Love and Sleepless Nights by Nick Spalding

Sometimes, the hardest part of becoming a parent is keeping a straight face... Just ask Jamie and Laura Newman, who (thanks to a rather relaxed attitude to contraception) find themselves about to have a baby. It's obviously a terrifying prospect for a newly married couple, but as long as they stick together they'll be just fine... right? They'd better because the path between falling in love and those first few baby steps is littered with obstacles. Featuring a hilarious cast of characters including an overbearing mother-in-law, a terrifying midwife and at least one chorus of mating humpback whales, Love... And Sleepless Nights is the hilarious follow up novel all about what happens beyond the happy ever after. Falling in love is easy... starting a family is far from it!

One of the books that left a lasting impression on me this year was Love From Both Sides by Nick Spalding. I can’t tell you how many people I told to pick up a copy of this book and gave them a warning that they will never look at a pedal bin without laughing again! Having enjoyed this book so much I was eager to read the sequel Love and Sleepless Nights, although I was a little unsure if it would be able to compete with such a great first book.

Newlyweds Jamie and Laura should be enjoying their new lives together but things don’t go to plan when they find out that Laura is pregnant. This wasn’t part of their plan. The story alternates between Laura’s point of view, which is written in her diary to her mum, to Jamie’s point of view, which he writes on his blog. This style of writing worked really well in this book. It allows the reader to really get to relate to the characters and to see their views and feelings about situations first hand. The couple face many challenging situations during both the pregnancy and the baby Poppy’s first year all which provides us with many laughs!

This was another entertaining read by Spalding and it was a great sequel to Love Form Both Sides, I still feel the first book is unbeaten as that one had me spitting with laughter whereas this book I found very entertaining and comical but I wasn’t laughing out loud. I love how well the author manages to write both the male and females character equally well. Both of the characters are very down to earth and the problems and struggles they face are realistic and I am sure people will relate to one or two of them.

I do think you need to read the first book before reading this one as there are some parts that they talk about in the previous book and also you build up a relationship with the characters in the first book so they feel familiar by the time you read book 2. If you want a comical, easy read then this one is calling out to you.

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