Abbi Waxman - I Was Told It Would Get Easier

Jessica and Emily Burnstein have very different ideas of how this college tour should go.
For Emily, it’s a preview of freedom, exploring the possibility of her new and more exciting future. Not that she’s sure she even wants to go to college, but let’s ignore that for now. And maybe the other kids on the tour will like her more than the ones at school. . . . They have to, right?
For Jessica, it’s a chance to bond with the daughter she seems to have lost. They used to be so close, but then Goldfish crackers and Play-Doh were no longer enough of a draw. She isn’t even sure if Emily likes her anymore. To be honest, Jessica isn’t sure she likes herself.
Together with a dozen strangers–and two familiar enemies–Jessica and Emily travel the East Coast, meeting up with family and old friends along the way. Surprises and secrets threaten their relationship and, in the end, change it forever.

Comment: This is the second book I try by this author, after having read another one back in 2021. With this one, I hoped to recover some of the emotions I had when I read that other one because while it wasn't perfect, it was good to me. I had some expectations for this one...

In this story we meet Jessica, an established woman who works as a lawyer and is very competent, so much that she threatens her boss with quitting if he doesn't consider another deserving woman to become partner at their agency. To make it sweeter, she is about to leave anyway, to be with her daughter in a planned trip to east coast colleges, which she hopes will bring them together somehow. 

Emily has a secret and she is hoping that this trip will place her far away enough so that she doesn't have to deal with it or tell her mother. Things between them aren't as they used to and close proximity might be too much, but both get a bit disappointed when they realize another mother-daughter duo from Emily's school are there too, and they wish they hadn't to interact with them. It will be quite the road trip, but will both get what they want from it?

Having read the other book by the author, which a woman's fiction tale with some elements of romance, made me create an expectation about what this one might be like. I confess I was expecting something similar and that Jessica, the mother, would find someone and a romance would be included in the story somehow. This didn't happen and when I started to adjust the expectations, I was already a little disappointed.

From the start we get the notion Jessica is a strong willed woman who faced many challenges to be the powerhouse at her company that she is known to be. I saw her as someone who was knowledgeable and determined but, of course, not as confident when it come to deal with her daughter now that she is a teenager and her different attitudes . Emily was likable enough but I wasn't as invested in her. I can understand her POV and behavior, but I just didn't feel fond of her. Both ladies have a secret, which plays a heavy role in their respective decisions throughout the novel.

In fact, the whole plot is a continuity of "adventures" as they embark on a road trip with other people, while they both debate internally what is happening and how they perceive the other one reacting to things. This dual POV in first person, while this isn't a romance novel, proves to be efficient in this situation and I liked the attempts the author did to add some humor to how they thought. I especially liked some of the thoughts Jessica had, were quite on point.

This method, however, didn't win me over to grasp enough about them as individuals. Their vulnerable sides were obvious by what was happening and by little tidbits they shared here and there or in conversations with others or something, but I really never felt that connection with them that often happens when I read a book I like. I've failed to be emotionally invested in them and there was a point where I was reading just to finish the novel. Things dragged after a bit and I've started to feel perhaps there would be no point to this novel after all.

I felt this even more when things finally reached the peak of the conflict, which is when Emily learns about her mother's threat to quit, and when we all learn about the secret Emily had been hiding. To be honest, that secret felt ridiculous, like sometimes movie plots are. I can't say it's impossible, I bet it's not, but... did nothing to me, not even to make me see Emily differently. Both issues, Emily's secret and Jessica's threat, were made to be heavy and worrisome both each of them, which I can accept. What was a total loss was how these things were dealt with. They were both easily, quickly managed. I wonder, then, why such a big novel with this on our heads? Might as well have been only about them connecting for emotional reasons, no need to add external motives.

Since there was no romance anywhere, and the Jessica and Emily didn't seem to change/evolve that much just because of what happens in the story (what changed felt minor to me because of how it was written), I ended up the story disappointed. Even the interaction with secondary characters and the humor attempts stopped being key to captivate me. I still have two more books by this author to read and I will now expect different types of novels. Perhaps this will mean I'll be more positively surprised!

One thing, though, which did add something to the plus side of things: despite years watching Hollywood movies and reading books set in the US, I truly had no idea that there are actual companies/agencies offering college trips for students and parents to visit them in an organized way, within a group experience! Quite a system! In my country this doesn't exist, professionally I mean, but my country is so small, who would think it anyway. Therefore, this was something I've learned with this book, it seems expensive but quite the market niche!

Grade: 6/10