This book is about three roommates, Cate, Abby and Renee all as they navigate love and work as 20-30 somethings. Once again, Sarah brings realism and heart to her work as she weaves their lives together. They make mistakes, they hurt people, but they also stand by each other and that’s what makes me love the characters and the book too. This review has some spoilers below. 

To start off, Cate, I imagine her as the leader/mother of the group. She gets promoted to a great job as editor in her work but because of her young age, no one seems to respect her or believe she can pull it off. Including herself. She feels that she isn’t ready for it either but she doesn’t want to back down despite the pressure to do well or else she’ll seem like a kid who was given the reins for no good reason. Then there is the problem with her love life as she falls slowly for her new roommates brother. Not to mention her family life as her mom suffers from old age and abandonment of her husband to a younger women. She does start to pull through though some of her life is still open ended. But that I think makes her realistic. Life is open ended so who knows where it will lead. Only drawback here is that compared to her roommates Cate was given a lighter spotlight since her plot wasn’t as interesting. 

Renee, is also vying for a higher position at the fashion magazine she is working at but soon self doubt creeps in when her competitor comments on her weight. How can she judge fashion when she can’t fit into the fashions. Yeah, I know, low blow there. So Renee starts taking diet pills to become skinny. This is about image and control and how far she wants to go to get that job, also a bit of how she thinks it will make her deserve it since she worked so hard to get to it. It’s awful how much she struggles with this image and isolates everyone from her problems. It only makes it much more bittersweet when she admits that she needs help and takes time for herself. But she at least she also sees the low blows herself when the competition snarks at her again and she snaps. She realizes it will never be enough, and moreover it’s wrong to judge someone based on appearances.

Abby, the mysterious new third roommates comes to town, and she seems like a sweet girl. Well adjusted, nice, kind. Why would she ever leave her home? Well her mom and dad are totally emotionally distant for no reason. Well there is but I’m not going to give too many spoilers here. Read for yourself on that one. However as she babysits for her current employer she struggles with her feelings for the very much married dad, the dislike of the mom who is quiet similar to her own ice queen mother, and her maternal love for the child she is caring. All these emotions make for a very gripping story as the dad seems to accept Abby’s tentative advances, and I even feel for the mom who clearly knows what is going on too. Not to mention Abby’s own feelings that she would make a better mom to her charge. Eventually as the book goes on, she starts to untangle her past and how it affects her now and makes the sad decision to quit. For the sake of the daughter. Even though she so desperately wants to continue caring for her.

Overall this was a well done book and shows female friendships unintentionally helping each other and how the past affects the present, and how work affects identity and maternal relations.