Great book.
I still have some mixed pink feelings about this book.
I think it was a great story overall.
The author touches on subjects like friendship, women fertility, marriage, relationships, careers and society´s overall pressure on women throughout the book in a way that just made me feel all the feels.
I was just happy to pick up a book so light and easy to read

It was a book that I identified with quite a bit, in many ways.
I think it was a story that touched me quite a bit.

Olive was an absolute pleasure to read. Easy to jump into the story, easy to become attached to these women's special friendship, and easy to feel Olive's predicaments with her life stage as strongly as she does. Although there were many times I disagreed with Olive's reactions to the people in her life and at times felt she was self-obsessed and unable to truly visualize her friends' positions, I nonetheless enjoyed the story of a different perspective: a child-free woman.

Synopsis

Olive, a thirty-two-year-old feminist magazine exec finds her life—up until this point predictable and on track with her personal life vision—at a standstill when her boyfriend of nine years dumps her. The reason? He wanted kids, and she didn't.

Caught in the middle of a tightknit friend group that's suddenly growing up, with each girlfriend increasingly having or wanting kids, Olive suddenly has to reconcile the fact that she's never given serious thought to not wanting children, and that she can't will herself to want them, no matter how hard she tries. As her friendships begin to strain and her own sense of contentment and direction start to dwindle, Olive realizes she's got to decide—what if her version of her dream life doesn't look like everyone else's? And is she strong enough to live with it?

Review

From the very beginning, Olive is written to grip your attention. We meet Olive at the beginning of her breakup, reeling from the sudden rupture and metaphorically internally bleeding, needing the attentive care of her girlfriends. By the time the story ends, however, Olive is a completely different person—confident, assured, and stronger for it. What happens between these two extremes is the bulk of the story.

My favorite aspect of this read was the beautiful character development through the arc. This isn't one of those unsatisfying, waste-of-time reads where the main character stays exactly who they were at the beginning, having learned nothing. Olive grows and develops in such a nuanced, realistic, and almost imperceptible way; it's almost as if every day we're with her she heals and develops stronger layers without us taking note until the very end.

Additionally—the storyline is believable. It feels real, and the everyday romance of a group of friends wrestling with the unexpected challenge of realizing life stage—and life choice differences—have an uncanny way of messing with the strongest of friendships. The storyline is in no way slow—in fact, towards the end, I felt as if the author was trying to wrap up and leave a cleanly packaged end. Reading feels like you're moving at the speed of every day with each character.

A major qualm I had with our titular character was her degree of self-obsession. It was as if the rejection of childbearing had taken over Olive's ability to realize her societal privilege and all the good things in her life, from her incredible job to her easy access to travel and adventure. This, plus the fact that the vast majority of people in her life had already repeatedly demonstrated an understanding and acceptance of her choice to be child-free. In reality, the only person that seemed to have an issue with her choice to be child-free was her and she seemed to be consistently justifying to other people (when really speaking to herself) why her choice made sense.

Spotlighting a desperately-needed perspective on women's fiction, Olive had a lot to say. I only wish the self-obsession Olive perpetually displayed wasn't so pronounced, as it felt like it represented all child-free women that way, which we know is not at all the case.

Love It or Leave It?

I highly recommend this read you want an intimate look at the life and mind of a woman who decides she doesn't want children. Particularly if wanting children has been a natural, no-brainer choice for you, I believe it behooves you to learn from a divergent perspective. Reading Olive's story created greater empathy, understanding, and support for child-free women and couples for me, and it's so important in our ability to be able to accept others' locality—or our multitude of different identities. Olive tackles complex issues such as the role of women outside societal stereotypes, sociocultural implications of choosing to be child-free, and comparison in life stage all with grace, humor, and entertainment.

Rating: 4/5

Olive was one of the first fictional books in which I saw myself reflected. Gannon does an impeccable job of showing what choosing to be child free looks and feels like in this day and age. This was fresh, fun and feminism in a way that I loved!

This book unfortunately didn't grab my interest because of the pages of inner dialogue of the main character that sounded more like a magazine article about why someone would not want to have children.

i thought this was a fun and sweet read! i will definitely read more emma gannon books in the future! thank you so much for this arc. i will post my full review once the publication comes out.

Olive by @emmagannonuk

What an amazing book! I was lucky enough to be given access to the audio book from @netgalley and I just adored it! The narrator was excellent which is a big thing for me as I often find myself getting bored with audio books due to monotone narration and slow reading etc.

The story follows Olive Stone, a young woman who is set on living a child free lifestyle. The book follows Olive and her three friends who are all on different journeys and in different stages of life and the impacts that this has on their friendships and relationships.

The story was an excellent read and I loved the different time jumps giving alternate perspectives on certain aspects of the story. This was a heartwarming story of friendship and love and the acceptance of peoples choices in life and how we can all embrace the way that we choose to go forward in our personal journeys.

This is definitely a five star recommendation from me for all readers - but I would especially recommend this one to female readers and/or lovers of women’s fiction!

#Olive #netgalley

Yes! Yes! Yes! Bravo to Olive and all her amazing friends, her life and her quirks. Olive, like Eleanor Oliphant,, will remain in our hearts forever. I can’t wait to own a physical copy of this book to reread it many times over. I highly recommend it.

I started this as an ebook and wasn't sure I'd like it. Somehow I just couldn't find the right voice for the MC. Then it popped up on Netgalley as an audio book and I quickly downloaded it and started.

The narrator does a fabulous job. Honestly, for me, it saved the story. She has the perfect breezy tone of Olive but also the frustration when needed. She gave voice to the friends and their own struggles but also the apologies and tip-toeing they do at times with each other. This is the story of 4 women and their friendship - how it changes as they become adults and hit milestones (or don't) at different times. Female friendships can be tough, especially when society and friends have ideas of who we are and what we <i>should</i> be doing. It was great to read Olive's perspective in a story and I found it refreshing to give voice to people who just want to choose their life and how to live it.

I loved this story and I'm really glad I gave it a try.

Every chapter of this book was a delight. Clever, insightful and intimate, Olive tackles a taboo "issue" - the choice to have or not to have children.

I think what made this book so enjoyable for me was the main character, Olive. At 33, she is living a generally happy life, but is made to question her decision not to have children when everyone around her seems to venture towards parenthood. While I'm in my mid-twenties, I found Olive truly relatable, as though she could be my best friend. She is still figuring things out, which is almost universal at this age, but the society makes her feel inadequate because of where she's at and where she's not in her own journey. I could definitely relate to her feelings and frustrations.

But it is also an important discussion of friendship and fertility, which I found very thought-provoking, especially because I feel like (in)fertility isn't discussed in literature and public discourse nearly enough for how prevalent it is.

Finally, I especially enjoyed reading this novel with my new favorite mode of reading - an ebook and an audiobook simultaneously. As far as the latter is concerned, I thought the narration was superbly done with just enough emotion to make it an experience for me. Highly recommended.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who has straddled the fence regarding motherhood, I was very intrigued by the premise of this book. After much discussion, my husband and I decided the child-free life was for us. We don’t hate children, but we don’t want any of our own. I’ve since joined childfree forums and have read stories about people questioning the decision to be childfree, to the point of being rude. I’ve personally been told “you’ll change your mind, you’re young” more times than I care to count. There’s always this attitude that you don’t actually not want children, you’ll change your mind eventually, it’s just a phase, etc.

So how did Olive do with this subject? Well, it’s not so much a book about a woman’s choice to be childfree as it is what effect that decision has on her life and relationships. **spoilers** By deciding to be childfree she loses her long-term partner because he wants children. I think the portrayal of their breakup was very realistic and loving. They are two people who desperately love one another and know that they have to break up because of this one issue. Neither of them can compromise without risking a life of bitterness and regret. So they choose to break up, heartbreakingly. There’s the “are you sure you won’t change your mind” back and forth a bit, which I feel is also realistic. I wasn’t too excited about him going on to have another baby so soon after their breakup, it feels a bit rushed to me. You’d think that having such a spotlight on that life decision (parenthood), he would’ve been a bit more careful about it. But that’s a negligible complaint.

The other biggest part of the book is her relationship with her friends. They’re a group of four who have been friends forever, who have been through childhood, high school, and college together. One becomes a mother early and becomes a stay-at-home mother of 3 children, but her husband starts cheating. The other focuses on career first and then has a baby but struggles with postpartum depression, and her husband is nowhere to be seen when needed. The third is obsessed with having a baby and undergoing IVF treatments. Then there’s our protagonist, who has decided to buck the trend and go childfree. It’s easy to see how this decision could strain her relationships with her friends.

**end spoilers**

I think her friend group could’ve done with better communication. It seems they all got wrapped up in their own struggles, which are all very valid and important. But these are supposed to be lifelong best friends and they just start shutting each other out. But that’s the thing isn’t it? It’s so easy to just curl up within ourselves and pull away from those we love because we don’t want to bother them.

There were some things I didn’t like, actions the characters took. Like one friend says she’s sorry for not being there more, but then just leaves. Olive invites her friend over to stay but then never sees her. The two mothers sort of gang up on the other two. Truly, how Cec thought it was okay to ask Isla to come decorate for a baby shower is beyond me.

I’m also not fond of the ending, honestly. (spoilers again, sorry!). The whole thing for Olive is that she doesn’t want to be a mother. Not ever. Not to anyone, not a stepmother, doesn’t want to adopt. No kids. Yet the first guy she meets and has a connection with has kids. So what does she do? Well, become a stepmother, obviously. Which seems like such a cop-out of an ending. So you’re telling me, the whole time she’s trying to convince everyone that she won’t change her mind and then she does just that? It kind of felt like a slap in the face to childfree people. Like see, you *will* change your mind, you just need to find the right man. I thought for a minute Olive wouldn’t take on the stepmom kind of role, but would just be an aloof presence in the children’s lives. But no, she becomes a best friend, a confidante, and has a great moment of clarity when she realizes how much she loves the girls. It disappointed me, truly.

TL;DR: a decent book regarding the decision to be childfree and how it can affect your relationships with others as they navigate motherhood, though the ending doesn’t seem to quite fit with the rest of the book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book and give my feedback. Thanks for this opportunity!

Olive follows four 30 something friends navigating their way through life and it’s everyday juggles. It covers friendships, family, and relationships. The main theme it follows is motherhood and the pressures 30 something women face to become mothers and justify their decisions to choose not to be a mother.

I found this an easy and enjoyable read, I read it in only two sittings, however I felt as though the characters weren’t developed enough and all ended up sounding as though they had the same voice. This led me to not feel invested in any characters or their stories.

Overall, although I did enjoy this book I think it’s very forgettable.

Olive is very close to her best friends, but when they start to marry and have kids, she feels less connected to them. What's more, she's decided she has no desire to have children of her own one day. She's absolutely sure of it. Fast paced and moving, I would recommend Gannon's debut novel to all my friends.

I found Olive's perspective refreshing - especially when it came to her views on having children. I enjoyed the book, overall, found it to be an easy, quick read, but I would have also appreciated a further insight to her friend group and their thoughts. A great addition to woman's focused literature.

The story touches upon a very contemporary yet sensitive topic. Women have various points of view when it comes to becoming a mother. Some believe that it's the most important part of their lives and motherhood gives them a purpose more than anything else. Some believe that they can be mothers without giving birth to child and help the kids who were unfortunate to lose mothers/parents early in life. Some prefer to never have kids. Just like in every situation, it's perfectly normal to have multiple ways to look at an issue; however, society is little less forgiving and much more strict when it comes to motherhood.

Four friends are standing on different sides of this very delicate balance where they are trying to make their voices heard without crashing the others' views. Olive does not want to have a child and now she is trying to figure out if her decision holds true or if it becomes something else as life throws different people and circumstances at her life. This is probably a story of many 30 somethings as they try to figure out what they want from life.

Although I felt that I may have been a bit younger than this book’s intended audience, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was extremely interesting to read a book that deals with the different stages that people are at during their twenties and thirties: some married and having babies; some finishing University; some still just trying to figure it all out. This book really delved into these different stages that people reach, or perhaps don’t, throughout their lives.

It did an excellent job in challenging the stereotypical view that all women must want to have children and that this is the ultimate goal in life, looking at a wide range of possibilities for a fulfilled life. Each of the main four girls felt truly human, with a number of flaws and struggles they were trying to cover up in their lives and act as if everything was perfect. This book was raw with emotion and heartbreak on a number of different levels, from breakups to infertility issues, that really made you feel for everyone involved.

This book was an easy read, and I found myself rooting for Olive in her search for happiness. Although I did find that around halfway through the book I was getting bored as it felt as if Olive and her friends were having the same conversations over and over again, without any resolutions.

There were also moments throughout the book where things were mentioned, such as a moment where one of Olive’s friends reminds her of a time she agreed to be a surrogate for her, and then never discussed again despite seeming to be important things worth discussing. It made me wonder why these things were even included in the story when they were barely looked at for more than a one page conversation and then quickly forgotten.

Despite this, I really enjoyed the author’s writing style and would be interested in picking up future books by her!

I was intrigued concept of this book, but found it a lot heavier than I expected. I couldn’t connect with Olive and I just couldn’t gain interest in the story. It tried to cover some important topics, but just fell short for me in the execution. I had high hopes for this book but just felt really disappointed. This was a DNF for me after giving 50% a good shot.

Olive, a thirty something year old, desperate to keep her friendship group together as they all grow up, isn’t sure of many things, but one thing she is absolutely sure of is the fact that she does not want children. It causes some angst between her and her best friends and causes Olive some real internal struggles after splitting with Jacob, her boyfriend of 9 years.

I found the first half of this very ‘pregnancy issues’ heavy, whilst it is a topic that should be discussed, it felt a bit too much all at once.

The second half did pick up and I enjoyed the characters and some of the stories told, backwards and forwards between the past and present of this group of friends. Her friends were a likeable bunch. However, whilst nice, the ending didn’t really seem to make sense. I don’t want to use any spoilers, but it didn’t fit with the theme of what was so strongly portrayed throughout the story.

Thank you to Netgalley, Andrews McMeel Publishing and Emma Gannon for this e-copy. While I was intrigued by the premise I was unable to connect with the book as I found that I didn't like the main character, not in an unreliable narrator type of way but just that I thought she was one dimensional. This was a DNF for me.

Olive was a complete miss for me. I couldn't really connect with any of the characters and as I plodded through the reading, I just could not gain any interest in the story or the plot. I'm sure it will resonate with some readers, but this novel was just not my cup of tea.

As soon as I saw the subject matter of this book (the decision to be 'child-free by choice'), it instantly became a MUST READ for me.

I read the first half of this book in a day! It's so easy to get into and I was quickly sucked into Olive's storyline and character. I've never experienced such familiarity to a fictional character before. Olive was just so incredibly relatable in everything she did, thought and said.
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I felt absolutely SEEN by this book because I am basically Olive but aged 32 not 33 - surrounded by friends getting engaged, married, pregnant or having recently given birth. I always knew I never wanted kids, it wasn't even a conscious decision process to be honest, I just always knew I didn't. Yet everyone I spoke to (when younger) seemed to be adamant I would change my mind... 🤔
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Have I changed my mind by age 32? Absolutely not! I like my independence, spending money on myself, peace and quiet and a good night's sleep! I can also barely look after myself sometimes, let alone another human!
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Thank you @emmagannonuk for writing such a brilliant book about a somewhat 'taboo' topic. This is such an important read for those of us who feel we are the "weird ones" for not wanting to have children. You are not weird and you are not alone, even though it so often feels that way!