Primary Genre(s): Contemporary Romance, Women’s Fiction
Published: 29 Jun 2021 by Kensington Books
Page count: 320 (print)
My Format: ebook via NetGalley
Cover: Modern
Pacing: Good
Ending: Good
Do I Recommend: Yes
Commission Link (U.S.): Buy Instamom
My rating: ★★★★☆
Synopsis
It’s the influencer’s golden rule: know your niche. Kit Kidding has found hers on Instagram, where she gets paid to promote brands and share expertly curated posts about her fun, fabulous, child-free life. Kit likes kids just fine, but she passionately believes that women who choose not to become mothers shouldn’t have to face guilt. Or judgement. Or really hot chefs who turn out to be single dads.
Will MacGregor is aggravating, sexy, persistent, averse to social media, and definitely a bad idea. As soon as Kit learns his parenting status, she vows to put their scorching one-night stand behind her and move on. But Will and Kit are thrown together on an Instagram campaign, and the more time she spends with him–and his whip-smart, eight-year-old daughter, Addie–the more difficult it is to stay away, much less sustain what Will so cleverly calls her Resting Beach Face. Kit’s picture-perfect career path is suddenly clashing with the possibility of a different future–messy, complicated, and real. Which life does she truly want? Will she have to re-invent herself? And will love still be waiting by the time she figures it out?
My Thoughts
I saw Bookstagrammer mention this book recently and I knew I had to read it because Kit and I have something in common. Here are my pros and cons for Instamom:
Pros
- Like Kit, the protagonist in the story, I am child-free by choice. I have definitely gotten unsolicited, and sometimes unkind, feedback about that choice throughout my life. Also like Kit, I met and fell in love with a man with children. It was really nice to read a book that I felt represented me for a change!
- Needless to say, I connected with Kit. I loved that the story constantly reinforced that child-free by choice doesn’t mean someone hates children. That is a ridiculous assumption. Child-free also doesn’t make someone less of a woman – regardless of whether the child-free situation is by choice or not. To even suggest a person is less of a woman because they didn’t bear a child is not only ridiculous, but really quite offensive.
- I appreciated that the romance between Kit and Will was realistic. When one person in a relationship is a parent and the other isn’t, there is definitely a learning curve regarding how to spend time together and how to respect boundaries with regard to the child/children. I thought the story depicted this well – not only showing the positive side, but some of the negative sides as well.
- I also appreciated that the romance between Kit and Will was clean (a.k.a. not steamy). The story didn’t need graphic sex scenes and I’m glad the author didn’t go there.
- It was interesting to live a day in the life of an Instagram Influencer. I have less followers than Kit does (by orders of magnitude!) and I already feel stress sometimes to make sure I have content posted on my Bookstagram on a regular basis – and I’m not even paid to do it! Kit’s life, while extravagant and seemingly fun, also felt artificial and unrealistic. Whether the author intended this lesson or not, it came off loud and clear that we need to remember that the mega-influencers on IG are paid to make their lives look a certain way… because someone is selling you something. You are literally viewing orchestrated commercials!! The small glimpse behind the scenes in this book was a good reminder that what you see on the internet is not always real.
- I loved that Kit loved books!
- The ending was perfect.
Cons
- I liked Will, but sometimes he was a little bit clueless and contradictory regarding how he treated Kit. Nothing too bad, but I didn’t like how he responded to her career choice and I didn’t think he respected her point of view sometimes. He was such a nice guy, so his occasionally inconsistent reactions to things felt out of place.
Summary
There is absolutely nothing wrong with being child-free by choice and there is nothing wrong with changing your mind along the way either. I loved reading a book that positively reinforced my own decision to be child-free!
This book is a clean romance that I think readers will love, whether they are child-free or not. I definitely recommend it.
(Note: As I mentioned previously, I am happily child-free by choice. But I am also happily married to a man with three sons, and those three sons each have three children themselves. So that makes me a Stepmom and a Grammy, too! I’ve never regretted not having children and I’ve never regretted marrying a man with children. Our family may be cobbled together differently than others, but I love them all no differently than if they were my own flesh and blood.)
Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books for a free eARC of this book, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
If you would like to read this book and form your own opinion, please consider purchasing through this link: Buy Instamom. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Thanks!
Click here for a description of my rating scale.
(image from Goodreads)
Where to find me:
Instagram: @Kayckay_BookReviews
Facebook: @KayckayBookReviews
Twitter: @KayckayReviews
WordPress: Kayckay Book Reviews
KayCKay Book Reviews 