Author: Holly Waingwright
ISBN: 978-1-76063-348-6
RRP: $29.99
Publication Date: 29 August 2018
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Copy: Courtesy of the Publisher
Holly Wainwright is back with more of the bloggers we learnt to love/hate/laugh at in The Mummy Bloggers.
It sounds like life is a little different for the bloggers now. Elle Campbell has completely reimagined herself as a lifestyle guru in an exclusive retreat that costs women thousands to try out her extreme lifestyle.
Abi Black is planning for the wedding of her dreams to her true love but everything around her is chaos with a teenage daughter trying to find her own online fame and her ex-husband in the shed.
Frances Graham is a new character to the mix, a new mother with an anxiety causing mums group, a colicky newborn and a husband who could be more help. A mum ripe for what the fitmums on Insta and Elle’s retreat are selling.
Wainwright brings her witty social commentary and pulls no punches as she takes us on another rollercoaster ride of bloggers, self-improvement and bad influencers.
I look forward to hearing what our members have to say almost as much as I look forward to jumping back into the world of Elle Campbell and Abi Black myself.
Holly Wainwright can be followed on Facebook.
How To Be Perfect is published by Allen & Unwin and is available now through Angus & Robertson, Booktopia and where all good books are sold.
Thanks to Allen & Unwin 20 of our Beauty and Lace Club members will be reading How To Be Perfect so please be aware there may be spoilers in the comments below.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
I loved this book, so thank you to B&L and Allen & Unwin. Although I waited quite a while to get a copy, it was worth it in the end.
So, the story centres around three different women, from very different walks of life. Frances, a new mum really trying to keep her life together, but really looking for a quick fix from social media. Then there is Abi, who is in a lesbian relationship, living on a farm with her ex-husband and soon to be new wife, and all of their children. And last but certainly not least is Elle, who is such an excellent deciever and has thousands following her on instagram.
I will not give the main plot away, but this book gives a great insight into the online world, and what is real, and what can come across as real, and what is actually fake.
I found this wonderfully written and easy to follow.
As a blogger I thought it would be fun to read a book, with blogging as its theme. I was disappointed. I hadn’t read The Mummy Bloggers and this put me at a distinct disadvantage, as there wasn’t enough back story to fill in the gaps. To many characters, with too many twists and the over use of the ‘F’ word, made it a real struggle to read.
I hate to give a bad review but I really can’t find anything good to say. Sorry Holly.
Following on from The Mummy Bloggers, How to be Perfect is another laugh out loud and light read by Holly Wainwright.
This is a story of 3 women all with different stories to tell but whose lives are interconnected in some way. Even having read The Mummy Bloggers (about this time last year) – I found myself really having to think about who was who and how they were connected. I think some people may struggle to pick this up if they didn’t read the first book.
While it was fictional, many of the themes are very relevant and disturbingly accurate.
I enjoyed the different stories of each of the women but didn’t take a particular liking to any of them. I possibly resonated with Frances (the new Mum) the most. I think the two books together make light easy holiday reading – and I love their simple but effective covers.
I really like Holly Wainwright and listen to her Mamma Mia Outloud podcast a lot and can picture her saying many of the things in the book!
Thanks to Beauty and Lace and Allen and Unwin for the opportunity to read and review this book!
I really enjoyed reading this book, I finished it in one day. I loved how it started off in so many peoples perspectives and then it all came together. It made me even more intrigued about where the story was going.
I think one of the messages the book conveys is amazing, showing you can’t be perfect and everything that is on social media doesn’t always reflect real life
I knew Holly Wainwright had previously written The Mummy Bloggers, but I didn’t realise until I got to the end of How to be perfect that it was actually a follow on book! I can confidently say that you do not need to have read Holly’s first book to understand or enjoy this one. I will admit that it may take you a little longer to work out the complex relationships between the characters and their backstories than I assume it would if you read the first book, but this develops over the course of the novel just like in any other book.
I found this novel to be a light hearted read centring on three completely different women and their lives. The characters were well developed and very believable, but I couldn’t relate to any of them or bring myself to find them likable. While it was evident from early on how two of the women’s lives were intertwined, I was always wondering how the third would link into those or if she was a separate but related story, and I will leave the answer to that for you to find out.
I rather enjoyed reading this book which was something a little different to what I usually read, and found it was a good book to keep me occupied over the holidays. It touches on some important issues in today’s society with some good messages behind it, in particular really illustrating the power of the internet and the lengths some people will go to.
I didn’t realize this was a follow up book until I was a third of the way in and was struggling to understand a lot of it. Unfortunately I felt that if you hadn’t read the first book “The Mummy Bloggers” it was quite difficult to really get into this book
Sorry for my negativity but I honestly did not enjoy this book
Although a follow up from Mummy Bloggers… I didn’t feel that these books need to be read in order.
This book follows its own path and is enjoyable entirely as a stand alone.
The world of “Mummy Bloggers” is something I know very little about – however, I do follow a few of them. I love looking at photos of their daily lives and getting to know them – but after reading this book it really made me think twice about other peoples’ “reality”. So much media manipulation these days. You can never really know someone in the online space.
I enjoyed the story and even the ending satisfied me. I read this in about 3 sittings and I genuinely enjoyed Holly’s style of writing and content. Looking forward to more books from Holly.
How to be Perfect is Holly Wainwright’s sequel to The Mummy Bloggers. I haven’t read the Mummy Bloggers, however had no issue in picking up the story from where it had left off.
The two main characters Elle and Abi are both ‘mummy bloggers’ who share their lives in great detail on the internet. The difference is, one is real and the other is not.
This was an easy novel to read, funny, emotional and hit on some big women issues, however did not delve too deeply, which kept it very lights.
This was a nice book to pick up and read. I didn’t need to invest a lot of energy to get a lot of enjoyment out of it.