Kelly Harms

My first Novella - won’t be my last, by Kelly Harms.

Rather than music while I cleaned house, I decided to listen to a book; I ended up binging this entire short novella.

You Can Thank Me Later is the story of three siblings, two married brothers and their terminally single younger sister, Sophie. When cancer comes back to take the younger brother’s wife, who happens to be Sophie’s best friends, the tight family works to embrace the new girl brought into the fold.

Kelly Harms does an exceptional job reaching the ugly truth of emotions that surround a dying person and the guilt and anger one goes through in trying to keep that memory alive while moving forward with life.

You Can Thank Me Later is a very good depiction of life after death - in the literal sense, not to mention it is very well written and entertaining.

Thumbs up!… (mais)

Not my typical choice, but this book was a very popular read this year in the reading Facebook groups I follow. Sounds like the author writes like she speaks, down to earth, but, unfortunately, I didn’t find a lot of substance to it and found it just an average read...take it or leave it. Maybe if I were younger, I could have connected with the story more.

Amy Byler had been raising her two teenage kids on her own now for the past 3 years on a librarian’s salary in Pennsylvania after a 15 year marriage fell apart. Her husband walked out of all their lives and made a new life in another country with a younger woman. When it fell apart, he was back...3 years later...and wanted to make it right by the kids...and possibly her.

When he takes the kids for a week, she finds herself in New York with her career oriented single friend, Talia, who works for a beauty magazine. Talia sets her up for a makeover from head to toe and they create a new following called #momspringa on twitter, where moms raising their kids and working their asses off with no breaks and no time for themselves get a weeks vacation from it all. Amy gets pampered, photographed and becomes very popular. Single men begin to contact her for dates, but only one stole her heart...Daniel, who is a book nerd just like herself. She then has the opportunity to extend her stay in New York for two more months when her previous husband says he’d like the kids to just stay the summer with him before he returned to Hong Kong for his job.

Unfortunately, I didn’t really feel like I got to know Daniel in the novel to be rooting for him over all the other men. But, what I did get is the fact that Amy almost let herself go too deep into the single, carefree life when she had kids back home in Pennsylvania. (That can easily happen when you are hanging out with singles who push you to do things you know you probably shouldn’t be doing, and it will be fun but only for so long.) She would have to get back to her boring life as a reader, writer and teacher, which was actually her style, and drop all the highfalutin, fake lifestyle of New York. It wasn’t until one of her kids had a terrible accident that she realized just how much she missed and loved them. The question was what to do about Daniel. Of course, if it’s true love, the end works itself out just like in the book.… (mais)

Amy's husband returns after three years and wants to spend time with their children without her. At first, she is resistant but decides to allow it as she can then do her continuing education credits for her job during that week. He then decides he wants the summer so, after much agonizing, she agrees and returns to NYC where she uses her friend's apartment who is a magazine editor and has decided to chronical Amy's summer as #momspringa. Amy is treated to new clothes, beauty treatments, and goes on dates while on momspringa. Is Amy successful on her momspringa? Does she get back with her husband? Are the kids okay with this arrangement?

I loved this. I especially loved how each chapter started with a "letter" from her daughter, Cori, telling her what was going on and what she felt about her mother's chosen book. They were humorous and priceless. I liked Amy's reluctance with her husband. I was glad she finally saw the truth. Her friends, Talia and Lena, were a hoot as they group texted her. She comes back to life in this summer. She is all the things she put away when she got married. Now with the time away from her responsibilities, she rediscovered who she was and is. She is also more interesting to her children. She is definitely interesting to the men she meets in NYC.

I found this fun. I liked that Amy learned how strong she was and continued with what she learned about herself.… (mais)