#BlogTour: PLAYGROUPS & PROSECCO by Jo Middleton @mummyblogger @EburyPublishing @elliecrisp

Publication: 1st March 2019 (eBook); 2nd May 2019 (paperback) – Ebury

January 3rd
Jaffa Cakes – 7. Times I was forced to watch a small child do a dance involving a dusty piece of ribbon found under the sofa – 4. Inappropriate thoughts about Zac Efron – undisclosed. 

Single mum Frankie’s whole life revolves around her kids. But when your toddler has a more active social life, something has to change. Forget ‘me-time’, Frankie would settle for some adult conversation, and watching something other than the Disney channel. 

The local playgroup may be ruled by Instagram mums with perfect husbands but Frankie accidentally forms a splinter group of single parents. After all, Mummy really needs a playdate of her own. (Now pass the prosecco.)

**********

I am so delighted to welcome you on my stop for the blog tour for PLAYGROUPS & PROSECCO, the hilarious new novel by Jo Middleton, who you can find on her blog Slummy Single Mummy. I’d like to thank Ellie and Ebury for providing me with a copy of this engrossing novel and for letting me be part of the blog tour.

This book should come with a note on the front cover saying to not read in public places because it will make you laugh out loud and people around you will give you weird, this-woman-is-crazy looks. That’s what happened to me… PLAYGROUPS & PROSECCO is such a fun and entertaining book and I think I laughed almost every page.

It’s the story of Frankie, 37 years-old, recently divorced, two daughters (one is a teenager, the other is a toddler), a job (and a boss) she hates but that works around her daughters’ school hours, and a great love for Jaffa Cakes and Prosecco. In her diary, Frankie narrates a year of adventures, from facing the mommy mafia at the Busy Beavers playground to stalking the perfect mother with the perfect life on Instagram, from disastrous encounters with men on Tinder to awkward and embarrassing situations in public places, often caused by her three-year-old daughter Jess, she doesn’t leave anything out.

I think that my favourite character is Jess, Frankie’s toddler. She has a knack to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, to get her mother in humiliating situations, and to test her patience. There was a particular scene involving Jess, Frankie, and a fountain in the park that had me with tears in my eyes from laughing.

Frankie is a fantastic character that you can’t help but like. She is honest, funny, intelligent, and genuine and I loved how she develops throughout the book. Her stories are relatable and written in a natural and entertaining writing style that hold the reader’s attention page after page. I liked that the novel doesn’t focus much on Frankie’s love life (aside from her Tinder dates that made me doubt about the future of mankind) and more on her friendships (I liked Sierra, Lou, and their WIB WhatsApp group), her family, and her work life (her hate for her boss Steve was another motive for laugh).

PLAYGROUPS & PROSECCO is an uplifting, engaging, hilarious, and brilliantly-written novel, an absolute page-turner. I highly recommend it!!!