The whole time I was reading this I was waffling between dislike, and choosing not to finish. Ultimately I finished the book because I kept wondering when I would come to the information mentioned in the summary. The answer was: never, really. 

I was very intrigued by the summary and excited, at first, to read something outside of my comfort genre. I guess just not a "slice of life" person. 

Let me segment this review into what I liked and didn't like specifically. We'll start with what I didn't like so I can end on a positive. I didn't like the amount of characters. Way too many characters with way to many details about them that I felt were irrelevant and did absolutely nothing to drive the plot. I felt that the grandchildren were all annoying and irrelevant, the wives of Joy's children were irrelevant - and though I felt like Freddie was the most likeable character, her arc and story was simply not necessary to move the story. At. All. And speaking of Freddie, I felt like there was a mist of weird homophobia disguised as "oh change is hard for an old lady" vibe that just put me off. Like, the amount of times she was mentioned, followed by a subtle homophobic addendum was just too many. Lastly, I disliked that the character that Joy was supposed to have a frivolous, girlish fling with (which was what originallypiqued my interest) was not even mentioned until literally 81% of the way through the story. I felt like I wasted my time with this book, waiting for the story I THOUGHT was going to happen. And don't get me started on how annoyed I was by Joy's children when her new love interest was integrated... I understand that it was written to express how different people deal with grief but they both came across as spoiled, bougie, childish people. 

But let's talk about the things that I did like that made me push through. I liked the realism. Though the characters themselves were all pretty much unlikable - including Joy - that's just life. There are going to be irritable people who go through things that are hard, and they will become more jaded for it. I like that Joy stood up for herself toward the end of the book and made choices for for HER. I'm glad she found some closure. 

Overall, I really did not enjoy this book and I felt mislead by the summary. I don't think I would recommend it to anyone else, but like I mentioned earlier, slice of life is not my cup of tea. If it's yours, maybe you can find more to love about this book than I did.