Review: I Was Told it Would Get Easier by Abbi Waxman

Release date: June 16, 2020

Publisher: Berkley

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Blurb:

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.

Review:

Abbi Waxman is just my kind of author, I adore her style and would read anything she writes, aight unseen. I don’t need to read the description or see the cover, I’m already sold as long as her name is attached. She’s an incredibly witty author and there’s always a playful quirkiness in her books, this was no exception.

Last year I fell head over heels for The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and now I have two new characters to love in mother/daughter duo Jessica and Emily. You hear from both women in alternating chapters and the author captured both personalities so well. Road trips can be fun, but they can also be hard, and so can mother/daughter relationships especially when the daughter is a moody teenager. Add in the stress of being on a college tour with a bunch of strangers and things can be tense. Both women were so relatable especially in terms of how they reacted to situations and bumps in the road, they just felt super authentic and like genuine, real life people and not just characters in a book. Definitely recommended to add to your summer reading list, it was funny, smart and heartfelt.