Abbi Waxman

I tend to shy away from books with such rave reviews as I often am disappointed; The Bookish Life of Nina Hill was quite the contrary - it was such fun!

Nina is in her late-20s, with a loving but very absent mother and a father she has never known or even heard of until he dies and she is listed as an heir. Suddenly, the single child is thrust into the chaos of multiple siblings, nieces, nephews, and cousins. Accustomed to her only real drama being in the form of the books she reads or sells at the book shop where she works, Nina must learn to navigate family for the first time, which is fun for the reader, trying for Nina.

As a side note, and to bring a twist to the plot, Nina is a trivia geek and belongs to a group of competitors vying for a bar trivia championship; here, of course, is where she meets her love interest, Tom.

The book is so well-written and fun that it doesn't really matter the depth or perhaps lack thereof in the plot; not that the plot is lacking - but you get the gist. Gone with the Wind, it is not.

Abbi Waxman has done a lovely job of weaving this story and her words flow and are so true and seamless that it is easy to get lost in the pages. I strongly suggest blessing Ms. Waxman to take you on the journey of Nina Hill, it's worth the time.… (mais)

This story was a wonderful combination of humorous and heart-warming. Christa Liddle has hidden herself away on an island in the Indian Ocean studying ocean snails. She grew up in the spotlight as the daughter of a TV presenter/naturalist who disappeared in Alaska when Christa was a toddler.

Christa's mother kept the legend alive and furthered her husband's work by setting up a foundation to support conservation efforts which is what led to Christa's fame since she was brought along to publicity events and TV shows mainly to be cute and hold cute animals. In her teens she went a little wild drinking and using drugs until a traumatic event at one of her mother's benefits. Sent off to boarding school. Christa feel in love with zoology.

But now her life in isolation comes to an abrupt end. The father who disappeared twenty-five years earlier has reappeared from the depths of Alaska. Christa, her two older sisters, and her mother have to deal with all the changes this makes in her life. For Christa, it brings out her fears that her youthful excesses will be brought up again.

It also means a reunion with Nate who was a childhood friend of her older sisters and the object of Christa's crush. He was the one who saved her from more harm at the benefit. She doesn't know quite what to make of him now that she is seeing him through adult eyes. But they seem to be falling in love.

This was an excellent story. I laughed out loud more than one time as I was reading and I felt deeply for the confusion Christa feels about the reappearance of her missing father.… (mais)

I genuinely do not know how to rate this book. I neither loved it nor hated it, but I think I disliked it just a tiny tad more than I liked it! I think I disliked the fact that a certain character (and thankfully was not a main character) had not-so-nice things to say about people of a certain age, which I am one of!

Authors, please don't insult what could possibly be a large part of your audience. Those of us of a certain age like to read books like this too, you know!

I expected something that I did not get; I got more romance than I expected, less comedy than I expected, and more characters that I disliked. I didn't even feel all that much for the Liddle family.

However, the story was, for the most part, an interesting and clever one and had an intriguing little twist at the end.

*Arc was supplied by the publisher Penguin Group/Berkley Books, the author, and NetGalley.… (mais)