job is on the line then has a 'I can't remember' affair with his co-worker.

I don't believe in using sex as a weapon. But whining that one's wife does not give you attention when you make everything in the household HER problem while expecting her to work full time - I have no sympathy. If she'd had slightly less to do, or shunned true romantic efforts made on his part - yeah, I could have seen where he was coming from.

He missed his son's birthday while he was partying the night away in a foreign country.

No.

In fact, if Jo had been able to be financially independent I don't think she would have stayed with him.

But perhaps that was part of the author's point?