Bad Mother's United - Kate Long

Before Yummy Mummies and Slummy Mummies, before the Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, before we wondered How She Does It, there was THE BAD MOTHER'S HANDBOOK. Hundreds of thousands of readers lived a year in the life of Charlotte, Karen and Nan as they struggled with becoming mothers for the first time.

And now they are back. Certainly older, probably not wiser, and definitely as hilariously catastrophic as before.
For all those who have asked how to be a woman, here is HOW TO BE...A BAD MOTHER.

I have never read a Kate Long book before but have looked at reviews for a few and was planning on getting them. So when Kate Long sent me a copy I was so grateful and it meant I got to jump right in! I thought having not read 'The Bad Mother's Handbook' I may be a bit lost reading this book but it was the complete opposite! The brilliant writing of Kate Long meant that straight away you could start to learn about the characters and their hilarious parenting adventures.

The book jumps forward 3 years from the first one, Charlotte is at university and Karen is looking after Charlotte's son, Karen's grandson, Will, whilst working as a Teaching Assistant. Sadly Nan has passed away, but through the genius of the little parts of conversations that we get thrown into at the end of a lot of the chapters, we still get a feeling that she is very much part of the story and still build up a relationship with her without having known her alive. These although sad as we are reminded that Nan is no longer with them, provides us with laughter throughout at her tales of her younger self.

Having not known Charlotte before the birth of Will I wasn't sure about her at first, I felt as through although a mum she was still a bit of a stroppy teenager, with how she treated her mum and boyfriend Daniel, and that she wasn't sure what she was doing in herself. As the book went on though I started to feel for her having to spend so much time away from her son, which would of course be hard on her, and you see this when she struggles to say goodbye to Will when she goes back to university so far away from him. 

Karen is struggling with the death of her mum, when she tries to find her birth mum. You will have to read the book to find out how that went! I loved that we see Charlotte and Karen going through a lot of different things in the space of a year and how they are usually full of laughter for the reader, although it leaves them at times in quite catastrophic situations, some of these even put a strain on their relationship.

I really enjoyed the genius of Kate Long’s writing. The moments when we hear different versions of the same situations from the mind of both Karen and Charlotte were brilliant, this way we got to understand the different emotions and opinions of each character in the same situation, this in turn gives us a better understanding of the characters themselves. It is a very clever way of explaining the characters to us.

Karen and Charlotte’s relationship is the most enjoyable thing about this book, they are just so entertaining together, the perfect mix of personalities for a great story. Anybody that has read ‘The Bad Mother’s Handbook’ will love this book and even if you haven't you will still love it! I am now going to read every other Kate Long book! Absolutely loved it! If you haven't read this yet what are you waiting for? This is the perfect feel good book and it makes you value your mum and all she has done!