Tiny Acts of Love by Lucy Lawrie

"Surviving motherhood? It's all about having the right support network. 

Lawyer and new mum Cassie has a husband who converses mainly through jokes, a best friend on the other side of the world, and a taskforce of Babycraft mothers who make her feel she has about as much maternal aptitude as a jellyfish. Husband Jonathan dismisses Cassie's maternal anxieties, but is he really paying attention to his struggling wife? He's started sleep talking and it seems there's more on his mind than he's letting on. 

Then sexy, swaggering ex-boyfriend Malkie saunters into Cassie's life again. Unlike Jonathan, he 'gets' her. He'd like to get her into bed again too... And on top of all her emotional turmoil, she also finds herself advising a funeral director on ghost protocol and becomes involved in an act of hotel spa fraud, never mind hiding cans of wasp spray all over the house to deal with the stalker who seems to be lurking everywhere she looks. 

Marriage and motherhood isn't the fairytale Cassie thought it would be. Will her strange new world fall apart around her or will tiny acts of love be enough to get her through? 

Funny, perceptive and real, Tiny Acts of Love portrays the rawness of motherhood, the flipside of love and the powerful lure of paths not taken."

I thought that Tiny Acts of Love sent a really powerful message but in a gentle and subtle way.  The post-natal depression element of the storyline could easily have overwhelmed and taken over but it does not overpower in the slightest.  In fact, the descriptions and ultimate message, which does not show itself truly until the very end of the book, could apply to anybody and the way that they feel about life in general; it is certainly not limited to post-natal depression.  You definitely do not need to be a mother to read and enjoy this book.

There were lots of different threads and sub-plots to this book, which meandered alongside the main storyline and I enjoyed every single one of them.  Elements of the story may come across as slightly far-fetched but it is a fun book and the characters draw you in so you do not necessarily realise you are reading about the craziness that you are.  Each of those sub-plots are dealt with in a perfect manner and are each ultimately tied up for the reader.

A great read, there were good twists along the way and an entirely satisfying ending that contained a very powerful message which I think will resonate with a lot of people, parents or not.  There are paragraphs in the final epilogue of the book that made something click inside my head and they will stay with me for a long time.  An exceptionally well-crafted debut novel from Lucy Lawrie.

And once you've read Tiny Acts of Love, you can head over to Lucy's website where Lucy has turned parts of the story around and written them from another characters point of view, which I really love as you get to see the flip side to the story which is not always as you, the reader, conjure up in your mind.

Thank you to Black and White Publishing for the copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.