A review by life_full_ofbooks
The Best Life Book Club by Sheila Roberts

hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I think I will always be drawn to books about books and book clubs since I’m such a bibliophile. I really wanted to like this one but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. 

Karissa and her 8 year old daughter, Macy, have moved 50 miles away from their home since Karissa’s husband, Mark, cheated on her with her best friend and next door neighbor. Both Karissa and Macy are scared to start over, but their new neighbors are friendly and Karissa has gotten a job working for a small publication company. Soon enough both have made friends and Karissa starts a book club with her neighbors and the sister of one of them. They books they read are self help and nonfiction and each finds something within the pages to help them grow as a person and better their lives. 

While real books and authors are mentioned, the books Karissa’s book club reads are all fictional. Each chapter opens with a quote from one of the book club reads which means the quotes are not actually self help quotes but advice Ms. Roberts either gives to others or has been given. Regardless I felt like it wasn’t really needed since the reader not only hasn’t read the book from which the quote came but can’t ever read it since it doesn’t exist. I appreciate Ms. Roberts attempt to make this book more realistic, but it just added to the annoyance factor for me. 

I normally enjoy books with multiple character voices but this jumps from character to character without any discernible difference that all it adds is a level of confusion. 

Taking place over a year thing I enjoyed was the character development. With the exception of one rushed character, the development that take place amongst the others is actually quite interesting. 

With the way this is written, I find it hard to believe that Ms. Roberts has nearly 50 books on her repertoire. WIth such dull writing and insipid characters (despite their great development) this read like a novice writer wrote it. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an advanced copy of this. The Best Life Book Club hit the shelves on May 7th.