abbi waxman – GoodeyReads

Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Fiction + Romance
Length: 400 pages
Author: Abbi Waxman
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: April 16th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Just when she thought she’d gotten far enough away . . . a life-changing phone call throws an antisocial scientist back into her least favorite place—the spotlight. A hilarious and insightful new novel from the USA Today bestselling author of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

After a tumultuous childhood, Christa Liddle has hidden away, both figuratively and literally. Happily studying sea snails in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Christa finds her tranquil existence thrown into chaos when her once-famous father—long thought dead after a plane crash—turns out to be alive, well, and ready to make amends. The world goes wild, fascinated by this real-life saga, pinning Christa and her family under the spotlight. As if that weren’t enough, her reunion with an old childhood friend reveals an intense physical attraction neither was expecting and both want to act on . . . if they can just keep a lid on it. When her father’s story starts to develop cracks, Christa fears she will lose herself, her potential relationship, and—most importantly—any chance of making it back to her snails before they forget her completely.

Thank you to Berkley (Berkley Partner) for the free book and PRH Audio (PRH Partner) for the free audiobook.

NEW FAV.

This book captivated me in all the best ways. I adored the plot and seeing Christa find her way through a lot of things thrown at her. This leans a little more fiction, but there’s definitely a romance present throughout.

And to go deeper into the romance, I loved the reconnection she had with Nate. They were starry eyed from the moment they found each other again. I loved the way Nate took care of Christa and also allowed her to be who she needed to be and where she needed to be. There was unconditional support and love woven throughout.

I also loved all of the dynamics between Christa and her Mom and sisters. It felt like an authentic family trying to move through some unimaginable happenings and looking for the best path together. There were fantastic conversations throughout and I loved the themes of forgiveness and healing.

The audiobook is stellar and I highly recommend that format. There are footnotes in the print copy that are added in flawlessly to the audio edition and I didn’t feel like the book was stilted in any way. They ended up being delightful anecdotes that made me laugh.

Overall audience notes:

Fiction + Romance
Language: moderate – strong
Romance: 1-2 open door
Violence: low
Trigger/Content Warnings: sexual assault and non-consensual drugging (recounted), cheating/affair (side character)

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Rating: ☆☆☆
Audience: Contemporary fiction + romance
Length: 352 pages
Author: Abbi Waxman
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: July 9th, 2019
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.

When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They’re all—or mostly all—excited to meet her! She’ll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It’s a disaster! And as if that wasn’t enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn’t he realize what a terrible idea that is?

Nina considers her options.

1. Completely change her name and appearance. (Too drastic, plus she likes her hair.)
2. Flee to a deserted island. (Hard pass, see: coffee).
3. Hide in a corner of her apartment and rock back and forth. (Already doing it.)

It’s time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell, but she isn’t convinced real life could ever live up to fiction. It’s going to take a brand-new family, a persistent suitor, and the combined effects of ice cream and trivia to make her turn her own fresh page.

I CAN RELATE.

As an introvert extraordinaire, I could connect to quite a bit of what Nina was feeling throughout this book. That was probably my favorite part. The rest? Not as big of a fan.

I found it hard to read because I didn’t feel like there was an actual plot. Things were happening to Nina, but that was it. Nothing really moved forward. I did see a welcome change in Nina going from inflexible and unwilling to change to someone who was learning to adapt to the craziness of the universe and life in general. I did wholly appreciate this. I liked seeing this character arc.

The romance? Eh. I thought we were getting a cute story, but I felt it was allllll physical. They went on barely a date or two then sleeping together, to breaking up and I just shrugged my shoulders. I never felt an emotional connection to them and it made me not care either way what happened. It then got super cheesy at the end which only made it worse.

I also struggled with the third person point of view. I think I would have liked it more being only in Nina’s mind. The concept change to random characters was annoying and pointless. And there were so many random tangent paragraphs that I found myself often scanning.

This was a lackluster contemporary that I know I have an unpopular opinion about, but hey, can’t love them all.

Overall audience notes: