First up, What Kate did Next has been getting some great feedback. The Courier Mail in Brisbane said, ‘full marks to Heidke for eking out a whimsical tale without the sting.' ABC Radio compared it to the movie It's Complicated and said that Kate's was a ‘comical journey  (about) finding herself back to the workforce and to a place of some independence amid the chaos of her life'. And The West Australian said that ‘Heidke's witty sophomore effort proves she's got the depiction of the domestic battleground down to a fine art.'

All well and good, but it seems the domestic battleground scenario has evoked fervent debate about the choices women make and the consequences of those choices - and how love can keep a woman in a situation that to the outside world looks less than perfect.

One reader - okay, my sister! - said she's over the 'woman as slave' theme. ‘I can't understand why the main character seems to think she has to be responsible for the every waking moment of her fairly ungrateful/unresponsive/self absorbed family...I want to see a sequel.Kate grows up, gets some respect and takes no prisoners!'

As the author, I don't see Kate as a slave but as a twenty-first century woman desperately juggling kids, a husband, extended family and the running of a household as well as trying to break into the workforce again. No easy task for any woman who's tried it.

There's a conversation on page 95 between Kate and her thirteen year old daughter, Lexi, where Lexi is questioning Kate's choices and ends by saying, ‘You have to get a life, Mum.'

Kate responds by saying she does have a life but explains that in the real world when you get married, have children and are trying to raise a cohesive family, you need to make sacrifices. ‘I know I can't have it all - not all at once. It's not possible.'

So has Kate got it wrong? Or do you agree that you can't have it all, all at once. Would love to hear your thoughts...