Belly Up by Eva Darrows

In this book we meet Serendipity or Sara as she gets called mostly, after her ex Aaron broke her heart by getting another girl, she goes to a party and meets Jack, who she has drunk sex with this creating her a baby she later calls, Cass.

Thee book focuses on how Sara handles moving in with her grandma, making new friends at a new school, finding her baby daddy, her chosen new future and of course actually giving birth!

It was a realistic look at teen pregnancy and also the danger of reckless sex and the impact on your life one choice can make I enjoyed the language style of Sara being quite unique voiced as she came across humorous, sarcastic and just like a teenager does. The girl power of the family in this book is brilliant and some families I don't doubt are just like them and it made the book more joyous to read especially with Jack an his father's impact in the novel.

I can't recommend this enough, totally worth the hype it's been getting lately!

Happy Mum Happy Baby by Giovanna Fletcher

In this book Giovanna fletcher talks openly about her experience before being pregnant, during and the aftermath too. She tackles taboo topics such as breast feeding, getting sleep, potty training, struggles working and travelling etc...

As a huge music and book fan I grew up on McFlys music and then Giovanna's books so when I bought this book I was intrigued into life with a baby especially if you're an author or musician especially being so busy.

This book was an honest and eye opening look into motherhood that dispels taboo topics and asks questions and answers them too that I hadn't ever thought about to do with pregnancy and beyond.

Full of family moments, sweet developments in her children's lives and her loving approach to life this book is the book every to be mother should read to prepare for what's to come!

Lily Alone by Jacqueline Wilson

When Lily's mum goes away on holiday with her new boyfriend, she supposedly leaves Lily's brother Baxter's dad in charge of the kids, though he never turns up.

Lily is only eleven and has to be Lilymum as she calls herself when looking after the siblings, Pixie, Bliss and Baxter who are all younger. As they her teacher come knocking getting suspicious when Lily isn't in school for three days and can't see her mum, he grows suspicious and so Lily takes herself and the others to camp out in the local park.

It's very dangerous as they stay there and forage for food whilst trying not to get noticed and even resort to desperate enough measures they have to sneak into someone's house and try to steal food!

As well as that, Bliss climbs a tree and gets into serious trouble as the branch prepares to snap, changing their lives in many ways as their mum turns up, arrested by the police and social workers split Lily from her beloved siblings.

Lily may have day dreamed about living alone when she's older, but she would do anything for her siblings as she does when she's forced into this horrible situation. All about neglect and not coping on her mum's half as she herself wants to just be a kid in some ways and her own idea of fun. It was a gripping read seeing how the children survived as they lived wild in a public park where it is obviously unsafe to stay.

Believearexic by J.J. Johnson

Jennifer is a straight A student, with as she calls it bulimarexia.

As the sessions get on, she reveals that issues to do with her parents and brother don't help. Her brother sees her as a burden while her dad is overweight and always on a new diet while her mum uses food for emotional reasons thus impacting her mindset around the issue completely. She also realises alcohol is her prop she uses to deal with how she feels too which her family has a history of alcoholism.

Heather her roommate in the EDU gets taken home by her parents with an overbearing father set on wiring her mouth shut with braces and forcing a liquid diet on her and the unit can't help her. Sophia then moves into the room and is older at twenty one, she is suffering with what we now know as orthorexia, exercising the food out as she puts it in.

The unit involves lots of complex cases and incidents take place due to each girls history. I liked how Chuck bonded with Jennifer as that helped her to keep going and not listen to the other nurses which could be quite harsh on her.

The story is based around the authors real experience in a unit and I feel things over time have gotten better overall but still, not a nice experience to have to go through. The book was detailed but not triggering as numbers weren't a focus to trigger anyone but merely hinted at if at all.