Coming of age isn't just for kids.
Astrid Strick has always tried to do her best for her three children. Now, they're finally grown up - but you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise.
Elliot doesn't have any idea who he really is, or how to communicate with his own sons. Porter is, at last, pregnant - but feels incapable of rising to the challenge. Nicky has fled to distant New Mexico, where he's living the bohemian dream.
And Astrid herself is up to things that would make her children's hair curl.
Until now, the family have managed to hide their true selves from each other. But when Nicky's incorrigibly curious daughter Cecelia comes to stay, her arrival threatens to upturn everything...
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[Astrid Strick had never liked Barbara Baker, not for a single day of their forty-year acquaintance, but when Barbara was hit and killed by an empty, speeding school bus at the intersection of Main and Morrison streets on the eastern side of the town roundabout, Astrid knew that her life had changed, the shock of which was indistinguishable grief]***
(@MichaelJBooks, 9 July 2020, 314 pages, e-book, #ARC from @MichaelJBooks via # NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed)
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I'd never heard of the author before. I decided to read the book because I was looking for something different from the stuff I usually read. I enjoyed this book so I might check out other books by the author. I've read similar books before, so I was in comfortable, familiar territory. I have a soft spot for family sagas but not too light. I found the characters, especially the children relatable. Just because someone is an 'adult' doesn't mean they have a clue about life or have achieved what they want. Much of the focus in the book is Astrid and the relationship she has with her three children, who even though they are adults are still figuring things out. There's a lot to enjoy here but the book falls short at times. Everything is reported at times and I struggled to make an emotional connection. I enjoyed a lot but felt the book could have been much better.