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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
The good thing about it taking forever for me to read this book is that the ending can make up for a slow beginning. It's one of those books more about the relationships between characters but also the many socioeconomic layers between college life and other people's successes or failures. Also loved how Elisabeth is so... unlikable? And you root for her to be better because you know she can, but it's great writing to see how superior she thinks she is and yet makes a lot of terrible choices.
I think this book just tried to do too much and be a commentary on too many things and it got very muddled for me by the end.
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Although I didn't love the other book I have read by this author (Saints for All Occasions, and specifically, I didn't love the way it ended), I loved her writing and pledged to read more. She has plenty of others, but this one called to me, focusing as it does on a new mother who has given up her New York City life and the college student she hires to babysit her son while she tries to get herself back into her working life. I relate to both of these experiences, and for the most part Sullivan didn't disappoint. Her writing remains crisp and incisive, and her characters flawed in realistic ways and so well drawn they feel like people I've met. If I have a quibble it is that the action slowed at times when I was expecting bigger confrontations, and just as I was settling into the idea that this was merely the author's way of pointing out that life doesn't slow down for the messes we make, the epilogue jumps forward and ties things up in a pat way that didn't feel entirely necessary.
I enjoy Sullivan and will continue to pick up her books. Eventually, I'll get to one that ends in a way that fully satisfies me.
I enjoy Sullivan and will continue to pick up her books. Eventually, I'll get to one that ends in a way that fully satisfies me.
This author is a favorite of mine, but this book was not one of her best. The relationship between Elisabeth, a young mother and author moving away from Brooklyn to a small town upstate NY, and Sam, a college senior not sure of where she was heading, was a complicated one. I didn’t really feel close to either character, and as Elisabeth’s lies to her husband, and Sam’s naïveté with her English boyfriend, Clive seemed a bit much, the story lost steam. I liked the social classes theme, and the snobbishness of the nouveau rich, but all in all, a bit disappointing. Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.
4.5 stars rounded up
I've never had so many eerily relatable thoughts appear in a novel before. It's probably due to the early motherhood-stage of life.
I've never had so many eerily relatable thoughts appear in a novel before. It's probably due to the early motherhood-stage of life.
I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the relationships and found them mostly realistic. I definitely could see a young mom forming a bond with a college student nanny as Sam and Elizabeth did. I liked that it didn't end with everything wrapped up perfectly. Normally that kind of bothers me as I read to escape, but in this case it would have been ridiculous if everything was resolved and everyone was great in the end. Good story.
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Very conflicted … I loved the first and last few chapters, but the middle DRAGGED on. Felt super aimless at times and the commentary on women’s colleges pissed me off. There are some really good and promising bits, but it really fell flat
wow! finished book club read spectacularly early, and I won’t spoil my fellow members w my review just yet