Florence loves her 10-year-old son, Dylan, but she certainly isn’t the typical mom in the pick-up line at his posh all-boys school in London. First of all she’s American (sometimes abrasively so). She’s much younger than most of the other moms, having gotten pregnant with Dylan when she was just 21. Before all that, Florence was part of a not-very-successful girl band (sort of a belated Spice Girls). An ill-fated night with the band manager and she found herself pregnant. A brief marriage and then this manager left her for another member of the band.
Ten years later, Florence is barely scraping by, making balloon arches for wealthy society women. She’s very much a messy woman trope and now in her early 30s, she’s feeling left behind by many of her more successful peers. Dylan is the best part of her life but even she admits that he’s kind of a weird kid. His only friend is their elderly neighbour and he tends to get in fights at school.
Then another kid at Dylan’s elite school goes missing on a field trip. And Dylan was the last person to see him. And his backpack is in Dylan’s room for some reason. Assuming the worst, Florence goes on a mission to protect her son at all costs. She teams up with a new school mom (also American), letting her new friend believe that her interest in the case and desire to solve the mystery is simple altruism and concern for a missing child.
There’s definitely a mystery at the centre of this story – we genuinely want to figure out what happened to Alfie – but I wouldn’t necessarily categorize this as a mystery novel. I’m not sure how much it would appeal to the average reader of crime novels. The appeal here is more likely to be to those who love the trope of the messy protagonist. Florence definitely hits all the marks here. She’s basically good-hearted but she makes a lot of dumb choices. She gives up easily, she drinks too much and eats too much junk food. She keeps it together enough to provide for her kid but she also probably leaves him alone way more than she should.
You can’t help but root for her even as you cringe at her actions. She’s overly obsessed with her looks but she’s spent her whole life being told that’s her best attribute. We get some backstory to help us understand how this Florida girl ended up in London and it helps us sympathize with her. At the same time, I actually appreciated that it wasn’t this major traumatic history but instead a more familiar story of poverty and familial ambivalence. It made Florence feel more realistic that her problems felt like ones any of us could have experienced.
The title is eye-catching and Florence’s discomfort around the posh, uber wealthy moms of her son’s school is certainly an important part of the story. At the same time, it isn’t actually a bigger part than, say, her relationship with her sister, or her role as a former almost pop star. Whether or not the other mothers hate her isn’t really what the story is about so by the end of the story it felt like the title was simply there to get our attention. (And I guess it worked for me.)
Karissa Reads Books 
As a title this works! The plot sounds good, too.
The title definitely made me pick it up! And it’s got a great opening line too.
That’s an eye-catching title indeed! The main thing I am curious about re the plot is how on earth a single mum who makes balloon arches for a living manages to send her son to a posh London school – is that explained in the book?
That’s a really good question! I don’t think it’s giving anything away to tell you that her son’s father pays for it. He went to the same school and insists his son attend too.
Ah yes, the beautiful messy woman who hangs out with rich people, but is actually broke – reminds me very much of Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City. It’s unbelievable, but still so fun to watch or read about :)And I love a good soft mystery thrown in too!
Ooh yes, she is very Carrie Bradshaw-like! The book does a decent job of explaining how she got where she is so that you’re not left with a bunch of practical questions. I did start to wonder how she had any money at all though!
I can’t imagine anything quite as opposite from a posh London mom than a Florida girl, lol. Also, I was surprised when I read that she got pregnant young, at 21. To me, that isn’t so young, but I guess these days it is because a person that age likely doesn’t have a career, house, etc.
In the book’s acknowledgements, the author thanks an early reader for pointing out to her that Florence is American not British, which surprised me because she was a character that was hard for me to imagine as anything but American! She’s very out of place in her surroundings! I know 21 isn’t teen mom young but it would be considered young in most of the places I’ve lived. Pearl is 10 and most of her friends’ parents are around my age, maybe even a few years older.
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