WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN WITH THIS BOOK?!?!? Just go pick up this book and read it, its a hug in a book, it is amazing, it is everything you need I promise. 

I actually tried to read this book in March 2020 and I DNFed it, I think I just wasn't in the right place for it but I had to come back to it because LITERALLY everyone loved it. I am SOOOo happy I came back, once I got past the little bit of slowness at the beginning I never wanted to put it down and I didnt want to leave the world this book created for me. I would adopt all of these children. I want to live on this island, I want to be part of this found family. 

Just an overwhelming feeling of love and passion for this book. Everyone should read it, so fantastic!

Its a fun and silly read, pretty relatable for book lovers. Its not meant to be serious, written in a tongue-in-cheek manner. The perfect gift for a self-proclaimed bookworm.

Crumudgeon literature mixed with mystery/crime and a bit of humor. I really enjoyed this book, I enjoyed the characters anctics and the "Thursday murder club" solving more so than the crime itself. I took a star off for the pacing and how sometimes the story dragged on. Overall it was a fun and interesting twist on mystery./crime by having most of the characters be senior citizens with a passion for solving crimes. 

Character-driven, multigenerational, female-powered book. I loved and hated each of the characters at the same time and there were many times I wanted to shout at the sisters to come back together and communicate, this in my opinion is the mark of a good book. Overall I highly recommend this book if you like contemporary fiction, character driven, strong female characters, and stories about families across te generation. While I hate the taste of beer, this book made me crave beer and it was almost like the beer/brewery was a character as well. 

It is insane that a male author wrote these women SOOo well. I listened to it on audio and the narrator was also VERY good as well (I will give her a 5 star) and brought the different characters to life. 

Talk about a family and people you can fall in love with. The Vanderbeekers siblings are so much fun and have a fantastic relationship. 

Follow them while they try to make their grumpy landlord happy so that they can stay in their brownstone

I loved how the neighborhood and the brownstone itself became almost like its own character. Every character we met was lovable and relatable. Just an overall heartwarming story and I can’t wait to read the rest in this series. I will listen in audio because the narrator was soo good  

A quick but important read. A sad and interesting take on  black kids being shot by cops. What really infuriates me is that this happens and that action and change doesn’t take place in our society until someone does. A person shouldn’t have to die in order for us to take notice and make changes. This book really drove that home to me. 

Jerome is a young black kid who was just playing in the park, yes he had a toy gun, but he got shot by the cops in the back without any warning whatsoever. He is now a ghost and he is trying to understand his death , best witness, and figure out some key thin. It goes between him as a ghost and his final day alive. Other ghosts of you g black boys tht were killed are also there. A lot of important things are said in this book . It really reminded me though tht I’m not doing enough.  

Talk about a book that is heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time. Also a book that I will probably think about for a long time to come. There were a ton of things I highlighted in the book and lots of philosophical takes on lofe.

It was interesting to see all the different lives that Nora could have in parallel universes . Also the idea of what happens when you are on the edge of death, parallel lives, quantum physics , and reflection . 

 “You don’t have to understand life . You just have to live it.” 

This is such a great reflection and take on how we are living life, how small decisions can change your life and also how a lot of times it is just about changing your perspective to change your life. 

The pacing of this was perfect and it was really great to see all the different types of lives she could have had and how varied they were. 

“Possibility is at the basis of everything. Every hope, every dream, every regret, every moment of living” 

A beautiful story about a very lovable character, Carley connors, who finds herself in a temporary placement with a foster family. She really has never been shown typical motherly love and what it’s like to be part of a “normal family”. She finds such a special connection and love at the Murphy’s especially from the mother , Julie Murphy. This book has you rooting so hard for Carley and also feeling all the emotions and hoping the best for her. 

Carley doesn’t know how to face her emotions and she often uses humor to deal with tough situations. she really reflects the turmoil that foster kids go through and also how hard it is to find and experience love. The loce that the Murphy’s show her especially Julie and Michael eric (the youngest son) is soo touching. 

The tough part about this book was how they dealt with the situation that got her into this in the first place and it seemed to be too lax on her mother. I felt that a lot of this wasn’t rooted in reality. There were also a few other tough spots with how the foster and social worker system was portrayed that made me take away a star

Overall I really liked this book and the story and the characters were so lovable and heartbreaking at the same time. 

A heart breaking story following 3 refugee children in different times but somehow they are all linked .
 Josef is a 12/13 year Jewish boy trying to escape from Germany and the Nazis. 
Isabel is a 12 year old Cuban girl trying to escape from Cuba to Miami to get away from Castro
Mahmoud is a Syrian boy trying to escape the violence and war torn country in 2015 

It was heartbreaking to see and read about their struggles and also how dangerous these escapes truly were. The author did a great job switching between the three different story lines and showing their tough journeys. It’s a very tough book because we know these type of things truly happened and it’s hard to see the atrocities humans of all different ages had to go through.

The pacing of this book was perfect and it was very well written. The characters were lovable and felt very real. It made me feel a lot of emotions. I also liked the way the author tied some of the storylines together.