Abbi Waxman - The Garden of Small Beginnings

Lilian Girvan has been a single mother for three years ever since her husband died in a car accident.
One mental breakdown and some random suicidal thoughts later, she's just starting to get the hang of this widow thing. She can now get her two girls to school, show up to work, and watch TV like a pro. The only problem is she s becoming overwhelmed with being underwhelmed.
At least her textbook illustrating job has some perks like actually being called upon to draw whale genitalia. Oh, and there s that vegetable-gardening class her boss signed her up for. Apparently being the chosen illustrator for a series of boutique vegetable guides means getting your hands dirty, literally. Wallowing around in compost on a Saturday morning can t be much worse than wallowing around in pajamas and self-pity.
After recruiting her kids and insanely supportive sister to join her, Lilian shows up at the Los Angeles Botanical Garden feeling out of her element. But what she ll soon discover with the help of a patient instructor and a quirky group of gardeners.

Comment: Back in March I've read another book by this author which didn't wow me as much as the first one I had read by the author had. With this third attempt, I was more in sync with the expectations of a woman's fiction story and it ended up being sweet although predictable.

Lillian is an illustrator who works for a small but consistent firm and she likes what she does, even though her personal life took a dive after her husband was killed in a car accident. She has to raise her daughters and she has many other worries but things once again offer her a change when a work project demands her to attend a gardening class. For a few weeks, she and a small group of other participants, including her daughters and her sister, will learn how to plant a vegetable garden and the reward will be to have a meal out of the produce that would result. At first it seemed it would all be quite boring and uninteresting but there is more to gardening than anyone in the group imagined... and perhaps even a possible romance for Lillian...

I would say this was good woman's fiction story. Lillian is a likable heroine and the writing style somehow felt on point in this story, making several passages more than pleasant to read. I might not see it as positively as I did the first book by the author I've tried but it was definitely more engaging to me than the one I've tried in March. By now I can say this author doesn't dazzle me, but her work is competent and I like it quite well in general.

The plot is quite simple. Lillian is an illustrator, has two daughters, a sister who is very different from her but with whom she has a great relationship and a mother who isn't always as supportive as she would like. Her work is fulfilling and the gardening challenge one she embarks on with ease, especially since she can take her children too. I was quite interested in seeing the scenes and dynamics of the gardening group because each chapter begins with instructions on how to plant this or that, being most suggestions things the group plants on their garden.

I'm not a fan of plants, well planting them, but those sections were interesting and I assumed we would have more garden scenes as well as certainly gardening metaphors for Lillian's life. In fact, this wasn't as visible as that and the focus wasn't as much on the elements I assumed we would see. Since the group only meets on Saturdays and the class will last for only a few weeks, the actual gardening part isn't as highlighted as I would have liked, but I think the proportion between this and the rest probably will appeal to most readers who don't like gardening at all.

Everything is hared by Lillian's POV. I liked her and I empathized with her, which made the reading experience a positive one. A huge part of this story is about her journey in the time it takes for the plot to take place and in this time she needs to face several situations, and some aren't easy to deal with. I think Lillian is very calm and she reacts to more negative situations in a very moderated and mature manner... I think this makes her quite gracious but perhaps a bit too perfect.

Lillian is also in mourning, although her husband has been dead for three years now. I could sympathize with her state of mind and her way of thinking of what goes n around her, but this book also includes a suggestion of romance. It's really just a suggestion... part of me wishes this had been heavier in the romance department because it would be an easy job to go in that direction and make this a stronger book overall, to me. The way things happen, it can be enough but the potential is a little bit wasted too...

As expected, before the end where everything is solved and the characters go on to their more or less happy lives, there are some conflicts and difficulties to overcome. Somethings felt exaggerated or, perhaps, dealt with in a boring way. If a few details were not to be included, I've felt, nothing major would have been lost. This ended up being a good read and one I'd re-read years in the future, if I were to feel like re-reading. At the moment, too many books waiting for me to re-read full stories.

Grade: 7/10

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

Abbi Waxman - The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

Meet Nina Hill: A young woman supremely confident in her own...shell.
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.

Comment: This book has been well liked by many readers and I added it to my TBR last year for how could I not when it's about someone who loves books? It was finally time to get to it...

In this book we meet Nina Hill, a 29 year old woman whose childhood was OK but not as great as it could because her mother, a photographer, has wanderlust and left her with a nanny. Nina has coped and feels fine with this but it is true she has felt alone. Now she has a job at a bookstore, she has all kinds of things she is part of, including trivia nights, but her steady, predictable life - as she likes it - takes a turn when out of nowhere someone shows up and tells her that her father has died and left her something. She knew her father had never been in the picture, after all her mother has been honest from the start, so this is quite a novelty and disturbance of her quiet life. Besides, one of the guys from an opposed team at her trivia nights is getting under her skin... how can she deal with so many changes at once?

For me, this was a very easy and fluid story to read. The writing is simple, direct and without constant repetition. I hadn't read other books by the author before but I might look for them at some point since the writing style was appealing. The plot is simple too, not filled with too much drama or over the top situations and I was rooting for the main character all the way.

Nina is a character I think all book lovers can sympathize and identify with, for she lives and breathes books and has had them as friends all her life. How easy it was to imagine myself as her, and except for a few details, her reasoning and look on life were something I could see myself saying/sharing. Nina is a compelling character in the sense she likes being quiet, having her books and her cat and she isn't bitter about it, in fact she embraces her somewhat introvert nature, having all kinds of clubs and groups she is part of and which allow her enough socialization.

The plot isn't complicated, of course for someone with all things organized in her life, only a sudden novelty could change everything and the discovery of a deceased father and all the immediate family she gains by it make her have to deal with things she wasn't aware of. However, the tone of the story is light, not too focused on dramas or stress and I liked the personality of practically all the secondary characters, for all had something about them that counterbalanced Nina and, because of that, we can see how she deals with new things and new people.

With these new additions to her life, plus some worries about her job, Nina has a lot to think about but one issue that feels too obvious as something that could cause her sadness is her relationship with her mother. They do get along but we certainly read between the lines how alone Nina has felt although she never reveals if this was a trauma or not. she has coped, she deals with it as best as she can but I can assume this might feel a little unsolved for some readers.

Then we have the romance, something that also suddenly makes Nina has to think about her lifestyle and priorities. I mean, she is not too keen on being in a relationship because she actually doesn't want to change what she sees as easy and stable and something she likes, which is doing things her won way, without having to worry about someone else - how I understand her! - but this also being fiction, of course she and Tom, awkward nerds as they are described, still fall in love despite the scenes where they don't seem to be in sync.I liked this part of the story, how Nina acts and describes her feelings on this issue.

At the same time, I can't help feeling this book is missing something, some kind of lacking issues to make it perfect... I liked the story but it wasn't as riveting as I'd like, all things considered. I can't explain what that something else could be, but it does feel as if everything fits the correct boxes too quickly...as if the plans the author had were all too easy and there were no real surprises to deal with. I just know this could have been a little better somehow... nevertheless, it was a very good read.

Grade: 8/10