#TNReads: Real Quick Reviews for Lazy Readers Featuring Mhairi McFarlane

Oh man, I loved this one. Don’t You Forget About Me has been the first book in a while that I truly couldn’t put down. It had just the right amount of intellectual depth, humor, and romance that I crave in a book. It was my first by Mhairi McFarlane, but I doubt it will be my last.

Georgina is kind of a mess. She didn’t graduate college, she works at a shite Italian restaurant (and that description is generous), and to top things off she walks in on her boyfriend with another woman between his legs and covered in ice cream on the day she gets fired. Talk about rock bottom.

But the good news is now is there is pretty much nowhere for her to go but up…with some rocky shores along the way. She finds a new job with people she loves – most importantly someone she loves too much. Lucus is a blast from the past. Georgina’s first love that shaped her entire future when their relationship ended before it had barely begun. And to make matters worse, he doesn’t seem to remember her. So much for your first love leaving an impression.

Georgina’s journey is so inspiring – and not in that cheesy way, but in a completely real way that makes your heart want to burst with joy for her. I didn’t want this book to end, and I will gladly read a sequel just filled with Lucus. Sure, there wouldn’t be much plot, but his sulky attitude juxtaposed with his bold declarations of love would be enough for me.

I don’t know a lot about life, but I know that when someone recommends a book about one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse falling in love with a human during end times, you read it.

That’s it. That’s the review.

I’ve been planning on reading Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble since it was announced because no byline makes me click a celeb profile faster (and it will never stop being funny that when she interviewed Hiddleston after the TSwift debacle she got papped with him and was briefly “an unidentified brunette” and romantic rumors swirled). I waited a couple of months past the release date because I don’t read Lit Fic about miserable divorces in the summer. Don’t read them often, period. But Taffy.

So the audiobook joined me for errands as soon as the kids went back to school. The first section of Fleishman is, plot-wise, fairly standard man-sad-and-horny lit fic, but Brodesser-Akner’s prose kept me hanging on. I’d recommend reading, rather than listening to this section. But then the point of view changes and everything gets turned on its head and I cried middle-aged feminist tears through the last section. While my husband was away on business and I was making jam and staying up past my bedtime to buy a dress I loved in my twenties from the Target anniversary re-release. When you’ve read the book you’ll know this is an uncomfortably on-the-nose way to read Fleishman is in Trouble and I’ll be thinking about it for a long time. Guessing you will too.

In an idyllic suburb, a young woman’s disappearance will bring to light secrets both fresh and long hidden. Still recovering years later from the sudden death of her sister, Cora, her mother Sarah and their friend Jade have carved out envy-worthy lives, but their pain is still very real. Neighbor Laurel is struggling with a darkness that would shock everyone who knows her and her husband Dash. Their stories unfold as alternating perspectives reveal a timeline of events leading up to and after the disappearance of one of Laurel’s daughters.

At its core, We Were Mothers is about the emotions women have tied up in their children and the decisions they make because of their maternal love. The men in their lives, however, seem driven only by ego and primal urges. With her first entry into adult fiction, Katie Sise, better known for her YA novels and jewelry line, spins a tale that is not flattering to the male of the species. The indefensible actions of some characters may seem over the top, yet it all feels like something similar could go down in my neighborhood. We Were Mothers takes a bit of time to get to the meat of the story, but plot twists and a dose of karma make it a worthwhile read.