#BookReview: The Snag List by Sophie White @HachetteIre @ElaineEgan_ #TheSnagList #IrishFiction #IrishAuthor #SophieWhite #BookTwitter

Release date - 21st April 2021
Book length - 402 pages
Publisher - Hachette Ireland 
BUY LINKS:
Worldwide - www.bookdepository.com
UK - www.amazon.co.uk
US - www.amazon.com
Independent - www.kennys.ie

I want to thank Elaine from www.hachettebooksireland.ie for providing me with a copy of this book for review.


ABOUT THIS BOOK

If you could go back and follow the road not taken ... would you?

For thirty-somethings Lindy, Ailbhe and Roe, the move to new, hyper-polished, luxury housing development Monteray Valley feels like slow death by Netflix, neighbourhood Whatsapp groups and Saturday nights in. The potential for exciting new possibilities seems to be withering faster than you can say 'postnatal dryness' as the women's lives are consumed by other halves and domestic obligations.

Lindy's realising that her ambitions have been hijacked by her son's career. He's eleven.

Meanwhile, despite years of self-sabotage, Ailbhe 'has it all': a successful business, a husband, a baby. If only having it all didn't also include having a fairly colossal secret.

Then there's Roe who is busy trying for a baby -- a risky business when you're not sure you want one.

Compiling a snag list to send to their builder sees the new friends contemplating their own personal snag lists -- their regrets and unfulfilled dreams - and inspires a business idea that's about to see life in Monteray Valley get a lot more interesting.

Getting a second chance to carpe diem is irresistible, but can do-overs ever really work? And will revisiting past regrets threaten the lives they've made now?


MY REVIEW

Funny, intelligent, and current are just some of the words that I could use to describe THE SNAG LIST by Sophie White, but if I had to pick just one it would be unputdownable. 

Three smart, strong, and extremely likeable women find themselves living in a super exclusive, luxury housing estate where everything is discreetly managed by their smart system and staff - seriously, there is nothing that this development will not do for their picture-perfect residents. Except nobody's life is perfect. 
Lindy has lost a part of herself ever since her son's YouTube hobby became their sole business, and she's worried that she is about to lose her marriage to it too. 
Ailbhe is attractive, assertive, and has a wonderful husband and baby to boot. But her whole life is based on a secret that could bring her whole world tumbling down around her.
And then there is Roe - quiet, unassuming Roe who yearns for her parents' approval and who has buried her own dreams to the back of her mind as her boyfriend plans their future, starting with a baby that she doesn't know if she even wants. 
When these three women become an unlikely trio of friends, they soon realise that burying their heads in the sand isn't going to work long-term, and as they try to help each other out with 'fixing' their issues, their friendship and love may just be the last thing standing. 

THE SNAG LIST by Sophie White is everything you could wish for in a novel and more. The characters are expertly crafted (loveable, relatable, flawed, hilarious, and inspiring), and the plotline is just plain addictive. Social Media is wonderful in so many ways but the harsher, nastier side of it is a reality too, and I loved how this was deftly woven through the story too. A snapshot of someone's life is just that, a snapshot. 

Female friendship and love are given centre stage in this story and I think that is what makes it the most special for me - no judgment, no cattiness, just women being there for women in the most supportive way they can, and I loved that. 

THE SNAG LIST by Sophie White is a must-read for 2022 and I have to say would make the perfect Irish tv drama (fingers crossed!).


AUTHOR BIO

Sophie White grew up in Dublin and has a first class honours degree in Fine Art from the National College of Art and Design. 
After moving to New Zealand in her early 20s, Sophie went on to train as a chef while there and worked in the French Alps for several years before returning to Dublin in 2012.
Sophie began her writing career at age 27, when she started writing a weekly column 'The Domestic' for Sunday Independent's Life magazine. After the birth of her first child, she became a full-time writer, penning reviews of books and restaurants, cultural commentary and interviews for a variety of Irish publications and her first book Recipes for a Nervous Breakdown, part-memoir/part cookery book was published in 2016. 
Mother of Pod, the successful podcast she hosts with Jen O'Dwyer, was launched in January 2018 and they launched a second podcast, The Creep Dive, in January 2019.
Sophie lives in Dublin with her husband and two sons. She is the author of two novels: Filter This and Unfiltered and a book of essays, Corpsing.

To keep up-to-date with Sophie, you can follow along here:
Website - www.sophiewhite.info
Instagram - www.instagram.com/sophwhitewhoop/