The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner

 

Abby Stern is a thirty-four-year-old, curvy, single woman who has found herself. She walks dogs and other gig economy jobs to pay her bills, lives in a tiny, cluttered but comfortable apartment and is all but engaged to Mark, a gorgeous doctor Abby first met as a pre-teen at fat camp when he was at least double his adult, buff size.

Then she meets Sebastian while fueled by copious amounts of tequila at her friend’s bachelorette party. Let’s just say sparks fly, but they don’t exchange numbers.

Fast forward to Abby’s best friend, who runs a bicycle tour group, who needs Abby to lead a group. Abby is an avid cyclist but has never run a group on her own. Because she loves her friend, and cycling, she agrees, and the next ten days are filled with enough crises to fill several books!

The cycling is almost a character in this book, and since I know the author is very much into the sport, I often felt like I was chatting with a good friend about it and daydreaming about the lovely Empire Trail. But each of the dozen participants complicated that dream in ways that I would never have guessed. One of the participants is Abby’s mom, thin, elegant and body obsessed. Another one is a pregnant teenager. And the most complicating one, is Sebastian. The one-night stand.

Weiner never just writes a love story without hitting major social issues, though her answers are admittedly best only for her character. This book is no different. Empowerment of women, abortion rights, weight shaming, sex shaming, aging, social media limitations and even the weather fill this lovely journey with clouds. Not everyone will agree with how they are handled, but the story will be hard to put aside.

Props to the author and editors for the title! Breaking Away was one of my favorite movies in the seventies, and the tie in with the bikes was fun!

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

Must Love Flowers by Debbie Macomber

As a long-time fan of Debbie Macomber books, I was delighted to see her return after a threatened retirement! Must Love Flowers didn’t disappoint—Macomber’s characters are not the run of the mill twenty-something romance novel heroines and heroes, but fully fleshed people with real problems.

The four main characters, Phil, Joan, Maggie and Nick have all experienced major setbacks in their lives and bond over their individual grief. Phil and Joan are in their 50s, Maggie and Nick are in their twenties. The fact that Maggie boards with Nicks Mother, and Nick works for Phil’s landscaping business, creates interesting situations and tangles that are so delightful to read. I also appreciate the lack of explicit sex in Macomber’s books—she artfully weaves the romance, including physicality, without overwriting it for her reader. It’s a great book, thoughtful and educational, especially where the processing of grief is concerned.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Ballantine for the advanced copy!

California Golden by Melanie Benjamin 4*

 

 

Melanie Benjamin is well known for her historical novels and I was delighted to find the history chosen for this book to be more recent. It deals with the cultural challenges of two sisters left to fend for themselves in the era of free love, surfer movies and the women exercising their rights to compete in sports, specifically surfing. The book addresses a wide range of issues from racism to the drug culture, neither glossing over the hardships faced by people pulled into various lifestyles.

Mindy and Ginger tried to keep their family together, but neither of their parents had the girl’s interest at heart. Left to find their own places in a world of dangerous and competitive surfing, the girls chose opposite paths. Their stories are frustrating and heartbreaking. Having lived through this era, I don’t always respect the decisions the characters make, but it was fascinating to read it from a different perspective.

Golden California will be released on August 8, 2023, in time for a few last trips to the beach, either to read, or hop on a surfboard!  Thanks to the Publisher, Random House Publishing Group Ballantine and NetGalley for the ARC.

Rootless, by Krystle Zara Appiah: Wonderful writing, disappointing ending. 3*

 

I read this book because I loved learning about the culture of Ghana in another debut book, Maame, by Jessica George. Because I’d read that one and loved it, I was prepared to meet more multidimensional characters and fascinating settings with the same type of background. In that regard, I wasn’t disappointed. I loved the characters…Efe whose childhood trauma shaped her adult choices and ability to make decisions and speak up for herself. Her husband, Sam, whose own childhood was marred by the abandonment of his mother. These characters were faced with the same problems most young people starting out face: financial, work life balance and the shift of responsibility that happens when children come along. I never doubted that Sam and Efe loved each other, even when they individually sought relationships with others. But once their daughter was born, they seemed to stop listening or hearing each other. Sam wanted a traditional family. Efe couldn’t overcome her PPD and disconnect in a way that let her give that to him.

Without giving away the wonderful plotting and weaving of the characters in their dual locations of London and Ghana, I must confess that the ending ruined this book for me. The author had the skill…she showed it throughout the novel, to deal with a complicated ending, and in my opinion, she just didn’t. As a reader, I was insulted. I felt too invested in the characters and the way they worked through issues to accept the ending choice of the author. That’s why I’m not giving my usual 5 star. Maybe she’ll get a chance to do a script for the movie version and can rewrite it!  I hope so.

Thank you to Random House Ballantine for the review copy. The book is available now.