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

This book was a quick easy read, but I really enjoyed this story and would love to read more from this author.

The Way Things Should Be perfectly captured the relationships between siblings, parents, and friends. Bridie Jabour skillfully develops characters who are extremely flawed and relatable; this character development kept.me reading more than the overall plot.
Overall, this book was an enjoyable read.

This book took me a while, and I'll admit that for a chapter or three, I couldn't see myself warming up to any of the characters and then it gradually grew on me. If you love reading about some family drama then there's quite some dysfunction here and I promise you, you'll come to the end of the book loving it! Thank you NetGalley for the eARC.

The Way Things Should Be is perfection. The dysfunctional family and the wedding that may, or may not, occur make for a hilarious read that I didn't want to put down. Unlike other reviewers, I never had any trouble keeping up with the characters or following the plot. I loved, loved, loved this book and can't wait for more by this author.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Thank you Bonnier Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in return for my honest review.
I was excited to read this book as I was looking forward to reading something fun and light by an Australian author. Unfortunately I never really got hooked into this book. I didn’t find any of the main characters particularly pleasant, and not being a millineal wondered of this is actually a true portrayal of a family of millineals ( I hope not!) as I feel like I got to spend time with a family comprised of individuals showing their worst on a pretty bad week. It was not a family I wanted to spend any great amount of time getting to know.

The way the characters switched back and forth sometimes made it feel unclear who Was being portrayed at a particular time, causing me to reread paragraphs to make the story clear.

This appealed to me because I am a millennial and could really relate to everything in this book! Great Read!!

The Way Things Should Be is a character driven novel revolving around the upcoming wedding of Claudia and her interactions with her family. The relationships among Claudia's family members are fraught with jealousy, competition and conflict.
Many similar characters are introduced at the beginning of the book making it tough to keep them all straight. They all seemed to have some kind of major issue they are facing. Not one of them acted as the calm in the storm. Frankly, I found the characters to be unlikeable and self-centered. The only character that seemed like a halfway decent person is Claudia's fiancée and he actually plays only a small part in the book. I felt sorry for him getting tangled up with this crazy, dysfunctional family.
There is not much in the way of plot development at all in this book. That could be okay if the characters were at all likable or interesting. I also found several of the details of the book to be far fetched. Based on the description, I expected this book to be funny and light-hearted, but I found it to be a disappointment.
I wanted to quit reading this book early on, but to decided I had to see it through to honor Net Galley's request for a review in exchange for a copy of the book.

Claudia is back in her hometown for a week to prepare for her wedding to Dylan. But she’s already dreading the battles that are quick to follow whenever her sisters are in the same room together. Her dominating mother doesn’t help matters either. With a brother who is quick to exit the room whenever things get a little messy and a best friend who’s battling some pretty fierce demons of her own, Claudia needs all the support she can to get through the week.

Anyone who’s ever grown up in a big family will relate to this sometimes poignant, sometimes witty story of the Carter siblings. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Characters make or break a book for me. I can deal with a meandering plot, blown-out-of-proportion drama, or even insta-love (which is my biggest fiction pet peeve), but if I cannot connect with AT LEAST one character, then well, I just don't want to attach myself to a book for hundreds of pages and thousands of words. That was the problem with The Way Things Should Be. It can't be a good sign that this is the second book involving millennials that I have read this month and both books gave the characters shallow, petty, and immature attitudes that were off-turning and disappointing.

Other than that, the storyline was ok. I felt that the ending was a bit short, but I wasn't overly bummed since I was finished with the characters by that point anyway.

Claudia and her siblings arrive home for her wedding. The story of Claudia and her family is wrapped around whether the wedding will actually happen. There are lots of characters in this book, but I really didn't feel like I had a good sense of any of them. There was either not enough development or they just never seemed to evolve at all.
While I didn't really have a problem getting through the book - there were enough snippets to make it somewhat fun - I just didn't really have any strong feelings about Claudia and Dylan's wedding/no-wedding, or any of the characters for the ending to matter.

I received an ARC from NetGalley. #AllWeEverWanted #NetGalley

This was a really unusual read, though not easy to get into. It took me a while to get my head round who was who and which character was which - the opening pages introduce us to a large cast of related people, and it took me a while to not get them confused. I liked the idea though and it was fun, after a lifetime of reading books about people mainly older than me, to read an adult book about adults younger than me. I confess I had to google some of the pop culture references though. I wasn't sure that I really found myself rooting for any of the characters, especially Claudia, as they all just felt a bit like they were trying to make dramas out of nothing. I wonder if maybe that was the point, that this is a statement about the millennial generation. Not sure. Also felt a bit let down by the ending, just seemed to come really abruptly and didn't really fit with the character of Dylan as he had been throughout the book.

I was given a free advance copy of this book by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I really liked the premise of this book however the lack of plot and character development meant that I lost interest pretty quickly. I enjoyed the layout of the book and how the texts were interspersed with the different character perspectives. I thought that was a clever writing to style to use.

However the book really focused on the characters and I had major issues with them. It is as if the author has googled ‘millennial personality’ and combined every terrible and superficial trait which meant all the characters are awful. They all had certain qualities which made me think they were interesting at first but this was never explored fully which was a real shame.

I was disappointed with the ending and felt that it all got wrapped up pretty quickly. Because of the lack of depth to the characters I didn’t really care whether the wedding was called off or not which is one of the key themes of the book.

I read it to the end because I did request this book from Netgalley however I really struggled to look forward to reading it and discovering what would happen next.

Weddings often reveal things we try to keep hidden. AND, they can set off conflict in families and among friends OR they can heal them. Claudia's wedding (well, maybe wedding) does that for her siblings, her parents, and her friend Nora. There are a lot of characters in this short novel, which can at times be a bit cacophonous. That said, it's a fast take on modern lives. Thanks to net galley for the ARC.

I enjoyed this book, many family's have secrets and uncovering this ones was fun and interesting.

I would read this again. I liked the many characters, and the storyline was easy to follow.

I enjoyed the book. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

Claudia plans to get married in a week, well maybe. The only downside of the book was often confusing the characters. This is a great beach read or perfect read for a day of relaxation.

A good storyline and characters, At times I wonder if it I should a mystery or chicklit book. A wedding on the horizon brings out skeletons, upset and arguments, will they? Won't they? A family with lots of unknown past and secrets. Claudia has doubts about marriage. Her family and friends all put their thoughts in,

From the books description, I really wanted to enjoy this relatable read. Aside from at times being confused as to who was talking, and keeping the characters seperated, it was an enjoyable read.