Stepping Up by Sarah Turner

STEPPING UP

Our friend Sarah, known to many as  @theunmumsymum is already a best selling non fiction author but today her debut novel comes out into the world.

Sarah is one of the nicest and most genuine people on Instagram, who never shies away from honestly depicting parenthood. Stepping Up at its core has this same value, many of us will recognise the monotony of tasks, the many highs and lows involved.

Main character Beth is thirty, living at home and enjoying a mostly care free life when tragedy strikes and her life is changed irrevocably. She becomes the legal guardian to her traumatised teenage niece and toddler nephew, thrown utterly in the deep end with no warning.

For fans of Beth O Leary and Christina Lauren, this is a commercial, warm story that will pull at your heart strings. Watching the family try to navigate what has happened and their grief is heart breaking but there is still hilarity, hope, unlikely friendships and a romance thrown into the mix. 

Stepping up is not in our usual go to genres but we know it will appeal to so many readers. Sarah is able to deal with quite a heavy plot in a lighter way, ensuring a consistent humour elevates this whilst respecting the sadness. 

It made us think of other books that look at that child to adult bond, from Hamnet, When I Ran Away and Family Matters, to the yearning for a child in Detransition Baby, coping with challenges in Bewilderment, when it goes wrong in Girl A to non fiction titles such as Motherhood, Mum What’s Wrong With You and My Child and Other Mistakes. 

We sat down to talk to Sarah about her writing process, life as a blogger and how her own experiences sadly losing her mother as a teenager shaped this book. Look out for our IGTV author chat here. 

Thank you so much to @penguinukbooks for our advance proof copy.

Order your copy of ‘Stepping Up’ here.