The Yorkshire Pudding Club

Three South Yorkshire friends, all on the cusp of 40, fall pregnant at the same time following a visit to an ancient fertility symbol.

For Helen, it's a dream come true, although her husband is not as thrilled about it as she had hoped. Not only wrestling with painful ghosts of the past, Helen has to deal with the fact that her outwardly perfect marriage is crumbling before her eyes. For Janey, it is an unmitigated disaster as she has just been offered the career break of a life-time. And she has no idea either how it could possibly have happened, seeing as she and her ecstatic husband George were always so careful over contraception. For Elizabeth, it is mind-numbing, because she knows people like her shouldn't have children. Damaged by her dysfunctional childhood and emotionally lost, she not only has to contend with carrying a child she doubts she can ever love, but she also has to deal with the return to her life of a man whose love she must deny herself.

Heart-warming, up-lifting, tear-jerking and lovely, THE YORKSHIRE PUDDING CLUB is the story of how three women find themselves empowered by unexpected pregnancy. How it revitalises one woman's tired marriage, strengthens another's belief in herself and brings love and warmth to a cold and empty life.


My opinion: After loving Milly's latest book It's Raining Men I have been looking forward to reading another of her books as soon as I can. When The Yorkshire Pudding Club was reduced on the Kindle, I couldn't refuse a bargain and had to pick it up.

The Yorkshire Pudding Club follows the story of three best friends from Yorkshire, Helen, Janey and Elizabeth. Helen has been trying for a baby with her husband for a long time, but without luck. She manages to convince her best friends Janey and Elizabeth to visit an ancient fertility symbol with her as a last ditch attempt to change her luck and get pregnant. A few months later, she is not the only one who finds out that she is pregnant, although her friends aren't quite so pleased. Janey has just been promoted at work, and even though she loves her husband, has never been entirely sure about whether she wants a baby. Elizabeth has just lost her job, isn't in a relationship and hasn't come to terms with her own childhood, let alone feel able to be responsible for someone elses.

This book is written in Milly's lovely, friendly style and was brilliantly funny. I wasn't sure about whether this book would be a bit predictable as it progressed, but I was pleasantly surprised that as it unfolded, it became more complicated and the story became a lot deeper. Despite the cheery cover and seemingly predicatable start, the book deals with some really tough issues and I commend Milly for her tact in the way she has dealt with them, whilst still making it feel real.

I really enjoyed this book and would love to hear more about the friends' lives as their babies get older and how their love lifes have turned out. I'm already excited to read another book by Milly and expect to do so very soon!

My rating: Four stars