by Annabel Monaghan

I find a fourth box of cornstarch and it takes me down. I use one teaspoon of cornstarch once a year to make a pecan pie for Thanksgiving. How have I become a person who doesn’t have the time or energy to check the pantry before she buys more cornstarch? How is it possible that I am a professional organizer who doesn’t even make a grocery list?

Just a 3. This is going to be short and somewhat slapdash. This book didn’t get off on the right foot with me, because Ali, our heroine, got on my bad side from the get-go. And the more I got to know her, the more I didn’t like or approve of her. Her mother had died two years ago, but she was letting her absence take over her life, to the harm of her children. When her husband comes home on the first anniversary of her mother’s death and finds her sobbing with a “sink full of unopened mail” he announces he does not want to be married anymore. When we see more and more how Ali has let herself and her life go to pot, I didn’t much blame him. Now I respect that she was very close to her mother and there is no timetable for grief, but that doesn’t mean I would enjoy mucking around in the “slough of despond” with her. Another year passes, and Ali is still in the same place. Also, although she remembers her mother as always there to protect, support, and entertain her and her kids, I sensed something a little off in their relationship. I didn’t like it.

As the book progresses, and she meets the love interest (who was lovely) she starts to pull herself together and my antipathy diminished. Unfortunately, it came part way back again when her younger new man gives her skateboard lessons and she puts her baseball cap on backwards. I skipped through most of the romance part because it was just so blah for me. He was completely besotted with her and it was so very smooth. I loved how she got the best of her husband during the divorce arbitration and Ethan’s (“Scooter’s”) role in that. Her husband turned out to be a real jerk. Then Ali lost me again by breaking up with such a great guy who was so good for her and her kids because she wouldn’t even explore the idea of moving to his town just because she had children. Or even try to make a long-distance (4 hours by car) relationship work.

This was well-written and had some good parts in it. I liked that Ali realized that some of the problems with her husband were her fault and that her perfect mother was also not so perfect after all.