It's always a special experience to read a story set in a familiar location. The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go takes place in Milwaukee and Wauwatosa and features mentions of well-known spots, including Kopp's and Polish Fest. It also smiled at the brief mention of cider from Door County--a slight nod to another story from Amy E. Reichert.

The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go did not immediately sweep me away. Rather, I found the story to be quietly insistent, wrapping me up with each detail and luring me to read further and unravel the secrets in each woman's story line. I liked the way Amy Reichert wove together the lives and experiences of three generations of women. There is a lot of love between those women and the reader can feel that love on every page. A moving and memorable read.

The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go by Amy E. Reichert was such a gem to read. I read it in a day and a half. The novel follows Gina Zoberski a business owner and mother of one. The novel then introduces the reader to her mother Lorraine and sister Vicki. Gina’s mother is described as traditional and solemn while Vicki is burdened by pressures of motherhood as well as strain on her marriage. Gina’s husband of many years has died recently and is experiencing emotional issues with her mother and daughter. Each of these women is dealing with grief in a different way. What I enjoyed was learning their process understanding their grief and making sense of it while their respective worlds were being impacted. What sets the story into motion is the fact that after having a stroke does Gina and Vicki come together to learn the history of their mother and the choices she made to survive. The novel was one that brought tears to my eyes and was a joy to read. I rated it four out of five stars. Thank you Net galley for giving me this copy to review! I will highly recommend this novel to friends and family.

I am one of those people who reads only one book at a time. I find that if I switch off that one book will get lost somewhere along the line. I am currently reading four books. This is not good. I think that it indicates that I am not sold on any of them but that I might keep trying. They may be destined to the “never to be read” pile.

Into this book fiasco, enters Memorial Day weekend. There is more time to read but what to read? The answer is to pick up yet another book. No, that should not be the correct answer but it is the route that I took. BUT I did finish the book that I picked up. And before I forget, I was given an advanced reader copy of the book with the hopes that I would read and review the book. I hate to admit it but it is a bit of a crapshoot hoping that I will read and review (especially in a timely fashion) a book. I am like the preverbal kid in the candy shop with books.

The Optimist’s Guide to Letting Go did catch and keep my attention. The story centers on three generations of women. The grandmother, Lorraine Price, is the model society woman. She has strict standards and expects her daughters to meet those standards. When her daughter, Gina, often falls short, Lorraine does not hesitate to let her know. And Lorraine is picky. She still remembers that Gina brought the wrong flowers to her once. Tisk Tisk.

Most of the story is told by Gina Zoberski. Gina is a young widow. Her beloved husband, Drew died two years before the story begins and Gina is floundering. She compulsively makes lists to try and keep her head above water. She is the owner of Grilled G’s a gourmet grilled cheese food truck.

Gina has a daughter, May. Gina has no idea what she is doing with May. May and Drew were very close and Gina frequently feels that May has turned into a different person since Drew’s death. Gina doesn’t know how to reach her. From May’s perspective, Gina doesn’t seem to care. Gina doesn’t talk about Drew to May and therefore May thinks Gina wants to forget about him. Both are suffering but don’t know how to reach each other.

After sending out an email to her daughters telling them why their Chrismas gifts to her fell short of the mark, Lorraine suffers a massive stroke. The stroke causes Lorraine to re-think her decision to not tell her daughters (Gina and her sister Vicky) a secret that she has kept from them. This is not a “where I hid my ring” secret but a secret that truly affects their lives. In going through her mother’s paperwork, Gina stumbles upon her birth certificate and has questions. Since Lorraine cannot speak because of the stroke, Gina turns to Roza, her old nanny and her mother’s closest friend. Roza claims no knowledge of the birth certificate discrepancy but Gina doesn’t believe her.

While I would categorize this as a family saga, it isn’t heavy as many in that classification tend to be. This is a story that leaves some questions but resolves the most important issues. It was a pleasant read and the story moved along quickly. The biggest surprise to me is that the story takes place in Milwaukee. I don’t know if I have read another book that takes place in Milwaukee. Since I live in that area, it was fun.

If you are looking for a light summer read, I think you might enjoy this story. There is enough suspense and story to keep you reading.

Thanks for reading!

A lovely story that follows three generations of women, a mother-daughter relationship story told by three different women and their life-altering secrets.

This was a great book to listen to, I thought the narrator Teri Schnaubelt really brought the characters and the story to life, I was pulled in so much I did not even bother with the ebook, which I also had a copy with.

The writing was really cozy. I liked learning about Gina’s past and how the author chose to unfold her painful past as well as how her mother Lorraine might understand her daughter more than she shows.

I loved that this book focused on family and building or mending relationships, rather it’s by understand and talking about the past, accepting, and listening to how the other members of the family feel.

The only place I really struggled was Lorraine’s part of the book. I could understand where she was coming, but my biggest issue was her behavior towards Gina’s husband upon meeting her and how her own past wasn’t much different. She really felt like the worlds biggest hypocrite and that bothered me, I did not understand how someone that was so in love ones refused to accept the same for her daughter. Her own unhappiness in her marriage should have encouraged her daughter to marry whoever her heart desires, but her self-perseverance put a chasm between her and her daughter.

I found both stories to be really sad and pull on my heart strings.

I wish Lorraine’s ending was different than the one the author chose to give her, but overall, the ending in the book was pretty solid.

I really enjoyed this as an audiobook and definitely found it a great read with interesting characters overall.

*Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

This book is grand; if it's summary sounds appealing, know that you get everything you expect with even more charm than you probably expected. By the end, I felt like I knew all the characters. Another aspect I enjoyed was the Wisconsin location as I live there as well.

Thank you to Gallery Books and Netgalley for my digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.


The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go is heartbreaking and heart warming all at once, if thats possible. The story follows Lorraine, her 2 daughters Gina and Vicky, and Gina's daughter May. Lorraine is difficult and harshly judges Gina. May and Gina are each struggling with the loss of Drew, May's father and Gina's husband. Lorraine suffers from a sudden stroke and her daughters end up discovering a family secret that will change everything. Gina will realize that her and Lorraine have more in common than what she realized.


I really enjoyed this book. I loved the different female characters and I had a hard time putting the back down because I had to know what happened next. The book has its upbeat, positive moments and there were times I smiled and the next page cried. I think this would be a great mother/daughter read because it is definitely about the bonds of family even things may be strained.

I haven't read any of Amy Reichert's other works, but I am planning on doing so because I loved this book so much. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for heartwarming read.

LOVE LOVE LOVE--so powerful, and I enjoyed the story immensely. Amy Reichert is masterful with this one, and it is a definite recommended read for me.

Thank you NetGalley for my ACR.
This book was about dealing with grief, family issues and new beginnings. This is the 2nd book of Amy Reichert I have read. Her titles and covers are always catchy to me so that is how I initially stumbled upon this book.

The book breaks down into focusing on 3 of the characters experiences: Gina, May (Gina’s daughter) and Lorraine (Gina’s Mom). Gina’s mom has been carrying a secret for a long time and it finally comes to light.

Three and a half stars: An emotional and touching book about family, grief and new beginnings.

Gina clings to her to do lists. The lists are the way she manages to get through each day since the crushing death of her husband two years ago. Gina’s days involve plenty of gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches that she serves up in her food truck. However, the bills are piling up, her teenage daughter, May, refuses to speak to her, and her mother is impossible as usual. Then disaster strikes when Gina’s mother, Lorraine, falls ill unexpectedly. While her mother recovers, Gina sorts through her papers and uncovers a big family secret. What happened to Lorraine in the past?
What I Liked:
*Amy Reichert is an author I keep trying in hopes to recapture the magic that I loved in her first book, The Coincidence of Coconut Cake. While this latest book is not quite what I hoped, it was still an emotional and moving story about a family in crisis who finally bond when the truth comes out. It is a story of love, forgiveness, grief, coping with loss and new beginnings. I enjoyed the journey with these women.
*I have to admit, I struggled early on with this book because Lorraine, Gina’s mother, and May, Gina’s daughter, were both miserable and unlikeable. Lorraine is all about appearances, and she tends to be snippy. May is trying to learn to live without her dad. She is a belligerent teenager who is nasty to her mother. She makes some stupid mistakes. Both of these characters were troublesome. However, as I kept reading, the secrets came out, and I understood why they behaved the way they did. Thankfully, a lot of love and forgiveness brings the characters to a new and better place. I was pleased with the evolution of both women, and happy with the way things turned out. Patience pays off.
*Gina is the character that makes this book bearable early on. She is drowning in her own grief, but she is doing the best she can. I loved her optimism, her lists and how she kept it together through all the turmoil. She is strong, brave and she has a big, kind heart. I loved how she gave to others even when she struggled. Loved her. I also adored Roza, the kindhearted Polish neighbor who was the backbone for all the women.
*It was interesting uncovering the backstories of all the women. I enjoyed seeing Lorraine fall in love and give up everything for love, even if it caused her great pain later. Gina also had the same experience, I loved that the women chose love over everything else. Then when the secrets came out, it was interesting to see how similar their stories were.
*I liked that this book focused on family and all the imperfections. No one has the perfect family, and *I appreciated that the author kept it real. The story lines and struggles felt genuine, and it was easy to get swept away in the story.
*The ending was solid. Perhaps things didn’t quite turn out the way I hoped, but I was still satisfied with how things progressed. The characters ended up in a much better place, and they were happier.
And The Not So Much:
*I was bothered by a couple of errors I found in the Advanced Reader’s Copy. I am hoping that these problems will get ironed out in the final copy. One big glaring mistake occurs when Roza visits Gina and Vicky and shares with them the truth about their mom’s past, including what happened with Joe. *A few chapters later, Gina questions her mother and she is wondering about Joe and his fate, she already knew all of this as Roza told her. It was confusing.
*I was enjoying Lorraine’s metamorphosis, and I was disappointed when it was cut short, I wanted to see it play out a little further. I wished that she could have talked openly with the girls, especially with Gina and share her similar experiences in love.

The Optimist’s Guide to Letting Go isn’t the light and fluffy read I was hoping for, but I still enjoyed this heartfelt tale. This is a book that encompasses grief, loss, family relationships, secrets, forgiveness and new beginnings. There is a lot of love packed in this as well as some decadent grilled cheese sandwiches. This is a great book for those who are coping with loss. It may not have been perfect, but it was still an enjoyable book overall.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for this review.
Posted@Rainy Day Ramblings.

Multi-generational family stories are my favorites. When 3 generations of women get together there is usually fun, guilt and surprises. Gina's husband has died and her teen daughter May isn't handling it well. Gina is keeping their household afloat by running her food truck, the Grilled G's that her husband built. From the story you can tell Gina and her sister didn't have a happy childhood and visits to her mother are a chore, not a happy time. When Gina discovers her mother on the floor suffering from a stroke all their lives change in a hurry. This is a great story of love and discovery. I loved that May grew up and became a loving daughter and important part of the family business. I enjoyed Gina and her sister's quest to find out about their past. I always smile when I see a new title by Amy Reichert and I'm never disappointed.

Zowza!!! (I saw this word in a book I read this week, sorry I can't remember which to give credit to, but I love it!!

I loved this book!!!

It was filled with so many great characters. There were so many times that I just wanted to haul off and slap a couple of them. They grated my nerves so much, especially Lorraine. That was, of course, before I started shedding tears for those very same people.

The story was amazing, the writing was amazing and I'm still crying over it. Even after I took a break before writing this review. A story that was fraught with emotions and surprises that I never saw coming.

An excellent read that I thought was this author's best one yet! I will always say "yes, please" to Amy Reichert's books.

Thanks to Gallery, Threshold and Pocket Books and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I've been drawn to Amy E. Reichert's adorable quirky book titles before, but for some reason never picked up one of her novels. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to review "The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go". Thanks, NetGalley!



The story follows Gina Zoberski, a widow who runs her own gourmet grilled cheese food truck (I was craving grilled cheeses the whole time I read!). She struggles to stay positive in the face of her mother's relentless criticisms, her teenaged daughter's brattiness and her own grief over the two year old loss of her beloved husband.



When her mother suffers a serious stroke, the women of the family are brought together when a long held family secret is revealed.



Over the course of a week, Gina, her mother Lorraine and her daughter, May share their stories as they grapple with the revelation.



"The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go" was pure comfort food. I loved it. I loved learning about the secret and how it came to be. I loved watching Gina's love story with her late husband unfold and journey with her as she grieved for him and started to move forward with her life.



This is a book about women who have been unable to let go of their pasts and how that has affected their personalities and relationships. This is a story about how they are brought together by their mother's health and long-held secret and how this changes them for the better in the long run.



My one gripe is that Gina's sister, Victoria, played a major role in the book, but never had her own point of view chapters.



This is a richly told story of strong, complicated women. Reichert's characters are fully fleshed out and relatable. It's a beautifully told story of love and loss. I love multi-generational stories featuring women, so this was a pure delight from beginning to end.



Thanks, NetGalley for the opportunity to read "The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go." Whenever my TBR pile dwindles, I'd love to check out more of Reichert's novels if they're anything like this one.



And I now want to eat all the grilled cheese in the world!

I have heard wonderful things about Amy E. Reichert's book, so when the opportunity to read her latest arrived, I jumped at the chance. It is a sweet story about mothers and daughters and relationships. The title, the cover, and the plot are all things that many of my friends will be drawn to.

For me, the book was good, but it wasn't memorable or one that I will tell everyone they have to read. However, that doesn't mean it is bad. It is sweet and hopeful - which can be perfect if you are in the need for something like that. Basically, it embodies the title - it is optimistic.

Gina is a young widow whose mother Lorraine is not the kindest mother in the world. Gina's daughter, May, is a teenager who lost her father. She is dealing with some stuff. So, when Gina's condescending mother suffers a stroke, the whole family is drawn together where Gina learns more about her mom. Ultimately, I believe this big reveal is supposed to help Gina understand her mother, but it left gaps for me. For example, if her mother suffered this way, then why did she treat her daughters the way she did growing up? What made her act like such a snob if she saw how it hurt her?

Basically, I was really irritated with the mother/grandmother most of the book. But, I loved the teenage daughter. She brought another layer to the story - especially when it came to the juxtaposition between her relationship with Gina and Gina's relationship with her own mother.

The book has plenty of humorous moments coupled with moving moments. I did not cry, but I believe others readers probably will. The book definitely has a Hallmark movie feel - and that is not necessarily a bad thing! For some readers, that is just what they are looking for.

This book was just released, so if it sounds like your type of thing, check it out! Thaks to Netgalley for providing me with this advanced reader's copy for review!

Gina's world has been crashing down around her since her husband's unfortunate death.  Her relationship with her teenage daughter is one of stress and turmoil.  She doesn't know how to communicate with her and barely does until she is forced into it.  Adding to her lists of stress, her mother suffers a sudden stroke and long held secret is forced into the light.  

I liked this story but I am finding that it was a bot forgettable.  I finished this book at the beginning of the week and have found myself having to read the description in order to recall the plot and my feelings about it.  Amy writes well and is descriptive but maybe this wasn't the story for me.

The insight into three generations of the females in a family is realistic and interesting. Acceptance of change is difficult. The use of a food truck creating comfort food is genuine and genius. It grounds the characters and adds the hunan aspect of emotions that are necessary to engage readers. Well done!

This book really wowed me. I found a lot of parallels in it of where I am in life. It is an amazing read that is hard to put down, so make sure you carve out an afternoon or full evening for it. I do wish that Victoria had been delved into a bit more, perhaps a second book.

The main story revolves around Gina and Lorraine, with May as a strong supporting character. The relationship between Lorraine and Gina while both similar; unbeknownst to Gina that her mother has been in her shoes before, is beautifully complex. I feel Victoria is a bit left out and on the outskirts of her mother and her sister.

I did need tissues through the last few chapters. Beautifully done.

Gina is the optimist in Amy E. Reichert’s The Optimist’s Guide to Letting Go. She maintains her optimism even though she has lost the love of her life, her mother is unapproachable, and her daughter treats her with nothing but disdain. She finds solace in her food truck business. The business was the brainchild of her late husband, who creatively named Gina’s grilled cheese restaurant on wheels, Grilled G’s!

I was really disheartened by the relationship between Gina and her daughter. May, is sullen over the loss of her father, but instead of turning toward her mother for support, she shuns her. In fact, she is nothing but rude and disrespectful to her mother throughout much of the book. Families falling apart after loss are hard books to read.

When Gina’s mother, Lorraine, suffers a major stroke, her long-kept secrets are spilled. The trifecta of medical issues, skeletons in the closet, and badly behaved teenagers, begin the unraveling of life as they know it. However, that might not be a bad thing. This dysfunctional family made up of individually strong women need to be shaken up so that they are forced to regroup and begin again.

Ms. Reichert has written a complex family drama with fragile yet rich relationships. The similarity of Gina and Lorraine’s history juxtaposed to how they responded is a historically interesting social statement. The different choices made by Gina and her sister, Vicky, as well as their parent’s responses to those choices, create further strain on the family dynamics. The Optimist’s Guide to Letting Go features food and culture from the state of Wisconsin as well as some seriously lovable lead female characters.

My brief review appears on Instagram, link below, as well as the same on Litsy, and Facebook. Unfortunately no matter how I access NetGalley today, I'm unable to copy & paste it here. Thank you for understanding and my apologies.

Three generations of women, separated by the lies they tell each other to survive. When the matriarch is felled by a stroke and rendered speechless, is it too late to make things right with her daughters.? Too late to tell the truth about her past...their past...so that they are free to make life decisions which will set them free? Is it too late for them to learn from her mistakes? Is it too late for her daughter to mend her broken relationship with her child? This was an excellent read about missed opportunities and what a mother will do for her children.

4.5 stars rounded

There’s something so comfortable about a Reichert novel – like those fuzzy warm socks, and stretched out just the way you like it sweater, that simply engulfs you and demands you settle in and enjoy the ride. This novel is no different, even if the characters in this have more issues and struggles to work through than any of her previous stories. Told from the main character Gina’s point of view, with bits from her mother Lorraine and her fourteen year old daughter May, this is a story of expectations, grief, moving on and eventually finding a way to move forward as secrets are revealed and the past weighs on the future.

Now to my impressions of the book – it’s my favorite of Reichert’s to date: full of moments past and present, memories and struggles as the women try to reframe their lives in the now, after the griefs, secrets, resentments and struggles from their past. There are secrets galore, big secrets held closely in fear (from Lorraine) that made her a very judgmental, rigid and cold appearing woman. Secrets from Roza, Lorraine’s friend and nanny / auntie to Gina, Vicky and now May. Vicky’s marriage that ‘appears’ wonderful from the outside in: plenty of money, a nice house two hours from her mother, four kids with plenty of activities that leave Vicky alone, unable to communicate with her husband. Gina’s worry that Drew’s death have left May without her favorite parent, and her without her heart. Feeling the ‘push’ to move on from her neighbors and mother, yet unable to find the ‘right’ way to be, as she struggles with her own mother’s voice telling her to be ‘more like’ her sister, and seeming smug in the knowledge that she’d chosen the wrong man to marry. May’s own resentment of her mother for seeming to not care about her, her father’s death or even about anything she does – against the rules or not. All wrapped in their own griefs and questions, every issue has a root in the first big secret- Lorraine’s, and by extension, Roza’s complicity with that silence.

With Lorraine’s stroke, the story starts to become one of discovery. A birth certificate and photograph of a man unknown to Gina and Vicky, Lorraine’s admission (to herself as her speech was affected greatly) that her daughters are strong and wonderful women, far more complete and successful than she was. Gina’s penchant for lists: the satisfaction of ticking off an item to be accomplished, the organization, the reliance on them as a sort of talisman to ‘get things done right’. And the food. OH the food – from Gina’s lovely grilled cheese and butter-drenched garlic bread (her junk food of choice) to May’s bacon-caramel brownies, coconut vegan brownies and her journal with thirty three new creations. Vicky’s discovery that her husband hasn’t time to listen, let alone interest, in what’s happening two hours north – and perhaps he never really did.

It’s a book that is meant to be experienced. Do it this way.

1> Buy this book
2> Pick the comfy chair
3> Get snacks (you’ll want them) a drink and tissues handy.
4> Put up the do not disturb sign
5> Prepare to escape for a few hours (depending on how fast you read)
6> Come back and thank me – trust me, you’ll want to.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=” https://wp.me/p3OmRo-9Mq/ “> <a> I am, Indeed </a>