The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go by Amy E. Reichert Narrator: Teri Schnaubelt
Length: 8 hours and 12 minutes
Series: standalone
Published by Tantor Audio on Tantor Audio
Genres: Womens Fiction
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher, Tantor Audio
Buy on Amazon
Rating:
I received this book for free from Publisher, Tantor Audio in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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...
A lovely story that follows three generations of women, a mother-daughter relationship story told by three different women and their life-altering secrets.
This was a great book to listen to, I thought the narrator Teri Schnaubelt really brought the characters and the story to life, I was pulled in so much I did not even bother with the ebook, which I also had a copy with.
The writing was really cozy. I liked learning about Gina’s past and how the author chose to unfold her painful past as well as how her mother Lorraine might understand her daughter more than she shows.
I loved that this book focused on family and building or mending relationships, rather it’s by understand and talking about the past, accepting, and listening to how the other members of the family feel.
The only place I really struggled was Lorraine’s part of the book. I could understand where she was coming, but my biggest issue was her behavior towards Gina’s husband upon meeting her and how her own past wasn’t much different. She really felt like the worlds biggest hypocrite and that bothered me, I did not understand how someone that was so in love ones refused to accept the same for her daughter. Her own unhappiness in her marriage should have encouraged her daughter to marry whoever her heart desires, but her self-perseverance put a chasm between her and her daughter.
I found both stories to be really sad and pull on my heart strings.
I wish Lorraine’s ending was different than the one the author chose to give her, but overall, the ending in the book was pretty solid.
I really enjoyed this as an audiobook and definitely found it a great read with interesting characters overall.
