Genre: Fiction, Contemporary
They're a glamorous family, the Caseys. Johnny Casey, his two brothers Ed and Liam, their beautiful, talented wives and all their kids spend a lot of time together--birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, weekends away. And they're a happy family. Johnny's wife, Jessie--who has the most money--insists on it. Under the surface, though, conditions are murkier. While some people clash, other people like each other far too much . . . Still, everything manages to stay under control--that is, until Ed's wife, Cara, gets a concussion and can't keep her thoughts or opinions to herself. One careless remark at Johnny's birthday party, with the entire family present, and Cara starts spilling all their secrets. As everything unravels, each of the adults finds themselves wondering if it's--finally--the time to grow up (description via goodreads).
I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It’s very long (around 600 pages) and it took me a while to get into. I almost stopped reading it at 10% because nothing much was happening in the plot. However, I stuck with it because I really liked the author’s writing style, and soon enough, I was hooked.
I liked that the characters were easy to differentiate between, even though there were so many of them. Each one was interesting to read about, and I didn’t feel the family drama was over the top. It was just enough to keep me entertained and invested in nearly all of the characters. While I do feel the book could have been a bit shorter, I loved reading about the different places that they traveled to. They took a lot of family trips, so at one point they walk around Florence, and then they went to a hipster festival later on in the book. I think that the author did an excellent job of transporting the reader to different places. I’ve been searching for a book that wasn’t too depressing to really suck me in and help me escape the United States of America for a while, and this one succeeded in doing that. It’s one that I may even reread.
Final Rating
0=No 1=Yes .5 =Kind of
- Was the book interesting? 1
- Was it easy to finish (even if I didn’t like it)? .5 (once I was hooked I couldn’t put it down).
- Was it emotionally engaging? 1
- Was it memorable? 1
- Would I read it again? 1
