Review: The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go by Amy Reichert

The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go

by Amy Reichert

Publisher: Gallery Books

Pages: 352

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  1. Get through to your daughter. 2. Buy more cheese. 3. Don't forget to call your mother.

Grilled G's Gourmet Food Truck is where chef, owner, obsessive list-maker, and recent widow Gina Zoberski finds the order and comfort she needs to struggle through each day, especially when confronted with her critical mother Lorraine and sullen daughter May.

Image-conscious Lorraine always knows best and expects her family to live up to her high expectations, no matter what. May just wants to be left alone to mourn her father in her own way. Gina always aims to please, but finds that her relentlessly sunny disposition annoys both her mother and her daughter, no matter how hard she tries.

But when Lorraine suffers a sudden stroke, Gina stumbles upon a family secret Lorraine's kept hidden for forty years. In the face of her mother's failing health and her daughter's rebellion, this optimist might find that piecing together the truth is the push she needs to let go...


Kritters Thoughts:  Gina is still mourning the loss of her husband, but she is making ends meet and trying to connect with her daughter, May.  Early in the book, Lorraine, Gina's mother has a medical emergency and Gina, May and Gina's sister Vicky have to come together to help Lorraine and maybe put some pieces together as to why Lorraine has become the woman she has without her help.  I may have completely confused you by this synopsis, but really there are sister relationships, mother daughter relationships and maybe a big discovery as to the things that happen to you in your past will define your future.  

I loved reading about the girls putting together the pieces of Lorraine's past and how they inform the marriages that each girl went into.  I thought it was so interesting how the author had the girls learn about their mother's past and how she couldn't help them through the puzzle.  

I always love a book where the relationships seem real and authentic.  All the relationships presented in this book felt like one I am in or one my friend is in.  I laughed out loud a few times as the conversations between these women felt just so real.  I love a book where there are both positive and negative relationships and life isn't all cloudy days or sunshine and rainbows!

Amy Reichert has three books on her backlist and this is my first time reading her.  I will absolutely have to pick up one or more from her backlist soon because I loved these women so much!


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Ebook 2018 Challenge: 40 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.