Review: Eight Hundred Grapes

Eight Hundred Grapes, Laura Dave

Published June 2nd 2015 by Simon & Schuster

Hardcover, 260 pages

Source- e-ARC from NetGalley

There are secrets you share, and secrets you hide…

Growing up on her family’s Sonoma vineyard, Georgia Ford learned some important secrets. The secret number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine: eight hundred. The secret ingredient in her mother’s lasagna: chocolate. The secret behind ending a fight: hold hands.

But just a week before her wedding, thirty-year-old Georgia discovers her beloved fiancé has been keeping a secret so explosive, it will change their lives forever.

Georgia does what she’s always done: she returns to the family vineyard, expecting the comfort of her long-married parents, and her brothers, and everything familiar. But it turns out her fiancé is not the only one who’s been keeping secrets…

A book about wine?  Yes please!

Georgia walks out of her wedding dress fitting and goes home to her parents’ vineyard looking for comfort. Instead she is confronted not only with her soon to be wedding venue and with the fact that all of her family members are keeping secrets.  Her parents have secrets from her, her twin brothers have secrets from each other – secrets are being discovered nearly until the end of the book!  I won’t ruin the secrets for you but there were some big ones!  I enjoyed the family dynamics and of course I totally enjoyed the wine.  I thought the descriptions of Sonoma and of the winemaking process was really interesting- maybe not for everyone though I could see that being a bit dry for some.

Who will still be in love in the end and which family members will still be speaking I won’t tell you -but I enjoyed the fighting and the dramatics and of course the making-up.  I enjoyed the romance, even if it was a bit predictable in the end.

Georgia tries to “fix” all her family members more than than working on her own life at times which got a bit frustrating for me.  I wanted her to kind of suck it up and make decisions – and clearly the decisions that I felt were right.  But she did come around and I appreciated that she made decisions for herself- not just for her fiance or her parents.

If you’re in the mood for chick lit this was a fun book to read with a glass or two of wine.

Thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion!

Review: Oh! You Pretty Things

First! Holly’s also posting today at the Bubblebath Reader!  Check out her post about life as a graduate student in real life and in fiction!  Are you reading the Garden Intrigue along with us?

Oh! You Pretty Things, Shanna Mahin

Amanda

Published April 14th 2015 by Dutton

Hardcover, 368 pages

Source: e-ARC from Edelweiss

Jess Dunne is third-generation Hollywood, but her star on the boulevard has yet to materialize. Sure, she’s got a Santa Monica address and a working actress roommate, but with her nowhere barista job in a town that acknowledges zeroes only as a dress size, she’s a dead girl walking.

Enter Jess’s mother—a failed actress who puts the strange in estrangement. She dives headlong into her daughter’s downward spiral, forcing Jess to muster all her spite and self-preservation to snag a career upgrade.

As a personal assistant for a famous (and secretly agoraphobic) film composer, Jess’s workdays are now filled with shopping for luxury goods and cooking in his perfectly designed kitchen. Jess kills at cooking, a talent that only serves her intensifying urge to dig in to Los Angeles’s celebrity buffet.

When her food garners the attention of an actress on the rise, well, she’s all too willing to throw it in with the composer and upgrade again, a decision that will have far-reaching ramifications that could explode all her relationships.

All the while, her mother looms ever closer, forcing Jess to confront the traumatic secrets she’s been running from all her life.

Oh! You Pretty Things is a dizzying ride at the carnival of fame, a fast-paced and sharply funny work that dares to imagine what happens when we go over the top in a town of gilded excess.

This was a delightfully snarky and funny book.  Jess lives at the edge of Hollywood and like so many others desperately wants to be part of the inside world of the stars.  She doesn’t actually want to be an actor, but she wants in on the glitz and the glamour.  I really liked Jess!  She lives with her best-friend who is an up and coming actress and they were great together.  I love reading about friendships that feel real and are supportive and encouraging – and those that make it through mistakes.  I think the relationship between Jess and Megan was my favorite thing about this book.

In the opposite of a healthy relationship we have Jess and her mother, Donna.  Donna was determined to make Jess into a child star and when that failed she pretty much washed her hands of parenthood.  Donna begins circling closer and closer to Jess as she gains access to celebrities leaving Jess living in fear of how her mom might poison the life she’s created.   I felt myself cringing every time they interacted I was so nervous for Jess!  I loved the family that Jess built herself in contrast to what she had with her mother.

For a book about a girl who wants celebrity this had much more depth than I expected, but Jess still didn’t take herself too seriously.  This debut was a good look at some of the grime behind the glitz of stardom and the real people that live in L.A.   I will definitely look forward to seeing what else Shanna Mahin writes.

4 stars!

Thank you Dutton and Edelweiss for this advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

Review: Silver Bay

Silver Bay, Jojo Moyes

Amanda

Published August 26th 2014 by Penguin Books

Paperback, 338 pages

Source: e-ARC from NetGalley

Liza McCullen will never fully escape her past. But the unspoiled beaches and tight-knit community of Silver Bay offer the freedom and safety she craves—if not for herself, then for her young daughter, Hannah. That is, until Mike Dormer arrives as a guest in her aunt’s hotel.

The mild-mannered Englishman with his too-smart clothes and distracting eyes could destroy everything Liza has worked so hard to protect: not only the family business and the bay that harbors her beloved whales, but also her conviction that she will never love—never deserve to love—again.

For his part, Mike Dormer is expecting just another business deal—an easy job kick-starting a resort in a small seaside town ripe for development. But he finds that he doesn’t quite know what to make of the eccentric inhabitants of the ramshackle Silver Bay Hotel, especially not enigmatic Liza McCullen, and their claim to the surrounding waters.

As the development begins to take on a momentum of its own, Mike’s and Liza’s worlds collide in this hugely affecting and irresistible tale full of Jojo Moyes’s signature humor and generosity.

I love how different Jojo Moyes books all are!  If you loved Me Before You (which I completely did!), you should not expect every book to be similar.  The Girl You Left Behind and One Plus One were both totally different as well.  In Silver Bay our action moves from London to a tiny coastal town in Australia.  Mike is a businessman trying to sell a group of investors on a posh resort in Silver Bay.  He arrives, without fanfare, to check out the town and the services available -such as they are.  Kate is a native of Silver Bay in her seventies.  She runs the down-on-its-luck hotel that Mike checks into.  Kate lives with her niece Liza and her great niece, 11 year-old Hannah.  The scene around Silver Bay includes a mix of boat pilots and guides to take tourists out on the water looking for dolphins and whales.  The dolphins and whales themselves were definitely scene stealing characters as well.  As Mike starts to fall for Silver Bay and the inhabitants the reader falls as well.  It was a bit of a slow start for me, but in the end I was totally on edge waiting to see how the hotel development would play out.

We change perspective frequently and I love getting a story from all sides.  This was particularly helpful in Silver Bay as this was a book full of secrets.  Mike has secrets about why he is in Australia, Liza and Hannah have secrets about why they cannot leave Australia and even Kate has secrets of long-ago love affairs.  The secrets were making me crazy!  Of course the secrets have to come out in the end.  Maybe I started to predict some of the answers but that did not take away from my enjoyment of this book at all.  I certainly did not predict all of the directions the story would take though.  Moyes gives so much life to her characters both the starring and minor roles that in each book I feel totally drawn into the story and anxious for the outcome.

Would it be a Jojo Moyes book if I wasn’t teary at some point?  I don’t know because she’s four for four in making me cry while reading.  I love Jojo even more because when I tweeted that she had me in tears she told me to just keep reading and all would be well.  How sweet is that?

4 stars!

Thank you Penguin Books and NetGalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion.  

Review: Reluctantly Charmed

Reluctantly Charmed, Ellie O’Neill

Amanda

Expected publication: March 17th 2015 by Touchstone

Paperback, 416 pages

Source: e-ARC from Edelweiss

Ireland is one of those places that I’ve yet to visit but love to read about. I know it’s not all green hills and Guinness but those are so fun to daydream of over a good book!  So between Ireland, the pretty cover and the description for Reluctantly Charmed I was sold.  I’m so glad I was because this was just the light and refreshing book I wanted.  Kate McDaid finds out that she’s inherited something mysterious from a long-ago aunt, also named Kate McDaid, if she publishes 7 messages left along with the will.  The messages turn out to be 7 steps given by the fairies to Kate about reconnecting the fairies and mortals.  Kate has a laugh over the other Kate’s determination to have her message heard and goes along just to see what happens.  A lot happens.  Some magic, some romance and a bit of a reality check about celebrity.  Kate learns that some people take the fairies very seriously.

Kate isn’t your typical damsel in distress chick-lit heroine.  She’s not lighting the world on fire at work perhaps, but she has a job that she likes, she has good friends and is close to her parents, she has a crush on an inappropriate man.  Then come the Seven Steps. I loved that Reluctantly Charmed was able to get more serious with Kate – but still didn’t take itself too seriously.  Kate gets in over her head-but gets her own way out.  She didn’t need a hero to save her in the end -just her own wits.  While I saw the romance coming, the end of the Steps was not at all what I would have predicted and I really liked how it all played out.

I would definitely recommend this for a cute spring read and after this delightful debut I will look forward to O’Neill’s next book.

4 stars!

Thank you Touchstone and Edelweiss for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

Review: The Dress Shop of Dreams

The Dress Shop of Dreams, Menna van Praag

Amanda

Expected publication: December 30th 2014 by Ballantine Books

Paperback, 336 pgs

Source: E-ARC from Edelweiss

From Goodreads…

Since her parents’ mysterious deaths many years ago, scientist Cora Sparks has spent her days in the safety of her university lab or at her grandmother Etta’s dress shop. Tucked away on a winding Cambridge street, Etta’s charming tiny store appears quite ordinary to passersby, but the colorfully vibrant racks of beaded silks, delicate laces, and jewel-toned velvets hold bewitching secrets: With just a few stitches from Etta’s needle, these gorgeous gowns have the power to free a woman’s deepest desires.

Etta’s dearest wish is to work her magic on her granddaughter. Cora’s studious, unromantic eye has overlooked Walt, the shy bookseller who has been in love with her forever. Determined not to allow Cora to miss her chance at happiness, Etta sews a tiny stitch into Walt’s collar, hoping to give him the courage to confess his feelings to Cora. But magic spells—like true love—can go awry. After Walt is spurred into action, Etta realizes she’s set in motion a series of astonishing events that will transform Cora’s life in extraordinary and unexpected ways.

Cora and Etta are all the family each other has.  Cora’s parents died in a fire when she was a small child. She knows she was deeply loved, but has basically shut down her heart and emotions since that time. Cora is determined to be a part of scientific research that will save lives, just as her parents planned to do. Etta just wants to see her granddaughter’s happiness and so she makes just one nudge to help.  One nudge is more than enough!  With that one nudge, Cora is knocked out of her academic bubble, which leads to both her and her childhood friend Walter meeting new people.

I wish I could go to Etta’s magical shop and find the perfect dress for myself!  Parts about this book definitely exemplified what I love about magical realism.  There’s no magic wands or magic spells, but just a “feeling” of what’s possible or what’s true-and it’s fun to sometimes believe in magic like that.  Etta’s magic gowns give the wearers confidence and lead them to believe in their own beauty -that’s the kind of magic I think we all need sometimes!  The voice that makes us feel love, the priest who hears confession without words, a cop that can see truths – all kinds of magic that are almost believable.

I really liked Cora; and Etta too despite the meddling. Etta’s push sets Cora on a path to feel everything she’s been missing-both good and bad. I thought van Praag did this so well, because you can’t appreciate joy in the same way if you don’t also know sorrow.  I liked Walt as Cora’s friend and then as her love interest. I thought his deep love over the years was maybe a bit too far fetched, but it was still sweet.  I also loved that there was more than just one romance happening- but those didn’t always feel as real to me either. Still, I really enjoyed the variety even if I didn’t love all the couples.

I don’t know how to quite sum up what I didn’t like about the Dress Shop of Dreams without spoilers, but so I’ll just say that the Cora under great stress was not who I felt I had been reading and I didn’t like that so much. I didn’t think she’d face her problems like that.  Once we got past that confrontation I felt we had the same Cora back and I was overall happy with all the resolutions.

I do not like that every book with magical realism has to hold itself out as “just like Sarah Addison Allen!”  I get it, SAA is wonderful and I love her books.  But don’t hold yourself out to be just like her because its just kind of a bummer when your book isn’t The Sugar Queen.  That being said, if you like magical realism I would definitely give this a chance.  If you haven’t tried magical realism I do recommend this as a sweet introduction.

3 stars

Thank you to Ballantine Books and Edelweiss for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Night Garden: A Novel

The Night Garden, Lisa Van Allen

Amanda

Published October 7th 2014 by Ballantine Books

Paperback, 352 pages

Source: Edelweiss

From Goodreads…

Nestled in the bucolic town of Green Valley in upstate New York, the Pennywort farm appears ordinary, yet at its center lies something remarkable: a wild maze of colorful gardens that reaches beyond the imagination. Local legend says that a visitor can gain answers to life’s most difficult problems simply by walking through its lush corridors.

Yet the labyrinth has never helped Olivia Pennywort, the garden’s beautiful and enigmatic caretaker. She has spent her entire life on her family’s land, harboring a secret that forces her to keep everyone at arm’s length. But when her childhood best friend, Sam Van Winkle, returns to the valley, Olivia begins to question her safe, isolated world and wonders if she at last has the courage to let someone in. As she and Sam reconnect, Olivia faces a difficult question: Is the garden maze that she has nurtured all of her life a safe haven or a prison?

When I started The Night Garden I almost could have believed I was reading a Sarah Addison Allen book, but it quickly became a story all its own.  I loved the idea of the Pennywort Farm, where you can just be given the answers to your hard questions if you wait long enough in the maze.  I just couldn’t love Olivia Pennywort herself.  As she was described as kind of unapproachable to the townspeople she felt that way to me as a reader as well.  I liked her more as her walls came down and she began to act like more of a real person and act for herself.  I liked Sam much more and I was definitely rooting for him throughout-even when I wasn’t sure Olivia deserved him.

I don’t want to give away Olivia’s secret-but that was cool!  I thought this twist by Van Allen was going to have an easier answer and I was gratified that Olivia and Sam had to work harder for their romance.  Also wow!  This got way steamier than I was anticipating!  I loved how the Garden became a character itself that Olivia and Sam had to work with to find a way to be together.

When the book was building up the question of whether Olivia and Sam could be together for so long I wanted more out of the answer in the end.  It felt like the ending was rushed which did not go along with the whimsical style.  Still Van Allen has promise and I will definitely try her first book and keep my eye out for future publications. The writing was lovely and flowery to fit the scene and if you enjoy magical realism I definitely think you should try the Night Garden.

3 stars

Thank you Ballantine Books and edelweiss for this advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion!

Review: Landline

Landline, Rainbow Rowell

Published July 8th 2014 by St. Martin’s Press

308 pages

Source: Publisher

If you haven’t read a Rainbow Rowell book yet, you’re missing out.  Her books seem to resonate so well for me with different stages in my life.  Eleanor & Park was an amazing flashback to the 80’s, a surprisingly emotional book about young love and mixed tapes. I reviewed Attachments here, that book made me reflect on my own email history with my best friend-basically chronicling our 20s over email every day.   And I love the pop culture references Rowell throws in her books; make a Time Lord joke and I’m yours!

In Landline Rowell takes a look at marriage and how easy it is to take one’s spouse for granted.  I loved Georgie and Neal.  Really what a name, Georgie McCool-you have to be amazing with that name.  We meet Georgie just as she’s made a pretty crappy choice-to stay in LA and work on a television show while her husband and girls go to Omaha for Christmas.  Georgie thinks her family will function just fine without her, but can she function without her family?

Georgie can’t handle the thought of going home to her empty house and so visits her mother and stepfather.  Georgie’s younger sister is living at home and she was a highlight of Landline for me. She’s a complete smart-ass and a great foil to Georgie’s wallowing in self-pity.  While at her mother’s Georgie picks up her teenage phone to call Neal and finds herself talking to Neal in the past.

What?  This sounds crazy.  And it was kind of crazy, but Rowell makes it work.  In between calls to Neal we get George’s memories from college and these were great.  Georgie takes a hard look at her life and wonders if she can change things on these phone calls-and whether she should. What does she really want in her life going forward?

I appreciated Landline because really, marriage is work.  It should be work.  I enjoy books that don’t show it all as flowers and dinners out-books that show you real life and real hurts.  Landline felt real– at least until the magic phone came about.

I loved this quote–too true

“Georgie was pretty sure that having kids was the worst thing you could do to a marriage.  Sure you could survive it.  You could survive a giant boulder falling on your head– that didn’t mean it was good for you.”

Will Georgie and Neal survive their children and their marriage?  Landline will make you laugh, make you sigh happily over college romance, and sigh sadly over  the slights that happen during marriage.  I still don’t get quite why this crazy phone worked but it did!

4.5 stars!

Thank you St. Marten’s Press for this Advanced Reader’s Copy!

Review: Here’s Looking At You

Here’s Looking At You, Mhairi McFarlane

Amanda

Published June 3rd 2014 by HarperCollins Publishers

400 pgs

Source: Edelweiss

From Goodreads..

Anna Alessi – history expert, possessor of a lot of hair and an occasionally filthy mouth – seeks nice man for intelligent conversation and Harlequin romance moments.

Despite the oddballs that keep turning up on her dates, Anna couldn’t be happier. As a 30-something with a job she loves, life has turned out better than she dared dream. However, things weren’t always this way, and her years spent as the butt of schoolyard jokes are ones she’d rather forget.

So when James Fraser – the architect of Anna’s final humiliation at school – walks back into her life, her world is turned upside down. But James seems a changed man. Polite. Mature. Funny, even. People can change, right? So why does Anna feel like she’s a fool to trust him?

I really enjoyed McFarlane’s first book You Had Me at Hello, so I was excited to read her next novel.  Anna is the kind of heroine that you immediately are rooting for.  She was horribly bullied at school and the scene we get is heartbreaking.  Now though Anna has come through it and is educated, she has great friends and a great career; and she’s now a knock-out beauty even if she does not quite believe it herself.  James was Anna’s great love in high school and the chief tormentor in her worst experience.  When we meet adult James its kind of nice to see that he hates his job and his beautiful wife has left him.  He deserves it the jerk!

You can’t blame Anna when she meets James again for not coming out and telling him who she is.  You kind of can’t blame Anna for going along with a friendship with James as things progress.  He’s smart and funny and still wonderfully handsome.  But there was part of me that really didn’t want Anna to trust James too far.  Maybe I was the one that couldn’t get past what Anna went through at school?  Anna and James seemed so great together, I was just afraid he was still too good to be true at first.

McFarlane created a completely engaging cast of characters to both root for and against.  They were more than just foils for Anna and James and I felt invested in each of them.  I loved Anna’s friend Daniel absolutely.  This line given while describing a table he served at work had me snorting while reading on the train-always attractive-

    “We’re firmly in the era of the fussy fuck I’m afraid and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Too true!  I really think that’s a term I should be using more.  Aside from Daniel, I enjoyed Anna’s family-especially her sister- and their other friends.  I was enthralled with Anna’s love life and her internet dating.  I was so anxious for her to just have it out with James and get things in the open.  The great reveal of Anna’s identity to James was everything it should have been-honest and emotional and it led to a perfect conclusion for me.

I will definitely be waiting for McFarlane’s next book!

4 stars!

Thank you Harper Collins and Edelweiss for this advanced read copy in exchange for an honest review!

 

All quotes were taken from an uncorrected galley proof subject to change in the final edition

 

Review: Then and Always

Then and Always, Dani Atkins

Amanda

Published May 20th 2014 by Ballantine Books

320 Pages

Source: NetGalley

From Goodreads

Rachel’s life is perfect. A handsome boyfriend, great friends and the prospect of starting at university in a few weeks means she’s never been happier. But in a single heartbeat her world falls apart forever.

Five years later, Rachel is still struggling to come to terms with the tragedy that changed everything. Returning to her hometown for the first time in years, she finds herself consumed by thoughts of the life that could have been. But when a sudden fall lands her in hospital, Rachel awakes to discover that the life she had dreamed about just might be real after all.

Unable to trust her own memories, Rachel begins to be drawn further into this new world where the man she lost is alive and well but where she is engaged to be married to someone else…

Then and Always begins at a farewell celebration.  Rachel and her best friends are having a dinner party before they begin to split off to university.  Rachel’s life is pretty perfect right now.  Her boyfriend is gorgeous, her friends are loyal and she’s on her way to become a journalist.  Rachel is trying to take this night all in as she knows that her life is totally about to change.  Then the group sees a car speeding toward the restaurant window; everything changes but not in any way that could have been anticipated.

We flash forward five years and meet an extremely different Rachel.  She’s never recovered from the emotional wounds of the car accident and has significant physical injuries still.  The friendships that were so important haven’t been able to survive the aftermath, with the exception of Rachel’s best friend Sarah.  Rachel returns home for Sarah’s wedding and faces her former friends for the first time in years.  

Rachel blacks out after Sarah’s rehearsal dinner and when she wakes up an entirely different five years have passed.  These five years have been much happier and the future Rachel wakes to is much more promising.  Yet Rachel wants her old life back with its depressing familiarity.  She also wants to know she isn’t completely going crazy.  In this future Rachel has not just Sarah but her dad, a fiance, and her dear friend Jimmy to help her try to find answers.  

This was kind of frustrating because the alternative reality Rachel wakes up to is so perfect–why would she want to change things?  I wanted her to just accept it and go along with things.  Take the great life and just live it girl!  I was so hopeful for her future in this life. Why would you want to be miserable?  I wanted her to have more spunk!  

I wanted to know what made Rachel so incredible that she had this amazing boyfriend, a friend clearly in love with her, and the best friend who can do no wrong.  What about her led her to this perfect life?  I wish we had more history with her.  Rachel’s friends were kind of stock characters- doting male best friend, the cruel beautiful girl, the boyfriend who is too good to be true-and I wished there had been more depth to them.  I think it would have made both scenarios better had they been more fleshed out. Don’t get me wrong, I did like the story overall, I just wanted MORE.  

I read Then and Always in one night because I was so determined to find out what was happening to Rachel.  Was this magic? Was it a delusion?  Would we even get an answer?   I picked up some hints of what Atkins was leading to, but wow that ending was not at all what I expected.  I sat on the couch with tears at the end of this book trying to put it all together in my mind.  This book will make you think about second chances at life in a new way.  I will definitely check out Atkins’ next book to see where she goes from this debut.

3 stars

Thank you Ballentine Books and NetGalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Addendum from Holly: I haven’t read this book, but, reading this review I was immediately reminded of a recent story on This American Life, about a woman who woke up from a coma and had forgotten that she was divorced. This made everything kind of awkward with her ex-husband and her family! If you don’t listen to TAL, you are missing out. Check out Episode 526 for the coma story. And then you’ll have something like 525 more to catch up on…

Review: One Plus One

One Plus One, Jojo Moyes

Amanda

To be published July 1st 2014 by Penguin Group Viking

384 pages

Source: NetGalley

From Goodreads…

Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight-in-shining-armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages . . . maybe ever.

I will not deny that I’m a bit obsessed with Jojo Moyes right now.  I thought Me Before You was one of the best books I read last year and so I’m willing to read anything she writes right now.

As One Plus One begins we meet poor Jess.  As we learn about her life I just wanted to give her a hug.  She owns a cleaning business with her best friend Natalie.  Jess supports herself, her 10 year-old daughter Tanzie, and her teenage step-son Nicky all while her husband is basically loafing off an alleged bout of depression and not sending any financial or moral help.

Moyes makes you feel like you’re right there in the housing estate (British public housing)  that Jess lives in with her family and makes your heart hurt for their struggles.  Tanzie is too smart for her school and Nicky is just too different to be accepted by his peers.  Jess meets Ed, who comes to her off as a rich jerk, totally oblivious to the people around him such as the woman who cleans his house. Yes, Ed has major problems of his own –what with an insider trading accusation coming up and causing him to flee London — but he while he might be oblivious he is not really the jerk he originally comes of as. He has lost sight of what’s important and through Jess and her kids he’s given a chance to find himself again.

Tanzie is given an opportunity to compete in a Math Olympiad in Scotland and the cash winnings would be life changing for this family. The fates conspire against Jess being able to get her there to compete on time and so Ed becomes the family’s only hope.  Ed’s new luxury car filled with Jess, Tanzie, Nicky and their smelly but unfailingly loyal dog Norman.

Yes, I found the road trip to be slightly silly and unrealistic- but what I loved was the moments Jess and Ed had and the experience this family had together.  They were sad at times and hilarious at times.  I loved Jess, but Nicky’s story particularly broke my heart as I was reading, so I also really loved getting the perspective from him.  This was a story about love, about choosing to make your own family and about standing up for what’s right.  You can easily get past the silly feeling you get with the road trip and just enjoy the ride.

4 stars!

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking for this advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion.