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A review by s_piotrowicz
Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman
3.0
The most basic plot line of this book is that a twenties-something girl named Laura moves from NYC to L.A. to get out from under the control of her overbearing parents (especially her mother) and to attend grad school to become a physical therapist. She is suffering from PTSD after a scary accident, but she has been raised to ignore mental health issues and push through them. In L.A. she meets a girl named Polly who lives in a large house near Beverly Hills with a middle-aged landlady and several young single people who rent the rooms. Soon, Laura starts falling for one of the other lodgers, Bob.
First of all, can I just say, Bob is the worst name for a romantic hero in the history of all names. The only people I know named Bob are baby boomers. And the name itself makes me think of a dollop of mayonnaise that has fallen on the floor.
But that is a superficial complaint. The main problem with this book is that it is a hot mess--too many characters (a new character was introduced when I was 72% through the book!) and too many POVs. Not only were there too many POVs (I lost track of the amount), but they sometimes shifted from paragraph to paragraph. It was jarring, to say the least.
So why did I finish the book? Because there were some genuinely sweet, lovely moments. This book felt like a wholesome, happy read, where the characters were mostly authentic, faced real problems, and dealt with those problems in a largely functional way. But the structure of this book was so messy that I'm not sure I would pick up another book by this author.
First of all, can I just say, Bob is the worst name for a romantic hero in the history of all names. The only people I know named Bob are baby boomers. And the name itself makes me think of a dollop of mayonnaise that has fallen on the floor.
But that is a superficial complaint. The main problem with this book is that it is a hot mess--too many characters (a new character was introduced when I was 72% through the book!) and too many POVs. Not only were there too many POVs (I lost track of the amount), but they sometimes shifted from paragraph to paragraph. It was jarring, to say the least.
So why did I finish the book? Because there were some genuinely sweet, lovely moments. This book felt like a wholesome, happy read, where the characters were mostly authentic, faced real problems, and dealt with those problems in a largely functional way. But the structure of this book was so messy that I'm not sure I would pick up another book by this author.