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christiek's review against another edition
2.0
I did not enjoy spending time with these characters at all. I think that they were fairly realistic in their irrational and wrong-headed decision making, but all that realism was more annoying than enlightening.
casehouse's review against another edition
I picked this up because of the setting. And the book is, in fact, full of references to real places in Cincinnati. Even so, it didn't seem to have a strong sense of place. But I didn't feel it went much of anywhere. Not much character development. Not much plot. Not for me.
lazygal's review against another edition
2.0
There's a lot of discussion about "New Adult" books right now, and this is (I think) squarely in that genre but... I just didn't really care about the characters enough.
We open with 28-year-old Eloise, newly hired at Harvard, flush with the success of her first book and - wham! - her life changes when her sister and brother-in-law die, leaving her as guardian to their three children. That's the prologue, with the rest of the book taking place today. The three children have grown up... mostly. Claire is supposed to head to NYC to become a professional ballet dancer, Josh has given up his career as a musician in a moderately successful band, and Theo is working on her dissertation. Eloise sees this as an opportunity to finally sell the family house and move on with her life; the others are happy to stay at home, not really growing.
Is this the key to New Adult? Vaguely dissatisfied 20somethings who don't want to face the responsibilities adults face? Slightly more upscale and higher educated slackers? If so, no thanks. Maybe in another book, with people I cared about, but this wasn't that book.
ARC provided by publisher.
We open with 28-year-old Eloise, newly hired at Harvard, flush with the success of her first book and - wham! - her life changes when her sister and brother-in-law die, leaving her as guardian to their three children. That's the prologue, with the rest of the book taking place today. The three children have grown up... mostly. Claire is supposed to head to NYC to become a professional ballet dancer, Josh has given up his career as a musician in a moderately successful band, and Theo is working on her dissertation. Eloise sees this as an opportunity to finally sell the family house and move on with her life; the others are happy to stay at home, not really growing.
Is this the key to New Adult? Vaguely dissatisfied 20somethings who don't want to face the responsibilities adults face? Slightly more upscale and higher educated slackers? If so, no thanks. Maybe in another book, with people I cared about, but this wasn't that book.
ARC provided by publisher.
liralen's review against another edition
3.0
So here's a smart choice: the very beginning of this book characterizes some of the main players of the book very well via their responses to tragedy and newfound responsibility--and then the story moves ahead and focuses on the characters, all adults now, facing the ripple effects of the same tragedy and responsibilities.
The setup of Eloise's sudden unexpected mother role is just that, setup, allowing the focus of the story to be how the characters interact with, and relate to, each other and their surroundings. More than fifteen years down the line, they are a family, but a fractured one; a family in which each person is facing in a different direction.
Of the four characters who tie the book together, and in particular of the three siblings, none is a villain. There are things to like and dislike about each, but what conflict there is is no one character's fault. It's a nice departure from books with a 'good' sibling and a 'bad' sibling -- not that there isn't a place for those books, but the boundaries and possibilities are of necessity different.
A couple of quibbles: First, three years is a long time to keep a relationship secret. I have a hard time believing that that wouldn't have become an issue much earlier. (When you're not comfortable being honest about a relationship, should you be moving in together?) Also, I found it interesting that Claire is the only one of the main characters not to have a voice in the book. In some respects it makes sense, as that makes it easier to hide her secret (and there is such a thing as having too many POV characters). At times she feels like the least developed character, though, and I wondered whether it would have helped to see things from her perspective some of the time.
But there's some nice nuance here. Eloise never regrets her decision to take care of her nieces and nephew, but that doesn't mean she doesn't resent it -- and them -- sometimes. Theo doesn't expect Eloise to act in the way her mother did, but that doesn't mean she doesn't want her to sometimes. All of the characters are in, or at some point end up in, relationships they're not certain about.
Not a life-shattering book, but solid and quite quotable. Would be three and a half stars, were half stars possible.
I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.
The setup of Eloise's sudden unexpected mother role is just that, setup, allowing the focus of the story to be how the characters interact with, and relate to, each other and their surroundings. More than fifteen years down the line, they are a family, but a fractured one; a family in which each person is facing in a different direction.
Of the four characters who tie the book together, and in particular of the three siblings, none is a villain. There are things to like and dislike about each, but what conflict there is is no one character's fault. It's a nice departure from books with a 'good' sibling and a 'bad' sibling -- not that there isn't a place for those books, but the boundaries and possibilities are of necessity different.
A couple of quibbles: First, three years is a long time to keep a relationship secret. I have a hard time believing that that wouldn't have become an issue much earlier. (When you're not comfortable being honest about a relationship, should you be moving in together?) Also, I found it interesting that Claire is the only one of the main characters not to have a voice in the book. In some respects it makes sense, as that makes it easier to hide her secret (and there is such a thing as having too many POV characters). At times she feels like the least developed character, though, and I wondered whether it would have helped to see things from her perspective some of the time.
But there's some nice nuance here. Eloise never regrets her decision to take care of her nieces and nephew, but that doesn't mean she doesn't resent it -- and them -- sometimes. Theo doesn't expect Eloise to act in the way her mother did, but that doesn't mean she doesn't want her to sometimes. All of the characters are in, or at some point end up in, relationships they're not certain about.
Not a life-shattering book, but solid and quite quotable. Would be three and a half stars, were half stars possible.
I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.
gertyp's review against another edition
1.0
I simply don't want to read about homosexual relationships.
courtthebookgirl's review against another edition
2.0
If I hadn't been reading this for book club, I would have quit long ago.
burgundyshoes's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this so much! It took a while for me to get into the story - the pov changes were weird before I got used to it - but once I hit the middle onwards I couldn’t put it down. The siblings relationship with each other and with Eloise felt very real to me - the way one second you’re happy and teasing each other and the next you can’t stand to be in the same room with them - although I would’ve liked more Claire.
eventerj9's review against another edition
3.0
Probably would have rated this higher but I never really liked the lead protagonist, Eloise. She was a difficult person to like.
paulineerika's review against another edition
2.0
Frankly, I disliked pretty much all of the characters. Hard to feel sorry for any of them. Out of each of the kids, Josh was probably the most likeable, but even he had the tendency toward self-pity. I simply couldn't connect to any of the main characters.
wordnerdy's review against another edition
4.0
http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2012/10/2012-book-307.html