Huh.

I was really excited for this one based on the premise and because Reese Witherspoon chose it for her book club, and I think she usually has quite good picks.

HOWEVER, I did not enjoy this.

It’s the story of two protagonists, Ava and Winnie, who start an international counterfeit luxury hand bags scheme, and all the hijinks that go along with that. Ava is the classic high achieving Stanford lawyer with a young child and surgeon husband. Winnie abruptly left Stanford under mysterious circumstances after a national fake SAT scandal. Years later they reconnect and start this business.

It’s split into Part 1 and Part 2.

Part 1 is about 40% of the book, and is told entirely from Ava’s POV, told in the past, because she’s speaking to a detective. Thus, from the very first page we know the scheme didn’t go successfully. It immediately loses all of the excitement and intrigue because you know the police are involved. The amount of times Ava says, “Now, detective, I know what you’re thinking” and then would lay out a potential flaw in their plan, only to immediately explain how they worked around it. Very annoying. Again, literally no intrigue because it’s all told in the past and you know the outcome (at least you think you do).

One of my pet peeves is entire plots in past tense. Even though there’s usually a reason why that plot device is used, I’m still annoyed by it. (Yes, I am looking at you here, Song of Achilles.)

I’m kinda bored the whole time, but thinking there must be something else to have intrigued the Hello Sunshine book club, so I keep going.

Part 2 is told from Winnie’s POV, and we find out all is not as it seems. Yet I’ve been bored the whole time up until now so I wasn’t even shocked by the twist. I was like “ok.”

So then more plot happens and it’s ok at best.

Then we get to the end. THE ENDING???? I can’t believe it. There’s not really a twist at the end, it kinda just ends and you’re like “?????” It feels like there’s supposed to be a moral, and the moral is that Winnie is the American dream?? What a baffling end.

Also I want to know what happens to both Henri the toddler and Maria the nanny at the end.

This was very sweet, and not meant for me in particular. If you were classically nerdy and felt like an outcast in high school, this is definitely for you. A great tale of being yourself and what a journey that can be but it’s ultimately rewarding.

A quote to demonstrate the vibes:
Like one of the millions of wretched unwanted outcasts silently screaming at the murderous uncaring world for even the tiniest shred of attention no matter how sneering and disdainful, I launched the monopolistic social media photo sharing app known as Snapstory.

This is not what I thought it was. I suggested it for my book club bc I really enjoyed Harry Potter & the Sacred Text podcast when the author and Vanessa Zoltan were starting it.

It def inspired me to join a CrossFit/SoulCycle style gym tho.

Listen all this can’t be happening over the course of 3-4 weeks

Get Pip into therapy ASAP.

This was quite good, my only disgruntlement is that there’s so little evidence/clues up until about 75% through that you can’t really guess at the mystery or whodunnit. It’s a lot of “hmm I agree that is suspicious but cannot put these things together bc they’re too disconnected.”

And then at the end there’s the long villain speech (classic) after Pip literally asks one question where everything is revealed, but that happens at like…..90-95% through. And then it’s a quick wrap up.

There’s one key dangling thread that I assume is addressed in book 3. I will not be reading that tho bc it looks like it gets thematically much darker and creepier. And I understand why it gets darker bc all of these events are a lot for anyone to live through, but I do not need to be along this dark ride bc I get scared!!

This was hilarious and very relatable. I read it in one sitting and will definitely be putting it on my coffee table because it will be amusing for people to flip through when they come over.