Book Spotlight Giveaway! Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman

I have sooooo many books! The Book Spotlight Giveaway feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to clear my shelves and to share some of the many books I have. This feature is a way for my to cull my collection and to give someone else the opportunity to enjoy these treasures.

I read Other People's Houses earlier this year when it came out and really enjoyed it. You can find my review post here. I'm giving it up to let someone else have a chance to read it.

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Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

Other People's Houses

Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman
ARC, 352 pages
Published April 3rd 2018 by Berkley Books

The author of The Garden of Small Beginnings returns with a hilarious and poignant new novel about four families, their neighborhood carpool, and the affair that changes everything.

At any given moment in other people's houses, you can find...repressed hopes and dreams...moments of unexpected joy...someone making love on the floor to a man who is most definitely not her husband...

*record scratch*

As the longtime local carpool mom, Frances Bloom is sometimes an unwilling witness to her neighbors' private lives. She knows her cousin is hiding her desire for another baby from her spouse, Bill Horton's wife is mysteriously missing, and now this...

After the shock of seeing Anne Porter in all her extramarital glory, Frances vows to stay in her own lane. But that's a notion easier said than done when Anne's husband throws her out a couple of days later. The repercussions of the affair reverberate through the four carpool families--and Frances finds herself navigating a moral minefield that could make or break a marriage.

About the author

Abbi Waxman is a chocolate-loving, dog-loving woman, who lives in Los Angeles and lies down as much as possible. She worked in advertising for many years, which is how she learned to write fiction. She has three daughters, three dogs, three cats, and one very patient husband. ~ Amazon

Connect with Abbi

Website | Goodreads | Amazon

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Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman ~ My Thoughts

Other People's Houses

Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman
Paperback, 352 pages
Published April 3rd 2018 by Berkley Books

"Abbi Waxman is both irreverent and thoughtful."--#1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Giffin 

And now the author of The Garden of Small Beginnings returns with a hilarious and poignant new novel about four families, their neighborhood carpool, and the affair that changes everything.

At any given moment in other people's houses, you can find...repressed hopes and dreams...moments of unexpected joy...someone making love on the floor to a man who is most definitely not her husband...

*record scratch*

As the longtime local carpool mom, Frances Bloom is sometimes an unwilling witness to her neighbors' private lives. She knows her cousin is hiding her desire for another baby from her spouse, Bill Horton's wife is mysteriously missing, and now this...

After the shock of seeing Anne Porter in all her extramarital glory, Frances vows to stay in her own lane. But that's a notion easier said than done when Anne's husband throws her out a couple of days later. The repercussions of the affair reverberate through the four carpool families--and Frances finds herself navigating a moral minefield that could make or break a marriage.

    

My thoughts about Other People's Houses ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first lines.)

First line—"It's amazing how many children you could fit in a minivan, if you tessellated carefully and maintained only the most basic level of safety."

Other People's Houses gives us a look at a neighborhood where people sort of know each other and sort of know what is going on in those other people's lives. But as we get a glimpse of the insides of those other people's houses, we see that things are not what they seem to be or what we thought they were.

The story is mainly about the people who live in four houses, the adults as well as all of the children. At first, it seemed like a lot of characters to keep straight, but I quickly got to know them and I soon felt like I was just another neighbor on that street, finding out their secrets and lies.

This was a fascinating, sometimes hilarious, look at friends and acquaintances and what is perceived to be going on within the four walls of their houses. And how far can friends go before that friendship breaks? I thoroughly enjoyed Other People's Houses and would recommend it to those who like taking a look at the complexity of relationships or just want a fun book to get lost in.

I received an ARC of this book and am voluntarily reviewing it.

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About the Author

Abbi Waxman was born in England in 1970, the oldest child of two copywriters who never should have been together in the first place. Once her father ran off to buy cigarettes and never came back, her mother began a highly successful career writing crime fiction. She encouraged Abbi and her sister Emily to read anything and everything they could pull down from the shelves, and they did. Naturally lazy and disinclined to dress up, Abbi went into advertising, working as a copywriter and then a creative director at various advertising agencies in London and New York. Clients ranged from big and traditional, (AT&T, Chase Manhattan Bank, IBM, American Express, Unilever, Mercedes-Benz) to big and morally corrupt (R. J. Reynolds) to big and larcenous (Enron). Eventually she quit advertising, had three kids and started writing books, TV shows and screenplays, largely in order to get a moment’s peace.

Abbi lives in Los Angeles with her husband, three kids, three dogs, three cats, a gecko, two mice and six chickens. Every one of these additions made sense at the time, it’s only in retrospect that it seems foolhardy.

Feel free to drop her a line, she readily welcomes any excuse to stop working and do something else.

Connect with Abbi

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

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The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman ~ My Thoughts

The Garden of Small Beginnings

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
Paperback and ebook, 368 pages
Expected publication: May 2nd 2017 by Berkley Books

Not since Good Grief has a book about a young widow been so poignant, funny, original, and utterly believable. A compelling debut novel about loss.

Give grief a chance . . .

Lilian Girvan has been a single mother for three years—ever since her husband died in a car accident. One mental breakdown and some random suicidal thoughts later, she’s just starting to get the hang of this widow thing. She can now get her two girls to school, show up to work, and watch TV like a pro. The only problem is she’s becoming overwhelmed with being underwhelmed.

At least her textbook illustrating job has some perks—like actually being called upon to draw whale genitalia. Oh, and there’s that vegetable-gardening class her boss signed her up for. Apparently being the chosen illustrator for a series of boutique vegetable guides means getting your hands dirty, literally. Wallowing around in compost on a Saturday morning can’t be much worse than wallowing around in pajamas and self-pity.

After recruiting her kids and insanely supportive sister to join her, Lilian shows up at the Los Angeles Botanical Garden feeling out of her element. But what she’ll soon discover—with the help of a patient instructor and a quirky group of gardeners—is that into every life a little sun must shine, whether you want it to or not…

 

My thoughts about The Garden of Small Beginnings ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first lines.)

First line—"It's been more than three years since my husband died, yet in many ways he's more useful than ever."

I enjoyed The Garden of Small Beginnings immensely. Lilian is a young widow with a small child trying to make it all work. She gets an assignment to work on the illustrations in a gardening book. Little did she know that this assignment would change her life.

Her boss makes her take a gardening class so she can be better informed about her upcoming job. I loved all the wonderful characters that she and her son meet in this class. There are a lot of misfits in the class and people with problems but they all just seem to mesh and connect with each other.

The Garden of Small Beginnings is an enjoyable story about the power of friendship and support and I loved every minute of it!

I received a copy of this book from First to Read and am voluntarily reviewing it.

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