Mum On The Run [Kindle Edition]

I'm not into 'Chick Lit' per se, but I am into good comedies and I was enticed into reading Mum On The Run on the premise that it was "laugh out loud funny".

I found the pace rather slow, the storyline was thin and unoriginal, and the characters were all generically what you would expect from a Chick Lit novel. But, to Fiona Gibson's credit, the writing was of a good standard and I found Mum On The Run an amusing read and on a couple of occasions even found myself sniggering out loud.

I'm sure lovers of Chick Lit will enjoy Mum On The Run. But if you are anything like me and would prefer a laugh-out-loud comedy that also has the added ingredients of an original plot, well developed characters and a somewhat faster pace (i.e. Good Omens by Gaiman & Pratchett, or The Dealer by Tony Royden), then I would suggest you look further afield.

For 99p (kindle edition) I suppose you can't go too far wrong with Mum On The Run, if nothing else, it is an amusing read.

The first thing I'd like to say is that despite how much I enjoyed it, Mum on the Run is a fairly typical run-of-the-mill Chick Lit novel. Yes, I managed to complete it in a day but it is fairly similar to other Chick Lit novels I've read in the past. The plot is one you see many times, after having a couple of kids (or in Laura's case, three) the main character isn't as slim as she used to be, there's a new woman on the scene catching the eye of her husband and she goes on a diet of some sort to try and win him back. Very familiar. Not to mention, the obligatory nicer man who in this case is the loveable Danny. So although the plot itself didn't grab me, and wasn't as unique as Lucky Girl, I actually did like the book. It might have been a run-of-the-mill plot but Gibson's writing style still makes it hard to put down.

The official synopsis says Laura is a heroine for the decade (or something similar) and I do agree with that, kind of. It's very hard to judge who the heroine of a decade will be before the decade is over, but I loved Laura. Right from the shambles that was sports day when she made an absolute fool of herself, I was captivated. She's definitely a character you root for, and boy was I rooting for her. It took me a while to warm to Jed, her husband, because he seemed very distant and into the new colleague of his, but I think overall he wasn't a bad person, he just let someone new and shiny take over his brain for a while. I loved Laura and Jed's kids, Finn, Grace and Toby, all three had such wonderful personalities and Gibson really excels at making her kids in her novels believable. I must admit, I kinda fell for Danny, Laura's running partner, he was just so sweet and kind and I could see why Laura was friendly with him.

I must admit, as someone who doesn't yet have kids and won't for probably some time, if ever, I do usually find it hard to get into mumsy-type stories because I don't truly know what it's like to be a mother. But Gibson does a wonderful job of selling motherhood (or rather, putting me off for life) and it comes across in a very believable way, in a way that lets childless people like myself know exactly what it takes to be a mother. It definitely seems like a thankless task, being a mother, I have to say. Mum on the Run is told from Laura's point of view, which was brilliant, and worked very well especially as it made us more sympathetic to Laura's life and how much it's stagnated since she had kids. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, despite the plot I've read many times before as Gibson is definitely able to put her own spin on the matter and her writing abilities are brilliant and she manages to capture family life perfectly. I really hope this is the first of many new novels from Fiona Gibson as I love her books.

Mum on the Run is the first book by Fiona Gibson that I've read and I thought it was great. I loved the relaxed style of writing, it only took me about 4-5 hours to devour the whole book.
Laura Swan has a pretty hectic lifestyle, mum to three young children, with a home and a husband to look after plusher job as a hairdresser to keep on top of. Things come to a head when she is forced into running the mums' race at sport's day, things do not go well and Laura is left red-faced, especially as her husband Jed and his beautiful colleague Celeste made a surprise appearance just as she was reaching the finishing line.
Determined to get fit, Laura joins a slimming club and decides to go running. She meets Danny who is also trying to shift a few pounds; they decide to become running buddies and are soon meeting up two or three times a week. Laura doesn't tell Jed about her new friend though, she's not too sure why as she doesn't feel as though she is doing anything wrong.
Laura's suspicions of Jed and Celeste's relationship grows, she loves her husband but she just has an awful feeling that something isn't quite right. The tension between her and Jed only causes her to spend more time with Danny. Danny who makes her feel so comfortable and interesting. However, Laura cannot ignore the cracks in her marriage forever, but is it too late? Have her and Jed been keeping too many secrets from each other?
I loved Laura's character, to be honest I don't know how you couldn't like her. I don't have any children yet so I couldn't really identify with that aspect of Laura's character but it didn't mean that I found the book any less enjoyable. I think that Fiona Gibson has identified how we often find ourselves stuck in a rut and that we have to have a lot of willpower and determination to get ourselves out of it. As someone who took up running late last year, I really enjoyed this part of the story and was soon laughing out loud as I remembered my first jog around the park.
I highly recommend Mum on the Run as one of those books that is extremely entertaining whilst also lifting your spirits.