Find out what Mumsnetters thought of The Food of Love by Amanda Prowse

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Introducing… Amanda Prowse and her latest novel, The Food of Love. Read Amanda's Q&A to find out how the author keeps her fiction true to life.

Freya Braithwaite has a lot to feel lucky about - happily married for 19 years to a man who still excites her, two beautiful teenage daughters, and her dream career as a health-food writer.

But nothing could have prepared Freya for the devastating impact of her youngest daughter Lexi's struggle with eating disorders. She will do all she can to save her family, but how can she when food is both the problem and the solution?

Inspired by Amanda's own extreme struggle with body image and a family history of eating disorders, this is a powerful look at the challenge of raising teenagers in our image-conscious society.

We ask all winners to share their thoughts about the book on this discussion thread. However, you don't have to win a free book to take part in the discussion - you're welcome to grab a copy of The Food of Love and post a review on this thread.

Everyone who posts detailed feedback on the book by midday Monday 13 March will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 Love2shop voucher.

This giveaway is sponsored by Lake Union

Thanks for my copy. I found this book tricky to get into at first, it seemed very dialogue heavy but once I clicked with the author's style I couldn't put it down. I have read quite a lot of books about eating disorders but this was the first one that described it in such an honest way - vile, brutal, destructive. I was so frustrated by the characters Lexi and Freya - they were both so incredibly selfish. But this is the reality of the situation. I talk far too much about my weight and food and this book has shocked me as my young daughters could be listening and forming ideas about what their bodies should look like. An uncomfortable read. I was most impressed by the info about the author and how she only began writing novels in her forties. I will seek out her other books as this left me thinking about the characters well after I finished reading.

I haven't read it but is sounds like a book you can't put down once started.

Thanks mumsnet for my free copy of this book. I was initially a bit sceptical of this book thinking that it might be a bit 'chick-litty' and initially my concerns were confirmed in the first few chapters. I found the presentation of the family a bit sickly sweet and found the bantering relationship between the married couple very jarring. However, I quickly got past that. I found that the issue of anorexia was sensitively and convincingly portrayed and I particularly liked the way in which the impact on the sister was explored and also liked the small subplot of the next-door neighbours. I think the devestating impact of this illness on a whole family was powerfully captured. I did find the 'happy ending' at the end slightly nauseating and too much for my liking but overall I enjoyed the book much more than I thought I would and would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about the lived experience of an eating disorder.

Only started this book last week and about 6 chapters in so far but I'm hooked already, found the story easy to get into, really enjoying it so far and can't wait to find out what happens - will add more once finished thanks again for my copy MN!

When i started reading this book I thought this is going to be a nice easy read. As I read on although the style of writting makes it easy to read the topic and story makes it an emotionally hard book to read. There were a few tears in places. A really raw look at a taboo subject. A really great book.

I enjoyed this book. It was a difficult topic and something I often think about regarding DD(9). I worry that the world she inhabits is full of imagery creating an unobtainable persona. It was refreshing to read a fiction book about this through the eyes of a parent.

I didn't like how Lockie was so uninvolved with the story though. I felt he could have been much more prominent and his counterpoint argument stronger. It felt that Freya was bloody deluded at points. There were a couple of chapters where I was so frustrated with her enabling that it made reading on difficult.

Also, the way in which they glossed over the pro-ana sites really annoyed me. I felt that certain elements could have been examined more in detail.

Overall though I did enjoy it and the light style of writing made a difficult subject matter easy to digest.

Thank you for the copy Mumsnet.

wow this was a very hard book to read about a subject I know very little about, really scary that ones own children could suffer from this illness and how would I feel or cope with it, I could see myself in the parents own shoes acting the same way thinking the same way not knowing which way to turn or what to do for the best to help my child

my child hasn't read this one just yet

I found this a difficult book to get into initially, but the details of Lexi's struggle with anorexia were very moving.

However, I find letters used in books very offputting as they seem to stop the smooth flow of the writing, and would have preferred just the gist of these to have been given.

There's something about this book that doesn't work. Firstly I found the style of writing particular unlike previous Amanda Prowse books: as if she'd been advised to update her writing.......but I liked her previous style.
There was very little story to this book. We have one character with anorexia who has a mother and a father but little else. Even the sister could have added some balance if her character had been developed and offer a break from the continued struggle around food.
Also the ending of a somewhat miraculous recovery was somewhat unrealistic.
I just hope her next release has more substance to it.

My daughter went through a period when she said she was too fat but was anything but. It would be interesting to read this from the teens perspective as I sometimes think I'm too close and worry too much.

I found this quite a tough read at some points. I don't know if that was because this wasn't a topic I've had much experience of myself, or because it was quite harrowing overall. I enjoyed it, but not sure I'd read it again

I have a couple of friends who had eating disorders and I found this book a bit of a tearjerker in some ways and an 'I want to grab you by the shoulders and shake some sense into you'. It is really difficult being a friend to a person with an eating disorder as you feel guilty about eating in front of them and desperate to help them overcome it. What is the right thing to do? So difficult and harrowing.

Felt sad reading it and made me think about my sister who suffered with an eating disorder throughout her teenage years.

This was a really well written book. I found the story quite emotional and can't imagine living through a story like this.

Tough read, especially with teenage girls, who always think they are fat, even though there is nothing of them

very well wriiten loved this a lot .

Great story. Thoroughly enjoying it

Every mother's worst nightmare

Very thought provoking and gives a real insight to anorexia. This author always, without fail, draws her readers into the lives of all her characters so that you understand the feelings and views of each one.

This was an interesting read and very emotional to hear Lexi's journey. From a literary point of view I found it a bit clunky especially the dialogue. I also thought that the ending was too clean cut. Throughout the book the author toyed with the reader, suggesting that the family were writing to Lexi because she had died. I was pleased that this was not the case but it all seemed too good to be true after the struggles that she had faced. The book, at times, waivered between a U.K. setting and the use of americanisms which I found confusing.

it deals with a difficult subject very well, I felt that the writer has researched the book, and wrote about Lexi's illness sympathetically and honestly. A good read.

I have to be honest, I didn't really enjoy this book like I though I would. I felt it was written more like true story and not fiction which threw me off a little bit. Too much was based on the Daughters relationship with food and not about the relationships of the people around her, I just found it unrealistic so probably wouldn't recommend this one.

Emotional read. Well researched. A page turner

All in all I really liked this book. At the start I found the diary entries really frustrating and actually had to skip to the end to find some later ones to reassure myself that they weren't writing some sort of eulogy as I just found that idea far too heartbreaking but after that I really got into it and began to really enjoy it.

I feel like we never really got to know Lexi, she was entirely overtaken by the anorexia and the selfishness and betrayal that comes with that but I can only assume that this could be what living with someone with the disease might be like. Lockie and Charlotte were similarly threadbare, even Freya to some extent but I think to create a deeper back-story for them all would have made the book unwieldy and could have detracted from the anorexia storyline.

I feel like I've come out the other end knowing more about anorexia and it's certainly given me lots to think about regarding the way I speak to and in from of my own 7 year old daughter - and my son as well!