Review: Dawn O’Porter’s So Lucky is the book that you need to read this autumn

Thanks to the popularity of social media, we're getting more and more insight into people's lives.

And from the sun-soaked #tbt shots from the last lavation to the #ootd, it seems like everyone is living their best lives nowadays. But Dawn O'Porter's So Lucky lifts the veil and looks behind the social media filter to ask, is anyone's life as perfect as their feed makes it look? The author's eagerly anticipated followup to 2018's The Cows hit shelves in late October - and it follows the stories of three very different women who seem to be leading picture perfect lives. There's Ruby, a single mum who has a medical condition that leads her to feel ashamed of her body. She's struggling to bond with her young daughter, Bonnie, and with her job - a photo editor and retoucher who works on images for popular fashion magazines. Her next job, of course, introduces readers to Lauren - a social media influencer who, throughout the book, readers mainly see through her Instagram posts. There's descriptions of Lauren's posts, which range from promoting green smoothies to gushing over her dream wedding to her millionaire businessman beau Gavin - and, naturally, we get a glimpse of the comments from her followers, which are pretty evenly split between ever-adoring fans and people who are trolling her. It's through the eyes of the other two narrators - Ruby and Lauren's wedding planner Beth - that the readers get their unfiltered glimpses of Lauren. Throughout the book, Beth - Lauren's wedding planner - is told how lucky she is that she "has it all": she's the "girl boss" with the picture-perfect husband who has taken an extended paternity leave so she can return to work. Her 26-year-old assistant Risky (her mum let her siblings name her) consistently tells Beth how she is just so lucky. But Beth feels as if Risky is the lucky one (not that she would openly admit it): being able to have the freedom to do whatever, with whomever, she wants. Meanwhile, Beth hasn't had sex in a year - and her husband seems more loving towards her mum-in-law than to her. So Lucky brings the trio of narrators together in a laugh-out-loud twist that, honestly, we didn't seem coming - but ultimately, the book is a story about the incredible power of friendship and of women supporting women.

• So Lucky is available in stores now.