Confessions of a First-Time Mum

Stevie is a first time mum and has a baby called Cherry who is very cute. Stevie is struggling with her new role, but has not lost her sense of humour. I’m not a mum yet but I hope to be in the future. Confessions of a First-Time Mum is a humorous (and realistic from what I have heard from friends and family who are mums) look at motherhood. Poppy Dolan goes deep into the life and mind of a first-time mum and Stevie us a realistic character. What happens when she meets Will? Read this book to find out more! The book has a fast-moving yet fun pace and I finished it in a few hours.

Huge thanks to Poppy Dolan and Canelo for my ARC of the book in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. So pleased to be on the blog tour for this one. I have also reviewed The Woolly Hat Knitting Club and The Bluebell Bunting Society which are previous titles by Poppy Dolan.
The book deserves 5 stars because of its original plot and characters that I think more than one mum-to-be or new mum will identify with.

This book brought me back to when my son was born, I related with so much of it! A light funny and sometimes laugh out loud story!

This book is going to ring very loud, funny and sometimes cringe-inducing bells for any woman who has ever had a baby.

My eldest daughter is thirteen and my youngest is now ten, so it has been a while since I was a new mum, but the memories of those early days are still clear and it seems not much has changed in the intervening years if this book is anything to go by. So many of the events in this book brought back those days and made me laugh out loud, especially the ‘poo-splosion’ incident. On my very first trip out of the house after my first daughter was born, when she was about a week old, I experienced one of these in the Mamas and Papas at Birstall Retail Park and I was ill-equipped to deal with public excretions of that magnitude, given my rookie status. We still talk about it – my daughter had a mass of curly hair when she was born that was very absorbent…

I recognised myself in the heroine (which is definitely the word for every mum there ever was) of this book, Stevie, fumbling her way blindly through the mystery that is parenthood when you first take your very first baby home. I remember so well those feelings of ineptitude, loneliness and failure, because you are now in charge of a whole person that you don’t yet know, don’t understand and who doesn’t come with an instruction manual. It can be a scary time. Stevie tries to manage some of these feelings and frustrations, particularly in the small, dark hours of the night when you feel like you are the only soul on earth awake and worries are magnified a thousand-fold in the silence, by expressing her feelings on a blog that she believes no one else is reading. However, she soon finds out that nothing is ever private in cyberspace and she is perhaps not alone after all.

Mummy bloggers weren’t a thing when my children were babies, but the rise of parenting blogs is a phenomenon that has not passed me by in recent years and this book does a lovely job of exploring the highs and potential lows of baring your soul, warts and all, to the world. I really felt for Stevie – her struggles are the struggles of all new mums but exacerbated by the fact that she is sharing them with the world and loses control of who is privy to those humiliating moments and thoughts and what their reaction to them will be. A cautionary tale for all bloggers perhaps, but it also brings friendship and support – something I can definitely relate to as a member of the ever friendly and supportive book blogging community.

This is a great fun read, studded with nuggets of painful truth about parenthood and I really enjoyed it.

This is the latest in a long line of books in this genre and it manages to provide the reader with enough unique moments to make it stand out. This isn’t the best I have read but it is well worth a read if you like this kind of story.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy.

This should be compulsory reading for all teenagers - not to try to put them off having children, but to give them some idea of the reality.

Yes, the story and the writing was hilarious, but the sentiment within it was awfully, wonderfully true.
I WAS Stevie (not the blogging bit, obviously) but most certainly the zombie, lost, terrified, totally out of my depth, and totally, utterly besotted bit.

I found this novel totally relateable. It had me laughing out loud whilst deeply sympathising. I felt Stevie's pain. The horrors of that first year give me nightmares even now! The story is all the more poignant for knowing that the author went through it too. This lady has had first hand experience!

How about a book on the terrible two's next???

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Stevie is a new mum to her chunky monkey, Cherry, she is desperate to make mum friends and she has been writing a small blog while breast feeding in the middle of the night. She finds kindred spirits with Nelle and Will and soon their shenanigans are keeping Stevie sane. Soon she is exposed as a mummy blogger and her husband is in shock.

Oh how I loved this and identified with so many of the emotions Poppy wrote about! Brilliant

This was a funny and lovely story about Stevie and her cute little baby Cherry, I was a bit dubious at first that I wouldn't relate because I'm not a mum (yet!) but I found it really enjoyable and I didn't feel like I didn't know what was going on at any point.

At some points throughout the novel I was laughing out loud, some of it was just cringeworthy and so funny. I liked the character of Stevie and Cherry (although monstrous at times) sounded so cute! It definitely opened my eyes to what being a mum is really about and kind of gave me a look into what it would be like!

Really enjoyed it, LOVE Poppy Dolan's novels. Hope there's a follow up novel on this! Thank you to the publisher for a chance to read this novel via Netgalley, which I have reviewed honestly.

Stevie’s a new first time mum. Her life has changed beyond recognition since the birth of her daughter, Cherry. It’s difficult but Stevie copes…just about! Her husband Ted works hard to keep the family finances afloat while Stevie is off work and he isn’t really there for Stevie to offload her feelings onto, so she starts up a First Time Mum blog! She also meets fellow parents, Nelle and Will. Nelle, who has just had her third child with a big gap between this one and her elder two, wonders why she’s going through all this baby stuff again at her age! Will is father to his 2 year old twin daughters who run circles around him! Stevie realises, after meeting Nelle and Will, that there is no such thing as the ‘perfect mum’ and together they plough through what life deals them.

My son is 11 and it’s been a long while since I’ve had to deal with babies, but reading this has brought everything flooding back! The sleepless nights, the endless crying, the exploding nappies and the milk reflux which means no matter what you or baby wear within 5 minutes you’re covered in and smell of sour milk. Just by writing it down has triggered a panic attack, so you can imagine what it was like to read it! It was though a very funny and heart-warming look at life through the eyes of a new mum.

I loved Stevie’s character and could totally relate to her (as could any new mum!). I also loved Nelle and so wished that I had someone like her around me when I was a new mum. She’d ‘been there, done it before’ and had an air of confidence about her that would make me believe anything she said! Will’s first impression was that he was a moody dad on the verge of not coping, but as the story moves on you realise that he’s not like that at all.

A fun, laugh out loud book also with lots of tender moments. Perfect for new mums, old mums and no mums! Everyone can enjoy this book! Would definitely recommend!

Oh yes, I remember it well. 5 years of no sleep except in short naps (preparation for menopause and beyond if i did but know); exploding poo - or rabbit droppings all over a friend's guest bedroom; the wee in the eye (little boys); the sick and more sick; the joy of measles when the youngest catches it at 13 months just before her injection and you're in hospital after an op, and husband brings her in to see Mum!

And don't get the kids started on being forgotten in a supermarket car park and then there was Orlando and Disney!

So I've been there and thus my memory helped me laugh at the tales of mishaps and joys that are in this book. So much truth and such great fun to read.  May not appeal to those without knowledge of bringing up a child.

This is the second of Poppy's books we have read and loved. Confessions of a First Time Mum has me laughing out loud and left me with an achy face from smiling and a warm fuzzy feeling inside. It really is a feel good read.
No baby comes with a manual and guidance notes, and it's often difficult to talk and admit that as a parent of a new baby you are feeling guilty, overwhelmed, scared and incredibly tired. The addition of a third little person in a relationship can also pull on a strong partnership. It can be an isolated time and not an easy thing for every new Mum to talk about. And that is exactly how Stevie, the main character in this story feels.
Stevie finds comfort during the small hours through writing a blog, and meeting Will and Nelle. Sharing, writing and talking through her experiences makes Stevie feel like she is not alone whilst her husband is working full time to keep the family afloat financially.
It's through the blog by opening up and sharing her tales 'warts and all' as the saying goes, of being a new Mum Stevie finds she is not alone and experiencing the same as other mothers. When her husband reads the blog and discovers it's his wife writing....... no spoilers here!
This makes for a funny, heart warming and captivating read. Poppy has a style of writing that will engage you and absorb you into the pages of the story.
Thank you to Ellie, Poppy and Canelo for our advanced copy.

The ups and downs of dealing with a baby and the huge changes it brings to your life have not really changed over the years, even if the internet and social media have brought with them a whole new set of challenges. New mothers have always felt judged for their choices and experienced the limits which a crying baby can push them to- tempered by the utter love they feel for their child. So, I would say that any age of reader will identify with Stevie and enjoy reading her story.

The writing is full of humour and hilarious situations. I particularly enjoyed Stevie's blog postings which are so well observed. Stevie finds a real sense of family with her two friends, Nelle and Will, who she can turn to day or night. Stevie's ability to cast aside a rosy view of parenthood touches a nerve with her blog followers but she also comes to realise that once her anonymity is broken, not everyone appreciates her honesty.

In short: a great read for a summer afternoon.

Thanks to the author for a copy of the book.

My most recent Net Galley read has been this new book, Confessions of a First Time Mum by Poppy Dolan. And I love it. Especially for the truths it tells about parenthood. How difficult it is to admit you're struggling without feeling guilty and somehow like you don't deserve your kids. How hard it is pull together your pre-kids and post-kids identities. How much of an impact parenthood can have on your relationship with your co-parent - how often you will both be doing your best to do the right thing for the family but find yourselves not always understanding what the other needs. How difficult and scary it is to meet other parents, and the unfortunate fact that just because two people have children of similar ages, they won't necessarily love each other!

It is important for us to talk about the complicated emotions of parenthood, the fact that you can feel two totally conflicting things at the same time, and that it is not easy: feeling adoration and frustration at the same time. Isolation and completeness.

But with all this material, which should be shared with all new parents, is an engaging story. I found so much in this book to agree with and to feel relieved by. It's never a bad thing to realise that you're not the only one to have experienced something!

I'm going to put this out there - where the baby wipes was this book when my daughter was born?! Poppy Dolan had me in hysterics from the first page, and I'm not exaggerating. This authors humour is magnificent, yet she is only writing about parenthood in a realistic manner and without looking at it through rose tinted glasses. Just like Stevie, and I'm sure many of you as well, I had my plans before my daughter was born, adamant that I would do things a certain way. Did that happen? Did it fluff! It wasn't that I changed my mind when she was born, it was purely a case of being realistic and realising that, after being awake during the night more times than I was asleep, getting myself dolled up in the morning to go to a baby group wasn't at the top of my list.

Whilst I didn't find the early stages of parenthood as challenging as others may have done, I still appreciated and loved the black and white way which Stevie spoke about her life. She didn't fake it, she just said how she felt. As far as I'm concerned, I don't really see that as a bad thing, do you? What I also thought was completely bang on, was how Stevie said what a lot of mums think when it comes to being looked down upon by other parents for how you raise your own child. As a single mum, I have had my fair share of derogatory comments and people looking down their noses at me and yes, at first it bothered me, but now? I'm just proud of myself and so should every other parent be. Well, as long as they're being the best that they can be, obvs!!

Anyway, I'm going around the houses with this review - apologies! I thought 'Confessions of a First-Time Mum' was such a brilliant, brilliant read which had me snorting like a pig on more than one occasion. I can guarantee that a lot of readers will be nodding their heads at what Stevie comes out with, and relating to every single thing about this book in general. I know I did!

I thought the idea of Stevie's blog was really fun, even if it did sound a little familiar having read a similar thing in a different book.

'Confessions of a First-Time Mum' is a fantastic, relatable read for anyone who has children of their own. Hell, even if I didn't have a child, I am sure I still would have loved reading about Stevie, Nelle and Will, as people like them re just what the world desperately needs.

Confessions of a First-Time Mum is my first book that I’ve read by Poppy Dolan and my word, it’s an absolute corker. Right from the first page I was laughing out loud, not just a little chuckle but a full on laugh and I just knew that I was going to love and devour this book.

Stevie has just had her first baby, the adorable Cherry. However her life isn’t what she imagined, Cherry vomits a lot and cries a lot, Ted her husband works a lot and Stevie is well feeling lonely. She meets two new parent friends Nelle and Will who help her realise she is a brilliant Mum. Stevie also pours her heart out onto a blog where she has a realistic outlook on her parenting experience which I loved reading about.

Now I don’t have kids yet but after having worked with small children/babies in the past I related a lot more than I thought I would have done. I laughed my way through this brilliant book where it made me realise that not everyone knows what they’re doing when they have kids. I will admit I am petrified of having my own kids, what if they’re not what I expected? What if I regret having them? This book has made me realise that no matter how bad I think I’m going to be, there will be people out there who can relate to me!

I absolutely loved the characters of Stevie, Will and Nelle, I would love to have friends like that in real life. By the end of this book I felt I had made some fabulous friends in these characters. Poppy, please can we have another book with these relatable, well-written and brilliant characters? Cherry although she was a monster at times, she was so adorable and you couldn’t help but love her.

Poppy’s writing was just flawless, from that hilarious first page to the excellent ending I was hooked. I couldn’t tear myself away from the lives of Stevie and co. The humour is there throughout the book as well as some emotional moments that did pull at my heartstrings on occasions.

Confessions of a First-Time Mum is a stunning, fun, hilarious and relatable read that will appeal to to not only parents but really to anyone who loves their books funny and full of well-written characters.

5☆ A Fabulous Insight to the ups and downs of being a Mum!

Confessions of a First-Time Mum is a laugh out loud look into the ups and downs of becoming a first time Mum.

Stevie is a first time Mum to Cherry.
She isn't finding things easy as most first time mum's.
What I loved was how you got to see Stevie's vulnerabilities, her struggles, her triumphs. I loved watching her grow with confidence, with Cherry and her life in general. As motherhood changes all aspects of your life.
Her mishaps and mayhem had me laughing out loud.

I really enjoyed Stevie's Blog Entries. She had me laughing and sympathizing with her as she laid everything out there for all to read and equally judge.

I haven't yet got children but Poppy certainly gave me a realistic look into what it could be like.
This was a wonderfully written, warm, funny, relatable read that I thoroughly enjoyed. I felt like I was on a journey of discovery alongside Stevie and I love books that make you feel involved, or trigger memories.

Poppy really thought of everything, she made the book current with the use of blogging, which with the use of websites like NetMums can really help.

If you are looking for a feel good, laugh out loud, realistic portrayal of becoming a first time Mum, then you will really enjoy this wonderful warm read.