How Was It For You?

by Carmen Reid

From the bestselling author of Did the Earth Move? comes a follow-up hit -- a sexy, honest, and wildly addictive novel about a couple grappling with the reality that making love doesn't always mean making babies. Not even when you want it to.

After five years and every medical procedure possible, Pamela and Dave still haven't been able to get pregnant. Their baby longing has become a dark cloud that hovers over their marriage, which is now so rocky that they need hiking boots just to negotiate dinner. It's probably not the best time for them to up and move out of London so that Dave can follow his dream of running an organic strawberry farm. Especially when Pamela's so vulnerable and their new neighbor is devastatingly handsome farmer Lachlan Murray.

While Dave seems content to follow his bliss -- taking up weeding and becoming obsessed with manure -- Pamela's tempted to hitch a lift in Lachlan's 4 x 4 and ride off into the sunset. Although there is Lachlan's wife, Rosie, to consider. Pamela's London friends think she's gone insane -- contemplating infidelity with a farmer! -- but they don't know just how far she's prepared to go for a baby. Does she?

Genres: Chick Lit

370 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Carmen was born and brought up in a chilly and windy corner of Scotland in the depths of the countryside.

This may explain her lifelong phobia of cows and abiding interest in cities, department stores, books, the cinema and newspapers.

She is currently working on her eigth novel for grown-ups and her third novel for teenagers. Well, she likes to keep busy.

Carmen did once study English Literature at University College London, but, ignoring everything she’d learned, she spent most of her 20s working as a local, regional and then national newspaper reporter.

Knowing deep down that she was supposed to be an author not a journo, she left her day job to have a baby and write her first novel. (Hey, and just four sleepless, penniless years later it was published!)

Although there is a corner of her heart that will always belong to London (property developers welcome) she now lives in Glasgow, Scotland, with her husband, Thomas, and two children, Sam and Claudie, plus Jimmy the (lunatic) Jack Russell and Clive, Orangey and Gorcha, the fish.

Fortunately her hobbies are cooking, cleaning, arguing about whose turn it is to walk the dog, clean the fish tank, take out the rubbish, do the laundry... and so on.

Reviews

[Kat A · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uggg. I pretty much had given up on Reid, but had forgotten about this hold at the library until I got the call. Since it was there, I gave it a read, but honestly I really wish I'd given it a miss. Sloppy writing, bad plot (woman doing IVF with husband, can't get pregnant, moves to country, has affair with local farmer, husband still takes her back afterward...yada yada yada) and even worse ending. The Personal Shopper was great. This, not so much. Give it a miss.

[Janine Causley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story about infidelity and how the unlikeable main character bonks her way through the book while her poor dopey husband knows nothing about it - something to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon if you are bored of watching paint dry apart from that don't bother

[Trish · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pure crap. Unlikeable characters. Stupid plot. Complete and utter shit. I occasionally like chic lit but this was pure garbage.

[Preeti · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was not "wildly entertaining" as proclaimed by back cover and honestly back cover synopsis is utterly misleading. yes I enjoyed the book but just enough to not to chuck it halfway through.. like many others have already pointed out in reviews main character Pamela is a jerk and Dave is almost god like in it. so easy for Pamela to conceive with other man first then confess her undying love again to the hubby (so as not be having to raise the baby alone) I expected that Spanish fling to crop up again somewhere in the story but yeah disappointed.
furthermore, poor sentences poor paragraph changes extremely poor narrative...I mean one moment you are narrating as you are Pamela and in the same page narrator turns into Rosie ...how is one supposed to pick up this radical turn again and again?
many paragraphs I had to re read just to make out sense of meaning. it does not adds any value to your English vocabulary too. so for me it was first and last Carmen Reid ever .

[Kerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

if i could of rated this a minus number i would of done!. Lets start with the positives very few i must admit. The authors descriptions of characters and places are very good. That is the only good thing i can think off. The rest was just pointless unbeleivable and predicatble. Since when do you see someone once and stat a passionate love affair?. Once youve read the first three chapters no need to bother with the rest. Picked it up because it sounded quite funny but obviously not.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In between thrillers I find it nice to read a 'feel good book' to level things out. I chose this one and thought it would be the typical move to the country for a fling love story. The truth was the closing chapters actually made me cry! Was such a lovely read, was very pleased I chose it from my TBR pile.

[Noëmi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fluffy book perfect if you don't want to use your brain too much! Perfect for a pool day!

[Rachel Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was ok but I did find myself reluctant to pick it up again after a break in reading.
The story was pretty predictable and I didn't particularly like the main character

[Jessica Ivers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just can’t get on board with the hot sexy character being named Pamela...

[Katherine Thornton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really easy book to read. Although not a simple story as such, it is one you can emote to, and fall in love with. A great tale of woe, infidelity, and the hardship of (not) starting a family
I would highly recommend this book!

[Beth Bedee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought from the title and cover art that this book was going to be funny British chick lit. It has a more serious tone. I enjoyed it, but wasn't blown away.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Predictable

[Geraldine · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the Carmen Reid books, which i did not enjoy.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

easy to read, great storyline.Nice book.

[Jaime Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

really enjoyed this good plot