Not Working by Lisa Owens

A special thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Claire Flannery has just quit her office job, hoping to take some time to discover her real passion. The problem is, she's not exactly sure how to go about finding it. Without the distractions of a regular routine, Claire confronts the best and worst parts of herself: the generous, attentive part that visits her grandmother for tea and cooks special meals for her boyfriend, Luke, and the part that she feels will never measure up and makes regrettable comments after too many glasses of wine. What emerges is a candid, moving portrait of a clear-eyed heroine trying to forge her own way, a wholly relatable character whose imperfections and uncanny observations highlight what makes us all different and yet inescapably linked.

Okay, so maybe it is because I'm a Gen-Xer, or maybe it is because this book was pitched as being in the same vein as Bridget Jones's Diary and I Don't Know How She Does It, but I found it incredibly manic and I didn't enjoy it.

Our narrator, Claire Flannery, is in her late 20s and lives with her boyfriend in London.  She quits her job in the hopes that she will discover what she wants to do with/in her life.  There really wasn't much of a story here, and the small choppy sub-titled sections didn't do the narrative any favours - this staccato rhythm was distracting and didn't help me engage with the characters.  Claire comes off as selfish, shallow, and spoiled.  She is unlikable, and to be frank, rather dull.  There were some funny bits, but all-in-all, there was really nothing there character-wise and plot-wise. 

Miller's Valley by Anna Quindlen

A special thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This moving story takes place in Miller's Valley, a small farming town that becomes another character in the book.  Mary Margaret 'Mimi' Miller is the only daughter born to a farming family with two sons and an agoraphobic aunt that also lives on their property.  Layer by layer, Quindlen tells Mimi's coming-of-age story through her family's drama.   

One thing I would have liked fleshed out was the relationship between Mimi's mother and her sister (Mimi's aunt).  There is a plot twist that touches on perhaps why they had a tumultuous relationship, but I felt like this didn't get enough time and development and could've really added to the story, especially in the beginning.

A slow burn.  Like other reviewers, I found the novel hard to get into because of its pace.  Quindlen is a gifted writer who takes her time developing characters and in this instance, the pace at which she does this, paid off.  So stick with it, you will be glad you did.  

Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

A special thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Where do I start? Okay, so I'm a huge fan of Sittenfeld's other books, so it was a no-brainer to request Eligible. When I found out it was an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that takes place mostly in Cincinnati, I have to admit, I was a little worried.  That being said, for the most part, she pulls it off. Sittenfeld takes a few liberties—which are to be expected since this is modern day—but for the most part, things are left in tact and yet she makes it sound like her own and not a retelling.

I did struggle a bit with the third-person perspective and stumbled a bit with some of the language; words like "erstwhile" and "egregious" are not words you hear every day, and didn't sound appropriate to modern day. Perhaps she was trying to pay homage to Austen through language? But I did feel that these words are simply out of place.

The short, digestible chapters made this book easy to devour given its size. Sittenfled is definitely gifted and did right by Austen. All-in-all, a fun read and I would definitely recommend—it isn't just for fans of Pride and Prejudice or Curtis Sittenfeld.