This is a story about friendship, infidelity and lies. The blurb intrigued me and the story is well written however I did find there to be too many cliches within and the characters way too well behaved in the face of discovering infidelity and a resulting child. I’m sure others will thoroughly enjoy this book it just wasn’t quite for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

It has been a long time since I felt intrigued by a story. I have good and bad feelings with this story. I found moments that were very engaging, some moments slow and unnecessary, and then some very abrupt moments that felt unfinished with. There were also some details that were put in that left the reader knowing it was significant and then it all came together for the cliffhanger of the story.
The story starts with how our main character was hoping to be pregnant and has been disappointed many times, only to find out she has been betrayed by her husband. The relationship ended rather quickly in my opinion and made me wonder what kind of person would just leave her spouse like that. I love the friendship element between her and her two friends, so when her husband disappeared in the first part of the story, I was so surprised to find out that there was more to the story and talk about it being such a small world. I found the way she got pregnant interesting but such a coincidence, to the way the pregnancy just seemed to happen overnight and choppy, with making the reader think she lost the baby and then having the health conditions. I felt it was a little too much for our main character to go through. I love the climax of the story and having to let the truth come out. All in all, if this is the author's first book, I think it was a great story!

This book had a twist for the basis of this story that I was not expecting at all.
Charlotte wants a baby for years and she has been dealing with infertility for years. Then she discovers a secret her husband has kept from her. This changed her life.
The events that happened next were just too much for me to understand how things got so out of hand with the characters in this story. A lot of the time I was reading I was annoyed and mad at what they were doing.
I just kept reading hoping that things would make sense as to why it was happening.
Thank you NetGalley, Julia Roberts and Bookouture for the copy of The Dilemma. This is my personal review.

This book was sent to me by Netgalley for review. Thanks to the publisher for the electronic copy. Friendship and family…forgiveness…love and romance…children…lies and deceit..this is a cannot put down novel written by a gifted author. The characters come alive on the pages. Even though the book is fiction, it reads like nonfiction. This would make a great television show or series…there are so many red herrings…the main character wants a child so badly…at times, she is weak and cannot take care of things herself, or others.., she is strong…she seems to lean on her friends too often…that being said, I could not stop reading to see what happened next…I liked this book…my favorite part was that the characters moved on…I cannot wait for other books by this author.

“How far would you go to save your child’s life?”



In the features section at the end of the book, I recommend that you read, ‘A Letter From Julia’, although probably not until you have closed the final page on the story, as it does contain some spoilers, as well as a couple of interesting and thought-provoking questions for any group discussions.

It is all too easy to give away spoilers, so just a short take on the storyline from me this time…

...

Now in her thirties, Charlotte is desperate for a baby to cement her ten-year relationship with partner Zack, who is slightly older than her and has lost contact with his own sons, as their mother has taken them back to her Australian home. Charlotte believes that it is she who is unable to conceive, although tests do not back this up and Zack refuses to get tested, arguing that he has already fathered children. When Charlotte realises that Zack has knowingly lied to her for all this time, she is devastated and believes that their entire relationship has been based upon dishonesty, which she simply cannot forgive, even if she could have possibly lived with never becoming a mother.

Not telling Zack where she is going, Charlotte rents herself a small place not too far away and gets herself a job with a local florist. One of her two best friends from their modelling days, Annabel, who lives with her own partner Finn and not believing herself to be maternal, tries to jolly Charlotte out of her depression by taking her on an all-expenses paid holiday to Mauritius. Charlotte catches the eye of one of the waiters, so when Annabel is taken ill on their last night and Charlotte needs to dine alone, Annabel assumes it is he who keeps Charlotte out until the early hours of the morning.

When Charlotte’s wildest dreams are answered, and she finds herself pregnant, the future, although rather scary as a single parent, looks rosy. Annabel and the third person in this once close-knit group of friends, Tiffany, are determined to work together to keep Charlotte safe and not feeling isolated, and as Tiffany is in a stable marriage and already has two teenage children of her own, it is only natural that her two friends turn to her for advice and help. It appears however, that the friends really don’t know each other as well as they had thought, as they have all been keeping secrets which Charlotte’s news is about to burst wide open, bringing them firmly into the spotlight and demanding explanations.

It is when Charlotte’s baby is born that it becomes even more urgent for wrongs to be righted, as lives do literally depend on the outcomes. For Tiffany and her family, this is a particularly testing time and the strength of their relationships are going to be strained to breaking point and maybe beyond. The maturity they show is both an example and a wake-up call for both Charlotte and Zack, and Annabel and Flynn, who grasp the second opportunities they have been given with both hands. For everyone, the one enduring lesson they all learn from this traumatic experience, which might have ended so very differently, is that trust is the single most important thing in any relationship, whether between family or friends. For this small group, their common shared experiences are the bonds which will tie them together far into the future.

...

Whilst on the whole, yes, this was quite a predictable and formulaic storyline and I thought I knew exactly how everything was all meant to end, there were one or two twists which added extra unique and intriguing layers that didn’t fully work themselves out until the end of the story, keeping me avidly turning the pages and engaged throughout, wondering whether each would be the straw which would break increasingly fragile bonds, or which would ultimately bind them more tightly together.

Author Julia Roberts has a fluent, compelling and evocative style of writing, which whilst almost seamless and relaxed, manages to create a truly beguiling and immersive experience, which is rich in atmosphere and beautifully textured. With seemingly consummate ease she has written a well-crafted storyline that is broken down into short, digestible chapters, which keeps things well-paced and fluid. Narrated in a single timeline and mostly in Charlotte’s voice, with a few chapters told from Tiffany’s perspective and in her own voice, some cleverly crafted scenes which make up this fast-changing storyline, are intense, sometimes filled with humour, often full of regret and remorse, but always told with heart and compassion, by an author who held me captive in the palm of her hand all the time I was reading. The ending to this perceptive and poignant story, sowed the seeds of change and new beginnings for this close-knit circle of friends and their families, which will see them changed forever, moving forward with their lives together, forging new beginnings and making fresh starts, supporting one another through the good times and the bad.

Julia explores the trauma of grief and loss and the long-term effects it can have on mental health. Accepting your own failings without the need to punish yourself for them, whilst also accepting the failures of others without feeling the need to pass judgement or admonishment. Chasing a dream if it is at all attainable and you don’t damage anyone else in the process and maybe being generous enough to help someone else to fulfil their own aspirations along the way, if you are able to. Realising the damage telling lies and keeping secrets from one another can do, when well-meaning motives go awry. Learning how good life in a relationship can be if both people are singing from the same song sheet and the giving isn’t all one sided. Recognising the long-term misunderstandings and indeed damage, which can be done in crisis, when children are not treated with the honesty and respect they deserve as small adults. But not forgetting most importantly of all, after the love of family, are the lasting and enduring friendships we make along our way through life.

The physical footprint this story occupies, is quite finely focussed, so whilst the narrative about specific locations is very descriptive with real placenames which can be tracked, for any confirmed ‘armchair travellers’, this book might be a little light on location. It is undoubtedly all about the storyline and the cast of characters who occupy its space, the interactions between them as individuals, their personalities and how honesty and trust can truly bring people closer together and entirely change perspectives on life.

The three main protagonists Charlotte, Annabel and Tiffany, together with their respective partners Zack, Finn and JJ, represent a multi-faceted and complex jigsaw of vulnerable human emotions, which are laid bare when the fragility of the lines between life and death, defeat and survival, love and hate, trust and duplicity, are drawn. However, a raw addictive passion and the will to survive as couples, families and friends, overcomes all the odds stacked against them, making them stronger, determined to be true to themselves and each other, and more united as time goes on. They brought out both the best and the worse in each other, the energy and synergy between them being genuine, believable, engaging and authentic to the roles created for them by the author. There is also a quite extensive cast of engaging and well-developed supporting characters, who are reliable, authentic, easy to connect with and relate to, despite their complex individual idiosyncrasies and vulnerabilities, sharing some great dynamics between them.

I read for a whole range of reasons, but amongst them are enjoyment, entertainment, escapism and emotion. This story soundly ticked all those boxes and more besides, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Thanks for a lovely journey, Julia!

Loved this one! I listened to the audio version and the narrator is fantastic! The storyline was both entertaining and had a realism to it that you don’t find in a lot of books. I had never read a book by this author and was impressed by her writing style, I will definitely read more by her in the future.

How far would you go to save your child? If you knew that the only way to save their life was to break the heart of someone you love, would it give you pause? Would you hesitate for even one second? That is the eponymous dilemma facing Julia Robert's protagonist, Charlotte, whose long awaited son, George, requires a life saving transplant for which she is unable to act as a donor. There is one small problem - the identity of George's father. A closely guarded secret that stands to tear Charlotte's world apart once revealed, that and those of the people around her.

I really enjoyed the way in which Julia Roberts has framed this story. We are taken into Charlotte's world, pre-George, allowed to see how much she wants to become a mother and the torturous ritual she puts herself through each month waiting to see if this is the one, whether or not she has finally conceived. But there is also something else in play here, something which leads to a massive change in Charlotte's world and, more importantly, that long awaited pregnancy. I could really feel all of Charlotte's conflicting emotions throughout the early pages of this book. The hurt, the anger, the feeling of loss she experienced every time the test said no.

The author has done a brilliant job of pulling readers into Charlotte's world and whilst I have never felt that biological imperative to have a child myself, I could sympathise with the devastation she felt, and also the sense of betrayal which accompanies one particularly damning revelation. And that is the key thing really - feeling something towards Charlotte as she, perhaps more so that George even, is key to what follows in the book.

Alongside Charlotte we meet her two best friends, all of them former models. Tiff leads a far more glamorous life than Charlotte, who now works in a florists, but despite there being something aloof about her character, something slightly more reserved, I did quite like her. The more we get tot know her, the more I understood her and ultimately her life is one steeped in it's own kind of tragedy. As for Annabel, she is perhaps Charlotte's closest friend and. ultimately her confidant, although I can understand her torn loyalties given what comes to pass. Despite playing more of a direct role in Charlotte's ife, she is perhaps the character I felt least close to of the three, maybe because her motivations were different and her life seemingly far more put together than the others when push came to shove.

As readers, we are privy to far more information than many of the characters in this book, and seeing the way in which many of these secrets and lies by omissions play out adds a small amount of tension to the story. But more than that you can feel the love, from mother to child, between partners and between friends, no matter what has been thrown at them. Beyond being about Charlotte and her drive to save George, not matter what, this is a story of family and friendships. Of the devastating impact of lies and betrayal and also the healing power of forgiveness and it's a very lovely read.

Charlotte and Zac have been together for 10 years and have been trying to have a baby for the last several, to no avail. After they go out to celebrate their 10 year anniversary, charlotte takes another test hoping that this will be the month that it finally happen. Unfortunately, it is negative, and she completely comes undone. She can’t understand why it isn’t happening until Zac comes clean and tells her that he had a vasectomy after his divorce and never told her, which absolutely devastates her, so she ends their relationship.
Charlotte starts a new life on her own and is able to hang out with her old friends from her modeling days again now that she’s single. While she’s single she has a one night stand that ends up having some very dramatic consequences for not only her but for those in her life as well.
This was complex story with well developed characters. I’m glad I went in blind as I think it aided in my enjoyment of the story.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

The Dilemma by Julia Roberts
Earc and Audio:NetGalley
Publisher:Bookouture
Publication Date:26th October 2022
Genre: General Fiction /Women's Fiction

This is an emotional book, especially for women. What a bastard the Mr is. I hate him from the start Zač not a man but a git.
Charlotte, Annabelle and Tiffy.
Charlotte I feel for her after the relationship breakdown with Zač.

Tiff is a mam and has everything that Charlotte needs to want children.
Annabelle is Charlotte's best friend and knows her very well.

a family drama that looks at family dynamics, relationships and friendships this book achieves it all.

After a one-night stand, Charlotte finds herself pregnant the one thing she wanted for such a long time. Showing not all motherhood goes straightly as her child is diagnosed with a rare illness that would need a transplant, preferably from either of the parents. As the test results deem her an incompatible match, it leaves her with the only other option is to contact the child’s father. This is heartwrenching to read /listen to. Shocks and turns on this book are in the books.


The narrator does. great job on this book. I felt for Charlotte at times.

#NetGalley #bookstagram #bookreview #goodreads #womenafiction @bookouture

The Dilemma is a warm, kind and mature approach to an almost impossible situation. Beautifully written and fascinating the whole way through, Julia Roberts is an author I will be looking for in the future!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

BLOG TOUR REVIEW

Review for 'The Dilemma' by Julia Roberts.

Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Julia Roberts, Bookouture publishers and Bookouture anonymous

Publication date 26th October 2022.

This is the second book I have read by this author. I have also read 'The Woman On The Beach' which I would highly recommend.

I was originally drawn to this book by its beautiful cover and intriguing sounding synopsis and title. The synopsis stated that 'Fans of Liane Moriarty, Amanda Prowse and Susan Lewis will love The Dilemma'. I am a huge fan of Susan Lewis so am looking forward to seeing if this lives up to this statement. I am also a huge fan of Julia and if this book is half as good as 'The Woman On The Beach' it is guaranteed to be a page turner. I must admit I was also biased due to the publisher being Bookouture. I have yet to read a book published by Bookouture that I haven't enjoyed. Hopefully this won't be the first... Watch this space! (Written before I started reading the book).

This novel consists of 42 chapters set over two parts. The chapters are short to medium in length so possible to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!

This book is based in England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, UK 🇬🇧. The bonus for me of books that are partly or fully based in the UK is that I live in the UK and have sometimes visited places mentioned in the book which makes it easier to picture.

This book is written in a mix of third and first person perspective and the protagonist is Charlotte and Tiff. The benefits of books written in first person perspective are as long as they are well written it makes you feel that you are being spoken to by the protagonist and it can create more of a bond between yourselves and them. .

This book is beautifully written with vivid descriptions that really put you in the storyline and feeling the pain and joy of the characters. The cover and synopsis suit the storyline perfectly.

Grab the tissues ready before you pick this book up as yet again Julia has me in tears which is not an easy feat!! Congratulations Julia on making a tough skinned grown woman cry!!

The storyline is about the friendship of three friends and how the actions of one can change the dynamics of each other and their families. It is filled with friendship, love, tragedy, tears, secrets, loss and more, everything you could want in an unputdownable family drama. It was very fast paced and it kept me constantly turning the page until I finished with it in one sitting. This is a book that you can read curled up in front of a fire or laying on a sunny beach. I felt completely absorbed in the storyline and absolutely loved it. It is a story about forgiveness. It shows the strengths involved in keeping friendships, marriages, partnerships and helping an innocent child. My heart was in my throat on so many occasions and I found so many scenes very touching. I think it is absolutely beautiful that Julia has based this story on a friends son who suffered with Meconium Aspiration Syndrome. Not only is it a beautiful thing to do but by writing this book Julia also raises awareness of.Meconium Aspiration Syndrome which is something I have never heard of. Congratulations on raising awareness but also on doing plenty of research which shines through!! There's not much worse in a book than the author not researching the subject they discuss and ending up with a book littered with errors. Not only does Julia discuss Meconium Aspiration Syndrome but she also weaves it into an absolutely stunning storyline that brings up marriage vows, friendships, courage, forgiveness and so so much more. This book is absolutely filled with thought provoking dilemmas that had me wondering what I would do in each of the characters situations and it is a book that will stay with me for a long time. I would absolutely love to see this turned into a movie which I will definitely be the first in the line to watch!!

Congratulations Julia on writing a gorgeous story while raising awareness of Meconium Aspiration Syndrome. I always think that any book, whether fiction or non fiction, that raises awareness of any illness, disease or subjects such as domestic violence deserve an award as it could save at least one life by making people aware of these topics.

This is only the fourth book that I have listened 100% on Audiobook. If I listen to a book on audiobook I usually also read the physical book between but for the second time I listened to the whole book and I was impressed! I must say a HUGE congratulations to the narrator Daphne Kouma who did a great job bringing this story to life. I would listen to it in the car and while walking at any opportunity and Daphne did a fantastic job on both male and female characters voices!!! I'm not only looking forward to reading more books by Julia but also to listening to more books narrated by Daphne!

The characters were realistic and strong and I loved meeting them all. The friendship between Charlotte, Tiff and Amelia is beautiful and I loved reading the dynamic between them before the "dilemmas" and it was intriguing to watch how relationships grew and changed after the "dilemmas". My heart went out to each of them for different reasons. Charlotte seemed to be going through hell anyway and things just continued to get worse through the book with one Dilemma after another. I personally don't think she did anything wrong apart from maybe leaving things a bit too late to tell a certain person about something. However, I can see where she was coming from as she was just trying to protect them. My heart also went out to Tiff up until a certain point and then all I can say is pot, kettle. Amelia seems to be stuck in the middle and is completely innocent. It seems to be the two main males Zac and JJ that are far from innocent and are to blame for many of the "dilemmas". Again, the problem I'm having is saying too much without spoiling it for future readers so I won't go into their characters any more than that. It would be interesting to know how others feel after reading this book. Regardless of whether you love them or hate them each of the characters play their parts perfectly to make an absolutely addictive page turner!!

Congratulations Julia on yet anothet absolutely beautiful, emotional and thought provoking unputdownable page turner. I cannot wait to see what you come up with next!!

Overall an emotionally charged, gorgeous unputdownable page turner that will have you absolutely addicted.


Genres covered in this book include Women's Literary Fiction, Romance Literary Fiction, Literary Fiction, amongst others.


I would recommend this book to the fans of the above as well as fans of Liane Moriarty, Amanda Prowse, Susan Lewis and anyone else looking for a beautiful family drama.


292 pages/ 8 hours 14 minutes

This book is just £1.99 to purchase on kindle, £16.99 on audiobook and £7.99 in paperback via Amazon which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!

Rated 5/5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

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It says a lot when you finish a read in one go. A family drama that looks at family dynamics, relationships and friendships. It’s definitely not what I was expecting after reading the blurb but I really enjoyed it. It’s an interesting storyline that definitely looks at ‘The Dilemma’ from all angles and points of view. Really well written plot and characters that I felt I really got to know. I really liked all of them and found myself rooting for them when it came to there own personal lives. Would recommend…

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read #TheDilemma

This was a surprisingly intriguing read! A well-written women’s fiction themed on friendship and motherhood.

Charlotte has always wanted to be a mother, but her hopes of embracing motherhood are shattered after she ends her ten-year-long relationship. While having a girl’s trip to another country, she has a one-night stand with a stranger whom she later finds out to be married. Devastated for sleeping with a married man, Charlotte is shocked to learn that she is pregnant. Her road to motherhood isn’t easy as her child is diagnosed with a rare illness that would need a transplant, preferably from either of the parents. As the test results deem her an incompatible match, it leaves her with the only other option is to contact the child’s father.

I wasn’t a fan of the plot, but the execution blew my mind. Despite the story sounding like a recipe for utter sadness, Roberts had a fantastic grip on the flow of emotions. The friendship between Charlotte and her girls was the backbone of the book, and clearly the best part of it. I can’t say that the story was believable, nor were the decisions made by the characters, but I could understand the justifications given. The book screams the importance of honesty in our relationships, and I can’t agree more.

I would’ve enjoyed it more had Annabel stuck to her original decision of remaining childless. Not all women want to be mothers, and it is high time we let them be. The climax was too ideal and had ‘let’s make society happy’ vibes. I know ‘kindness wins’, ‘forgiveness is the key to a happy life’, blah blah but I had an overdose of all the niceties.

Overall, a quick, heartwarming story!

Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Publication Date: October 26th, 2022.

TW: Struggling to conceive (not infertility), Miscarriage, Divorce, Infidelity, Infant illness, Breakup, and lots of drinking (not alcoholism).

4/5🌟.

I requested this ARC (thanks to Bookoutre and NetGalley) after the recommendation from a GR friend who gave it 5 stars. Based on the blurb, I was surprised that it took 1/3 of the book before the main character was pregnant and 1/2 way through until the baby was born. But all the relationship set-ups in that first half of the book paid off in the second half! I usually don’t love the “close friend” whose husband you’d never met before trope in domestic fiction but this one was better than most. What would you do to protect your newborn child and what might be the consequences of those choices?

I’d like to thank Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Dilemma’ by Julia Roberts in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Charlotte is on holiday in Mauritius when she spends a drunken night with a stranger but it isn’t until a few weeks later that she realises she’s pregnant. Baby George is born with a rare kidney disease that will shorten his life-span unless he has a transplant and although Charlotte didn’t intend letting her baby’s father know that he has a son she realises she has no choice.

‘The Dilemma’ is a thought-provoking novel of friendship, truth and honesty and although the plot was maybe a bit predictable it didn’t detract from the story of what steps a mother will take to protect her baby and give him the chance of a healthy life. The novel is well-written with nicely rounded characters that kept me involved from the first page to the last and with the perfect ending made it an easy and enjoyable novel to read.

A fellow blogger (Robin Loves Reading- a wonderful lady and blogger- she's well worth following) put Julia Roberts on my radar a few months ago, so when Bookouture were organising the upcoming blog tour for this title I leapt at the chance to be on the tour too.
This is a wonderful read, I was thinking about it constantly, telling friends about it and every day looking forward to my bedtime read.
This is a suspenseful read, with a few twists thrown in, but at the heart of it is the dilemma. There are many decisions to be made in this book, with different characters needing to put things on the line, and unveiling their secrets. There are SO many secrets here.
I have mixed feelings about Zak (if you read it, it's obvious why) but I loved the others and the different POVs Roberts gives her readers really adds to the story as more information comes to light.
I literally couldn't stop reading at bedtime, several times I sacrificed my sleep to continue the drama.
I adored this, and I can't wait for the next Roberts book!

This story was unbelievably heartbreaking! Reading this, I alternated between sadness, anger, dismay, and hope! Loved the story and all of the conflict….this situation is truly a test of friendships and love!

A quick and easy read that I couldn't put down and I loved the family drama elements of the book. I was hooked right from the beginning.

This is my second book by this author. The book description led me to believe I would be reading a suspense but it turned out to be a family drama, which I enjoyed. It was a relatively short story but effective. Although predictable, the story was spoiled while reading reviews. The ending felt a bit rushed.

I would not hesitate to go back to Julie Roberts for a fast and easy story with likeable characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me a complimentary e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

A story about friendship, love, and especially honesty. How things can go very wrong when we can't be honest with each other.
I really liked this book and the characters. There were several times when I really hated some of them, but they ended up redeeming themselves at the end. They opened up and their stories really made you want the best for them.