Unassuming Emma, a blogger turned wannabe social media influencer, moves to an exclusive enclave in SW19 to get her son into the best school in the area. On the first day of school, she bumps into Annabel, a gregarious journalist who is head of the PTA.
An unfortunate misunderstanding leads to a clash, and the school gate mothers taking sides. Emma’s world has been blown apart by motherhood. As she struggles to find her new identity, she has to defend herself against Annabel and her clique. The mean girls with mortgages.
Emma learns a devastating secret about Annabel that could destroy her entire life. Will Emma play dirty to win, and what lengths will Annabel go to protect what she has?
There can only be one winner. But what will be the cost?
Catherine Yardley is a freelance journalist and author. She writes for The Sunday
Times, Stylist, The Times, Telegraph, Metro, Huffpost and the i paper. She’s the editor-in-chief of Frost Magazine. The Mothers of SW19 is her third novel. Her two other books published are Ember
and Where The Light is Hottest. Both did well and got fantastic reviews. She has been on numerous podcasts, including The Conversation with Nadine Matheson and Confessions of a Debut Novelist with Chloe Timms. She lives in SW19 with her husband and children.
X Bluesky Instagram Threads Facebook TikTok
My thoughts: Emma is hoping to make friends with the other mums at the school gate, but after a brief encounter with Queen Bee Annabel and her Mean Girls with Mortgages (MGwM), she’s left feeling a bit deflated, and when they start a campaign to discredit her and destroy her fledgling social media career, because Annabel says so, she’s totally thrown. It doesn’t help that her son and her nemesis’ son are now best friends, thrusting the two women constantly into each other’s lives.
However, a brief indiscretion on Annabel’s part, caught on Emma’s phone, gives her potential leverage. Will she utilise it as they go head to head for the vacant governor’s position at the school? And when things spiral out of control and lead to tragedy, can either woman come back from that?
What starts as a silly Mean Girls feud rapidly overwhelms both of their lives, threatening to destroy everything. Can they de-escalate and back down in time? Or will SW19 be gossiping about them forever?
Clever, funny and with a truly shocking twist, this is what happens when mean girls get older but don’t really grow up.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 