"She is the sum total only of her failures." 'Expectation' by Anna Hope (Penguin Random House, 2020) is one of those rare books that has you nodding along to every word on every page, laughing, crying and thinking: Yes! That's what I've been trying to say! I think this is an extremely important book for women living now under the immense pressure to do and be everything to everyone - an expectation impossible for fulfil, setting each and every one of us up for inevitable failure.

Such a joy to read. Hard hitting and current. Definitely relatable to most ages which is great. I found myself thinking about these women even when I put the book down. Excited to red more from Hope, she really captures day to day issues and creates beautiful writing with them. 5 stars for sure!

A book that puts a loud voice in the mouth of women. From all around the world. From students filled with dreams and joy. With a soul full of adventure and friendship. With ideals of truth and justice. With bottles of sparkling wine and giggles. From young women starting their careers. Of sweat and pain. Of sleepless nights. Of never-ending projects. Of frustrating ladders that need to be climbed. Of walls that need to be demolished. From mothers that start their role. Of love and nurture. Of happiness and peace. Of calm and wisdom. To women who have passed through these milestones and the road of Life has brought them on another path. One that requires power and courage. Equilibrium of the mind and the soul. Leaving behind sorrows, shedding skins of scars, muting past demons. A conversation between women, utter realistic and emotional. The women that we were, we are and we will become...

Anna Hope's latest is a foray into contemporary (well, comtemporary-ish, the story covers a period beginning in the mid-90s which is now rather longer ago than many of us like to admit) fiction looking at the lives of three young women and the expectations they are trying to live up to. Lissa, Hannah and Cate met at university in the 1990s and, like so many young women at that stage in their life, they are full of hopes, fears and plans. They are young, intelligent, politically active - bright lights of their generation - their lives are full of expectations. For themselves they expect satisfying careers, fulfilling relationships and to keep the friendships they have formed. It almost goes without saying that they expect to be treated as the equals of their male counterparts. Society, however, falls behind their feminist principles and its plans for all young women is, as ever, marriage, motherhood and, somehow, retaining their youth and beauty. The final interpretation of the book's title, Expectation, is that of expecting a child - something which Hannah and her husband, Nathan, are desperate for. Lissa, an actress still waiting for her break, was once pregnant but ended it for the sake of her career and Cate, who also fell pregnant but married the father, and now struggles with what her place is in life - both women find they are made deeply uncomfortable by their friend's single-minded quest for a child. Sisterhood falters in the face of obsession and husbands fail to understand their wives as the story reaches an emotional conclusion. This is a well-written book which explores how modern women deal with age-old issues of motherhood and friendship. It has been written with intimate knowledge of a burning desire for a child and a need to explore the deeply-held political views of a generation and how they stand up to life as it is lived today. I was left considering not only my own female friendships but also how my own attitude to life has changed since I was in my twenties.