I honestly could not finish this book because Olivia was the worst character to read. She was consistently rude, mean and whined constantly. I understand that it would be extremely hard to grieve a parent especially with the other parent moving on so fast but holy crap. She was just down right unenjoyable to read about.

I'm drawn to books with flawed characters (provided they aren't despicable) and Olivia is definitely flawed As a typical 20 something struggling to navigate life, Olivia has her pitfalls. I really enjoyed seeing her work around these and bettering herself throughout it all.

I also enjoyed the hint of mystery the story offered as Olivia tried to unravel her recently passed mother's secrets. Just the right amount to keep you guessing.

The premise of the book is great and the author really delivers. Great read. Highly recommended. .

This is a sad book of self-discovery as the main character deals with the loss of her mother. Her journey was interesting, though some parts were a bit boring.

I was very much looking forward to this one, but was a little surprised at the explicit content, which meant it wasn't right for the purposes I was looking for.

This book was a pleasant surprise. It's a mix of chick lit and fiction, which I enjoyed a lot!

The protagonist is funny, endearing and sweet, and the side characters felt really human and relatable.
The writing style was a breath of fresh air!

The book itself was an easy read, full of emotions and the development, the mourning, the narrative... all of it, left me with a whole when I finished. I wanted more!!

This is about a young lady who leaves school during her last semester. She wants to be at home with her mother who has been diagnosed with cancer. Then after her mother's death she finds herself adrift. Her father has already started dating and her siblings are starting families of their own. She takes a job she doesn't like and then learns about her mothers secret. She finds letters to her mother from someone who only signs them by "F".
Now she will do everything she needs to so she can find out who F is and what his relationship with her mother really was about. This is a page turner. Keeps you reading from start to end.

Everyone deals with loss differently and Olivia is trying hard to move on but would rather hold on even as everyone else seems to be moving on. Her final grasp is a trip to India to try to learn more about her departed mother.

What initially drew me to Alternate Remedies for Loss (besides the awesome title) was the promise of a "secret romantic correspondence" and a character who embarks on an Eat, Pray, Love type journey across the world to discover answers. While Cantor did deliver to a certain extent, I was unfortunately bored for much of the novel and didn't really care for Olivia.

What a promising premise! Olivia Harris is entering her final semester of college when her mother is diagnosed with inoperable cancer. Within months, her mother dies. Olivia comes unglued, no longer the center of anyone's universe, least of all her own. Will she find a way to live with loss and move on with her own life? I sure hope so, but I won't know for sure because I had to put aside the miserable slog through Olivia's misery. The writing sings, particularly in the first few pages which hooked me utterly with elegant, swift descriptions of India and promising, near poetic prose. I'm placing my money on the most unlucky savior/companion for Olivia' emerging, the hapless and bright June, her father's new girlfriend. That would make for the most satisfying resolution, but, as I said, I'll never know for sure. There was no character to connect with, to be interested enough in to keep going; Olivia does not strike me as curious, interesting, promising in the least, a lost little princess whining and whinging her way through the world. Promising writer, interesting concept, lackluster result.

Film student Olivia is less than thrilled to be on this family vacation in India. This trip was supposed to be honoring her mother, with whom Olivia planned the voyage before her mother’s death from cancer. But her family seems determined to move on, abandoning Olivia’s itinerary for tourist stops, not to mention that her father brought along his new girlfriend.

Olivia knows she should be going back to school, but she can’t seem to move forward. Her grief seems to overtake her, and she is sometimes her own worst enemy. Without her mother, life makes little sense. How is everyone else doing fine?

Reminiscent of The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing, the prose is sometimes bleak and our protagonist is sometimes hard to like. Despite this, we feel for Olivia and are rooting for her to come out okay on the other side. We follow Olivia as she stumbles blindly into adulthood, in fits and starts, still mourning her lost mother and trying to make sense of the mystery of her mom’s hidden life.

With the conclusion of the novel, we see the arcs each character has been taking: the story of Olivia’s grief and healing and the rest of the family’s navigation of the same territory in different steps. While not a lighthearted read, this will be emotionally resonant for some readers.

This book did not turn out to be at all what I expected when I first read the synopsis. I didn't expect there to be so much introspection from of the main character. I guess I expected more romance but there is much more self-discovery than anything else. Olivia goes on a journey and comes back figuring out what she wants (at least for being in her 20s) and who she is. She also finds out things about her mother that makes her rethink their relationship. But before I get too much into the plot, let's get to the review!

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
When 22-year-old Olivia learned that her mother had only months to live, she pulled up roots, leaving Vassar and her career plans far behind to be with her mother for her last days. And yet, just four months after her mother’s death, everyone in Olivia’s family already seems ready to move on. Her brothers are settled comfortably in careers and families of their own; her father has already started to date again, inviting a woman named June on a family trip. Still reeling from the loss, Olivia looks for a new start of her own, throwing herself headlong into Manhattan’s fast-moving media world, where she is alternately demeaned by bosses and pursued by men.

But as Olivia tries to piece together an adulthood without her mother to guide her, she makes a shocking discovery: a secret romantic correspondence her mother had with a man who only signed each letter “F.” As she tries to untangle the mystery of F, Olivia will journey halfway across the world, to an ashram in rural India, on a quest that will reconfigure everything Olivia thought she knew about her family and her own place in an increasingly complex world. 

The story begins with Olivia and her family going on a trip to India. Her mother died months earlier and had been planning on going on this trip with her daughter, so the family decided to take it together as a way to get some closure. The only problem: Olivia's father decides to bring his new lady friend, June, with them, making the whole trip completely uncomfortable. After the less-than-stellar trip, everyone seems to go back to their everyday lives. Except for Olivia who can't stop thinking about her mother and what her life will be like without her.

Olivia gets a job with a media company, Likely Productions, through her brother. She is pretty much a paid intern who gets coffee, makes food for meetings, and learns a few things about cutting film together. One day, Olivia walks into a meeting at and meets Michel. He's French and a client of Likely's. He takes her for drinks and then back to his place where she propositions him for money to sleep with her (this is the second time she's done this), but he laughs at her and they end up in a sort-of relationship (more sex than anything else). She takes him back to her family home for Thanksgiving and well, let's just say things don't really go as Olivia planned. She stays with him for a little while longer and then decides she needs to end it.

This is around the same time she is going through her mother's office and finds a few letters from an "F" that she's never heard of before. They seem to be love letters and once Olivia finds them, she can't get them out of her head. She goes to her mother's old yoga teacher, looks through her old phone, and tracks down whoever she can to try and find out who the hell F is. Eventually, the yoga teacher comes through. She has the email for a man named Franco who used to go to the same yoga studio. At first, Olivia doesn't take it, but once she loses her job at Likely (due to Michel being an asshole), she gets the info and finds out he's at a yoga retreat in India (because of course he is lol).

On her mission to find out exactly who her mother was, Olivia travels back to India and ends up finding out much more than she bargained for about her mother and about herself. NO SPOILERS!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. At first, I thought Olivia was going to be another shallow, selfish, privileged character, but, while she is privileged and can be selfish at times, those traits do not make up the whole of her personality. She is smart, a little naive, complicated, and definitely interesting enough to follow on this journey. She makes bad choices (and some good ones), especially in terms of her family and her personal life, and pays the price for most of them. She doesn't get away with much. She has to deal with things she probably never thought she'd have to and she does so strongly and much better than I probably would.  Alternative Remedies for Loss is written beautifully. I have read characters like Olivia before but she surprised me multiple times. Joanna Cantor did a wonderful job writing this complicated, beautiful, and emotional story.

One thing I wished was addressed a little bit more throughout the story is money. Not many 22-year-olds would be able to afford to go on a trip to India on a whim or have their parents be able to buy a New York City apartment when someone got sick. Olivia and/or her family are able to afford a lot of things that most people couldn't and I wish it was not as glossed over as much as it is. I am also a little iffy about the white girl going to India to find answers scenario. The people of India are never really focused on or interacted with in any substantial way. There is a scene where Olivia gives a child some money because they look pretty poor. She is then followed by a bunch of other kids who are also looking for money now that they know she is willing to give it out. This was one of the few interactions Olivia has with the people of India. Considering this book is so focused on India and almost half of it takes place there, there should have been WAY more representation of the people. I originally thought Olivia was Indian until it was stated otherwise because the white-person-going-to-a-foreign-country trope can be so problematic. While there are definitely some great moments in this book (I really did enjoy it), these two points definitely detracted from the story overall.

Alternative Remedies for Loss made me laugh, cry, and even cheer during certain parts of the book. I am giving it 4 out of  5 stars.

Alternative Remedies for Loss by Joanna Cantor came out May 8, 2018.

Thank you, NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

When Olivia learned that her mom had been diagnosed with cancer and given just 3 months to live, she pulled out of her last semester of college to be with her mom for the time she had left. Now that her mom is dead, Olivia doesn't know how to go on with life and is miffed and confused that her dad and brothers seem to have no problem moving on. Unsure what to do but not ready to go back to school, Olivia gets a job in New York City and proceeds to make bad decisions with her life.

I kept going back and forth in this book between completely understanding how lost Olivia felt after the loss of a parent and really not liking Olivia and the decisions she made. Olivia came from a life of privilege and definitely took it for granted. I was not a fan of the constant drug use in the book. One thing I didn't like about the writing was that the transitions in the book seemed abrupt. I kept having to go back and re-read the first few paragraphs of each jump in time because they were so unexpected and not lining up with what had come directly before it.

I liked Alternative Remedies for Loss. It was nothing particularly original, but the emotions felt authentic. The story focuses on Olivia, who is in her early 20s and who’s mother has recently died of a brain tumour. Her father seems to move on quickly with another woman and her two older brothers appear to be in control of their emotions. But Olivia is untethered. There are awkward family scenes, bad decisions about relationships, equivocations over work and education, and a quest to find out more about her mother. But the plot is a bit besides the point. What works well is Cantor’s depiction of Olivia’s grief. There is no prescription for the path grief must take. And Cantor does a good job depicting Olivia’s grief through her odd decisions and actions. The writing is strong and the emotions feel real — ingredients that made for a good read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

Joanna Cantor's debut novel Alternative Remedies for Loss will strike a cord for any reader who has suffered a loss, or really anyone who has stood at a crossroads and wondered what to do next. At 22 years-old, Olivia loses her mother, and her world spins out of control. While her family seems to cope with their grief easily, Olivia hits rock bottom. Upon finding some of her mother's letters, she sets out on a type of spiritual quest to discover who her mother really was and to begin to heal. Olivia isn't an entirely likable character, but she's one who can be related with by readers of all ages. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I bet you wouldn’t expect a novel about grief to be a light, easy read, but Joanna Cantor’s debut novel is both! I flew through it in just a few days at the beach…and it was an excellent beach read despite the focus on grief. During the Prologue, I was wavering about whether or not to continue reading, then something completely unexpected and interesting happened that caused me to keep going…and I’m so glad I did. This element isn’t a huge focus of the plot, but it was the pivotal moment that got me engrossed in the book. Beyond Olivia’s grief, Alternative Remedies for Loss is a story about a family trying to figure out their new normal after the loss of their mother and a daughter trying to get to know who her mother was as a person, beyond her role as mother and wife.

Olivia is on a journey of self discovery after her mother's death. Surrounding by a cast of supporting characters = including her father's girlfriend, this is the story that shows how people are affected by the same events. This is about change and development.

This is a quick and easy and quite delightful tale of one woman's coming of age.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

My Thoughts: Joanna Cantor wisely opened Alternative Remedies for Loss with a short preface that completely grabbed me. From that brief glimpse at Olivia, I definitely wanted to know more. I think this story of a 22-year old woman trying to live with the loss of her mother will appeal to many young women.

“Olivia missed her mom in a way that felt like vertigo.”

Olivia still had her father and two older brothers, but the hole left in her life seemed bottomless. From there, her story moved all over the place, at times feeling almost frantic. But, of course, Olivia was at a frantic place in her life, trying to navigate the dual paths of loss and finding herself without her mother’s guidance.

The book worked very well for me for the first half. It felt like a good mash-up of contemporary fiction and coming-of-age with a little humor thrown in. I was able to overlook the unlikely choices characters made. For example, four months after his children’s mother died, Olivia’s father planned a family trip to India in her honor. He brought along the woman he had begun dating. Four months? Who does that? Olivia made many questionable choices of her own, and by the second half, I’d grown weary of suspending my disbelief. Sadly, the book completely bogged down. A whole tie in with yoga throughout the book felt forced and for me dragged. In the end, Olivia did make growth, but she was a train wreck right up until then. Alternative Remedies for Loss, unfortunately, was one of those books where I liked the main character less and less as her story progressed. Still, Cantor’s writing was solid and I’d definitely give her sophomore effort a try!

When a book promises to be "slyly funny" I think my expectations may become a bit too high. As in, I'm actually expecting to laugh, or smile, or even smirk. From the portions of the book that I did read (which was about 35% because I ended up shelving the book at that point), I didn't find any of the narration or dialogue even vaguely humorous.

The characters were difficult to separate and identify from the get-go. I had to go back to jog my memory of who was with whom and how they were related/acquainted. I didn't think the main character was totally relatable, and I didn't really like her overall attitude. When I can't connect with the characters I'm reading about and investing time into, I can't stay focused on the storyline. And that's why I had to DNF this book. Maybe it improves at some point, but I didn't want to spend more time on a book that I just wasn't feeling.

As Olivia deals with her mother's recent death, she kind of flails her way through everything else. She uncovers a mystery related to her mom. There's no plot (or catharsis) other than Olivia stumbling through life and presumably ending up on the right track by the end. Yet the book sometimes feels all over the place and several questions remain.



Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.