Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this ARC.

Nicki is pregnant and her friend Charlotte is throwing her a baby shower and gender reveal party. Lauren and Steffi are invited too. Those four have been friends since university ten years ago but each has a different attitude to motherhood. Lauren has a nine month old baby called Woody but had a traumatic childbirth and hates motherhood. Nicki struggles with her sexuality and has sacrificed a lot to have a baby but she doesn't want this over the top baby shower. Steffi is happily child-free whereas Charlotte wants nothing more than to have a baby but three rounds of IVF later she is still struggling. She is throwing Nicki the shower she's always wanted herself, and it will be perfect.

It is a swelteringly hot day and they all literally sit in a glasshouse, while Charlotte had the bright idea to announce the baby's gender with a smoke rocket without actually letting anyone know this part. This can only go wrong and it does so spectacularly.

This is an exploration of motherhood and female friendship from all angles. The husbands don't really get a look-in. All four women feel judged for their life choices and actions. There is so much rage and resentment and failure to understand each other between the four that it seems almost insurmountable. They are accusing each other of being selfish and ungrateful, culminating in an almost hilarious 'Shut up, no you shut up!" shouting match  on the parched lawn.

Like Steffi, I am happily child-free. I cannot understand the urge to have a child but even if I did I think the description of Lauren's traumatic labour and treatment in hospital would have turned me off children for life. Consider this a trigger warning for extreme description of labour. I still haven't recovered. I could however sympathise with all four women, at least for the most part.

The book is well-written and brings all the points across but suffers from repetition. I wasn't terribly interested in who ultimately started the fire. It was a scorching day with about 100 degrees, it was almost inevitable that something would catch fire sooner or later. I felt the police interviews boring and distracting.

You might get on better with this book if you have children and can recognise the longing and the feeling of inadequacy, either (not) becoming pregnant or being a new mother. There is a lot of backstory for everyone but Steffi and I would have wanted to give her life and job more prominence than it got.