Book Review: The Survivor's Guide to Family Happiness

 

I really enjoyed this book.. Since I don't usually read straight romance, I was worried when the romantic element seemed to dominate at the beginning. Luckily the family drama stuff manages to balance it out.

I liked that the plot did not follow a predictable straight line. I didn't get the sense that the initial 'meet cute' was destined to work out. Her relationship issues were very realistic: having different parenting styles is an understandable deal breaker. I also really liked that I was able to feel genuine disagreement with some of the main character's decisions, even as I rooted for things to ultimately go her way.

Also, I think the voice actor for this book makes the story even better. I was impressed by the subtle changes she made to her voice for each of the three narrators.

I've already added another Maddie Dawson book to my Audible wish list.

Book Review: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

 

The premise of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is so interesting and I really wanted to like it. Unfortunately, it read like a report of things happening and made no emotional impact. In the "show, don't tell" debate, this was all tell. None of the characters were three-dimensional, not even the main character.

It didn't help that the voice actor sounded like AI. It made me wonder if it would have been easier to connect with the story if I had read the book myself rather than listening to it.

The strangest thing to me was that the section of the story that becomes the focus of the narrative was the least interesting bit. All the interesting stuff is background while what gets foregrounded is the narrator's semester at college when she -SPOILER ALERT- makes a weird friend and acquires a puppet when the airline gives her the wrong luggage.