Such a fantastic read. This is a book telling you of the life of the author Amanda Prowse and what she went through from being a young girl to where she is now. This book will have you engrossed from page 1, you will cry, laugh, be happy and sad all within a few chapters.

A stunningly-candid, painfully-beautiful memoir of one incredibly successful woman’s journey, a microcosm of joy and trauma, peeled back in the spirit of illuminating, exposing, and ultimately revealing hidden truths that just may resonate as some of the kindest and most caring hard-earned learnings “women like us” need to hear, and more importantly, share with each other.

We are good enough.

Regardless of what is increasingly experienced on social media - intrinsic value (popularity, self-worth, acceptance, - really anything that matters ) does not hinge on beauty, youth, or the size of your thighs.

We have the tools already, if we look for them, for a healthier relationship with our bodies, our mindset, our experiences, - and most of all, a deeper love and appreciation for our core and most tender selves.

In this starkly-authentic expose, Amanda Prowse, (an author who was charmed the world with dozens of best-selling books, a world-wide presence, and a devotedly grateful readership) surrounded by her loving family and all the physical trappings of success, opens her heart to the reader, shedding light on battles beginning early in childhood and climaxing in middle age, triggering painful emotional crises with self-esteem, a toxic relationship with food, and a life held needlessly on a wretched and self-imposed leash.

“In order to know where you’re going, you need to know where you’ve come from. “

As Amanda traces her roots, right down to the the important and the impactful, (and Mandy really has seen it all - from horrific medical trauma, to achingly-tragic missed births, cancer, sexual assault, battles with alcohol, misogyny, grief, and familial mental illness) - she opens the coffers wide - her story made clearer, both to the reader, and in aid of her own deeper awakening.

I loved this book, - loved the courage, the story, the candor and the grace, most of all - in the heart-laid-bare acknowledgement that all of us women, suffer, some more than others, with our own self-internalized value, body-image, and “femininity”, in a society that, while making some progress, continues to marginalize the softer, the “weaker”, and most of all, the vulnerable.

A wonderful heart-tugging read, this book and it’s touching and ultimately deeply-inspiring message, will change you, as it did this reader - taking us perhaps one step closer to a world where each of us can look ourselves in the eyes with the same warm and unconditional love we often have no trouble sharing with others.

A great big thank you to the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.

I have read a number of books by this author and I follow her blog so I knew a bit about her before I started reading the memoir. I’m normally more of a fiction reader but there was no way I wasn’t going to read this. Amanda has always come across as a warm, kind and caring person and this book confirms my feelings. What I didn’t know is some of the backstory, the fear of not being good enough, the overwhelming insecurity around a constant battle with her weight, something I can totally relate to.

Again I was aware of her family struggles with mental health issues. Her son Joshua suffered with serious depression and considered committing suicide, they wrote a book about this and continue to support others in a similar situation. But there have been a lot more traumas in her life - cancer, miscarriages, loss and more. All of which she has come to terms with and is now sitting (mostly) on the other side.

As expected the heart rending stories are countered with plenty of humour and hope; I don’t think Amanda is capable of being deceitful. She is an open book, warts and all. Like most of us her life has been full of ups and downs and as she says this is normal! Nobody enjoys a perfect life from the day they’re born. It’s normal to have bad times. It’s normal to have good times. What differentiates us is how we deal with them.

This was just a thoroughly good read which took me through a whole gamut of emotions from despair to hope, sadness to joy. If you want to read a book that encompasses all these emotions and much much more I recommend you read this. I’m so glad I did ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to author Amanda and @lovebookstours for my gifted copy.

My thoughts: wow! What an raw, honest and simply stunning memoir that Amanda has gifted us. I hadn’t read any of her fiction titles but I knew I needed to read her story. I can relate to so much of what she battles through. Anxiety with food and struggling with acceptance has been tough for me as well and I felt that Amanda was reading my thoughts! I want to say thank you for being so brave to put your entire story out there for us to cheer you on and remind ourselves that we are enough and worth it.

Blurb —Women Like Us’ is my life story so far! It’s a raw, but I hope, inspiring account of my life lived as someone who always felt as if I was the odd one out. I had so many ideas, but felt hemmed in by class, lack of opportunity and my own low self-esteem. I didn’t ever see how I could get on in life. Growing up as a proper homebird and spending nights on the sofa with my wonderful, eccentric family, I felt as if the world was having a party to which I wasn’t invited, and it felt awful. The thought of writing a book felt like a dream, just out of reach, until aged forty-two I took the leap, and the rest is history. Now, ten years later and with over thirty books published, I decided it was time to tackle my greatest challenge – how I felt about myself, my overweight body and my ageing face. Having lived for years feeling that I wasn’t quite good enough, or that I didn’t quite fit, I finally learned the secrets of living a happy life and am sharing them with you now.

Non Fiction, autobiographical books wouldn’t normally be my thing. Those I have read in the past have been audiobook.

However I must admit from the minute I started I felt ensconced in the authors world. This was a heart warming uplifting tale, tinged with sadness. Prowse tackles topics such as depression, miscarriage, love and loss and not necessarily in that order.

This is a no holes barred account, warts and all. Nothing is off limits and I find the honesty very refreshing. I’m not sure how often we all sit back and actually think about how far in life we’ve come and overcome so much. Women Like Us was a timely reminder that tough times make way for better times.

Due to be released September 6th I recommend you give it a read. It’s like food for the soul.

I have to say this was a great memoir. Amanda Prowse opens up and shares her life with us through her good times and bad. You will laugh and cry with her. I have read a few books by this author and she’s one of my favorites so I would like to say Thank You for sharing this Raw, emotional story with us.

Women Like Us~A Memoir~by Amanda Prowse

Releasing 9-6-22

Well-known author Amanda Prowse has written a memoir that goes deep into the feelings and emotions that for years kept her hidden and holding back on her life. Prowse, like so many girls and women, has struggled with who she really is, how she fits with the world, body image, does she say the right things, wear the right things...the insecurities so many of us face.

In her memoir, she takes these issues head on-any shares what she has learned along the way that has led to her happiness.

A book that we should all read for inspiration!

Well-done!

I was given this book to read and review. Thank you!

Amanda Prowse opens up and lets it flow. I hope this was a cathartic exercise in her recovery from food addiction. It reads very well. It is a memoir, but reads very much like one of her novels, studded with snark and personality, which helped with the flow of the book. It touches on mental illness, motherhood, womanhood, uncooperative bodies, food addiction and recovery, and relationships.
I'm loath to say that there was too much about the food part, as this is someone's life we're talking about, but the last third of the book did tend to be repetitive. However, it is important, honest reading for someone who is dealing with an addiction. Especially profound was comparing and differentiating between food addiction and a heroin addiction. A heroin addict doesn't get better by having just a dab of heroin to survive. They can't. However a person needs food to survive, and if you're dealing with a. food addiction, getting healthy is tough to navigate,

Reading this emotional and honest memoir, the reader can see why this author writes brilliant, heartfelt fictional stories. It's recollections of a life so far from an ordinary woman who never lost sight of her dream despite the physical and emotional setbacks. It's full of love and pain with underlying insecurity about fitting in and being good enough that so many of us can relate to.

Whilst the first part is poignant, the second half of the memoir is intimate and heartbreaking to read at times, but you keep turning the pages hoping that the author will find a way through her pain. The last part of the book is moving and motivational, and it resonates.

I enjoyed the honesty and the positivity of this memoir.

I received a copy of this book from the author and publisher.

#netgalley #womenlikeus publication date 06 SEP 2022
This is a memoir so it's not like Amanda's other books but it is still amazing, the pages turn themselves, I usually am not a fan of biographies but this is honest, emotional and very funny. Highly recommend 4/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley for arc.

I absolutely love Amanda Prowse and was over the moon to receive her memoir and what an amazing woman and inspiration she is.

Fantastic read and would highly recommend. 5 stars.

I love Amanda Prowse books this was a little different from her normal writing as it was her memoir.

What a woman she is..

A great inspiration, level headed, hard working the list goes on.

A wonderful motivating read that’s not all easy reading.

Amanda I just want to give you a hug

If there is one thing I want everyone to take away from this review, that is to read this book. I highly, highly recommend it.
Funny, witty but a whole touch of life, Amanda Prowse opened herself up and took us through her memory lane. And it was written in such a light and a matter-of-fact tone that makes reading it such a breeze.
Yet don’t be fooled. It covered concerns and issues that women back in the 70s/80s faced yet in some aspects, still are facing now.
Just not to get lost in everything, this is her memoir. And she is a woman. But that does not deter the fact that it is relatable - might not be a whole chunk but it will still make one introspective.

Book out on 6 September, 2022.

Oh how I love Amanda! I have read all of her books and her memoir has only reiterated how much I adore her work. Telling us about her life in Women Like Us is so very much so many of us who were brought up in the 70’s and 80’s. I felt as though I was reliving my youth as one of her friends! She made me smile and cry in equal measures! Long may she continue to write.

I absolutely loved this book. I am a huge fan of Amanda and was thrilled to get to read. Thank you to publisher and NetGalley for chance to read and review this ARC.

I hate to admit that I've never previously read an Amanda Prowse book, but there was something about the title - Women Like Us, that I found appealing. I'm so glad I trusted my instinct.

Women Like Us is a raw, honest and emotional memoir. I loved the opening pages - they pulled me straight in, and I definitely felt on the same wavelength as Amanda, both people who contemplate how quickly they can leave an event to return home to pyjamas and a good book. I think I'm a little older than Amanda; however, some of her descriptions of her young life took me on an enjoyable nostalgic trip. These early descriptions made me laugh and reminded me of the strong women in my own family. It's been forever ago that I thought about celery being displayed in a beer glass with a handle, but yes, this was definitely a thing.

The book is one woman's personal journey and the things she has overcome. Some of these are heartbreaking and I believe will resonate with many women on many levels. The book's final part focuses on health and weight and Amanda's strategy to become healthier and lose weight. I say strategy because I hate the word battle - it feels like a fight and a struggle and something negative that you don't want to be involved in. Yet the way Amanda puts across her way of doing it makes it feel possible for anyone struggling in this area. And yes, I know because I've been there most of my adult life, trying to find the right balance. There's definitely a 'love yourself' message in the book. However, it's delivered in a personable, relatable way that makes you feel like you're listening to someone who understands and who has not only stood in your shoes but also walked a hundred miles in them.

This is an inspirational book and one I'm sure I'll buy for others when it gets published later this year. It's like sitting down with a friend you've reconnected with from your past and catching up on all the bits of their life you've missed. You'll laugh, cry, and come away feeling the world is full of women like us.

At the very start of the book I thought, this is me, well apart from I love ice cream and haven’t sold millions of books 😆 what an amazing woman. I’ve always loved Amanda’s book, but this one and the other she co-wrote with her son Josh, had left me with a greater appreciation of her. I never realised her struggles and I’m so glad that she has never given up.

a woman I am now irrevocably in awe of. This book just resonates everything about her. From her power, her humour, her passion, her love, her angst, her pain and her concerns as she talks us through the memoir of her life.

I feel like I know her, everytime I picked up this book it was like catching up with a friend over coffee as they tell you what's been going on. I laughed along with her jokes, cried over her losses and many times I caught myself with my hand on my chest thinking, me too, that's how I feel. An amazing memoir that leaves you feeling less alone in your own pain that life sometimed throws at you.

I am very open about my life struggles to anyone that knows me, or sometimes I overshare with people I've only just met then cringe at myself later like why did I give them my life story. But if this book had such a profound impact on me, I would love to imagine the impact it would have on an audience who like so many women around the world have experienced the many topics within this book who aren't as open as me with their struggles. How much less alone they will feel after reading this memoir knowing that it's not just a solitary feeling, whether it's with miscarriages, buying into toxic diet culture, struggling with eating disorders, breakdowns in marriage, and I have also experienced them all and was blown away by Amanda's openness in her writing.

If I was to ever have the pleasure of being able to sit down with Amanda, I don't know what I would ask her. This book covered everything and more. I feel like I know her so well.

Even if you don't think you can relate to it, I still beg of you to add this book to your wishlists, birthday list, christmas list or trust me and preorder it now.

This book has it all. And I was moved by something on at least every single page as I devoured it nightly. Showing me, and hopefully future readers that the ceiling doesn't have to be made out of concrete. Women like us can do it.

Amanda toots her horn loudly and proudly. And why shouldn't she, why shouldn't we all?

I love Amanda Prowse! Whenever I watch her on TV, she is beautiful, intelligent and I spend most of my time nodding along to what she is saying, thinking “This woman really knows people, she understands us.” Reading the first part of her book Women Like Us: A Memoir, even before Chapter One, I was relating to it all – yes, that’s me, I do that too, I’m that one at parties, she sees me, she knows me!
It helps that Amanda is around my age, we’re both women, we’re both writers, we’re both mothers. We’re even the same height! Right from the start, it feels like Amanda wrote this book for ME! It feels like we’re sitting chatting over coffee (or wine) and I keep wanting to join in the conversation and tell her I completely get where she’s coming from.
Amanda is best known for being the author of 28 novels, but although this is a memoir, it is just as engaging a read. We go through all the emotions with her as she grows up, having to endure ten operations between the ages of thirteen and eighteen to correct a congenital pelvic condition. I felt so sorry for her reading this section.
Amanda really puts herself on the page. Women Like Us is brutally honest, upsetting, emotional but also amazing, uplifting and most of all, relatable! While none of us have experienced everything Amanda has, there will be so much we have in common with her. I loved all the cultural references like Bunty and Jackie and idolising Debbie Harry. (Me too!) I also loved how reading was so important to her from childhood onwards (especially with the time she spent in hospital) and I was fascinated to hear about her writing ambitions and how long she had to fight against the feeling she wasn’t good enough to be a successful author.
Biographies and memoirs can sometimes be a bit dull, as it’s just one person’s life story (especially if you’re only twenty and the one thing you’ve done in your life is appearing on a reality show for ten minutes…) but this is NEVER dull, it’s a real page turner and I don’t say that about many memoirs. Because Amanda is a writer more than a “celeb”, the way she handles words is outstanding and you get swept up into her classy prose and hilarious self-deprecating wit.

Where do I start? What words can I use which will do this amazing, honest, inspiring autobiography?

Amanda takes a no holds barred journey through her life. In 'The Boy Behind' we learned about the problems her son had with depression, and imagined that since he was feeling better Amanda's life was now wonderful. After all, she is living the dream on a large farm near Bristol, and jets around the world promoting her multi million selling books. However, is a warts and all account (or a poo and all 😂) account. Amanda's story shows that even when you get what you have dreamt of all your life, you have nothing without good health - yours and your family's. Amanda's book isn't just for the rich, the glamorous, the successful, it's for women like us.

The only thing that I disagreed with is where Amanda refers to her readers as strangers. However to her millions of fans around the world, we all already feel that Amanda is a friend. She and her husband always take the time to reply to her fans in her own down to earth fashion, and I challenge anyone to finish this book and not want to count Amanda as a friend.

This isn't just a well written, entertaining, and interesting book, it is a fascinating insight into addictive behaviour, and how to overcome it. A 'must read'.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4688125642