wordsofclover's Reviews (2.16k)

When Meddy ends up on a blind date, set up by her mother who impersonated her on a dating website, things are going well, and then they are not - and suddenly, her date ends up dead. Panicked, Meddy turns to the people she knows she can count on - her Ma and her Aunties, all of them bossier and louder than the last. Suddenly Meddy and her aunts end up on a mission to get rid of the body, all while pulling off the biggest wedding their company has landed. But a lot of things are about to go awry.

This book was just utter chaos from start to finish, with things getting stranger, and wackier and louder with each chapter - and I absolutely loved it. This is such escape from reality type of fiction where yes, things are a bit silly but that's not the point. You just have to go along with the ride and the mad adventures these characters have ended up on - along with a corpse.

It's obvious but Meddy's aunties were the star of the show for me. The love, warmth and fuzz they constantly shared over Meddy which included their meddling and embarassing moment were just wonderful, and I loved the interactions they had with other. There is a lot of sister rivalry, jealously and pettiness going on that hinders the 'hide the dead body' plot, and it's so funny. There is also a quality scene in this around sexting, and consent which was just so hilarious and on point.

This was a super quick read for me as I just couldn't stop reading as I was having such a good time. The romantic side plot was cute, though always obvious, and was yes, a bit weird considering the dead body thing but all is well that ends well I guess. I do think things got a little bit silly near the end with the arrival of the extremely dumb sheriff and then the hold up (though again the aunties during this, so funny) but still great.

I need this to be turned into a Netflix movie because it would be so good and funny. 

When in 1726, a patient of surgeon and man midwife John Howard begins to give birth to rabbits, he doesn't quite know how to react - is it something monstrous, or miraculous, and soon stories are flying about Mary Toft; the Rabbit Queen. But is Mary truly birthing kittens, or is something nefarious or horrific going on?

I liked the majority of this book and I actually enjoyed that despite the story being about this woman's strange birthing moments and her medical needs, the POVs we were getting were from John Howard and his young apprentice Zachary. The surgical/medical side of this book was a great one to be a part of from the types of practices they used for certain medical ailments, to the shortcomings and all they entailed. Not to mention the ignorance of all these men when it came to what a woman might do or go through when giving birth. One of the best characters in this book was John Howard's wife Alice who had the best things to say yet very little page time, but I loved her honest mouth and some of the shock moments she delivered.

The story did drop off in interest near the end, and it felt like a long time before it got around to the wrapping up part of the story. I did enjoy most of the author's conversations around how people treated things that were other and monstrous at the time from people born with deformities to people who were just a bit different. There are intersting and shocking conversations in this book as to how people believe Mary is giving birth to rabbits because she had a dalliance with a black man.

One of the things that truly spoiled this book was a horrific act of animal cruelty near the end of it. This act (which had nothing to do with rabbits fyi) was there to make a point about London and the darker side of people, but I really felt like it could have been done without pages and pages of description of what was happening to the animal. It soured me a bit for the very end of the book as then I just wanted the book to be finished, it was too far in to DNF it so i read the rest of it quickly and that was that.