Take.... "To All The Boys I Loved Before" and....let it grow up. That's what this book seemed to me.

Maggie gets the phone call that no one wants. - there has been an accident and her mother is dead.

Heading back home to organize the funeral, sit shiva and take care of her grief stricken father and younger brother, Maggie reads her mother's will and finds a packet of 5 letters - all to different men. Maggie - in an effort to know more about her mother, decides to hand delivered each of these letters.

This is a story about a mother and daughter. About growth and acceptance. About love.

Excellent writing from Ilana Masad. Sure to be a hit on many list at the end of the year.

All My Mother's Lovers @duttonbooks #gifted via @netgalley ★★★★ one of my kindle reads for April and it is about exactly what the title says. It begins with Maggie Krause finding out her mom, Iris, has died in a car crash. She leaves her girlfriend to go home only to discover a distraught, withdrawn dad, an angry brother, and her mother's will & five sealed envelopes each addressed to a mysterious man she's never heard of⁠
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We follow her through this road trip journey as she's grieving and trying to discover the truth about her mom and these letters. This is a really strong debut, Ilana touches on family ties, grief, sex, gender, identity, queerness and mother/daughter dynamics. This one also gave me a coming-of-age feel toward Maggie as she grows and tries to discover what it is she truly wants also while trying to keep her family life from totally falling apart.⁠
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Recommend if you love stories about discovering the truth. It releases May 26th, so there is still time to preorder.

I couldn't really connect with this novel, unfortunately. The writing is good, and the characters are interesting, but it didn't pull me in and I didn't feel the story flowed very well. I'm sure it will work much better for lots of other readers, though:-)

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The novel focuses on a daughter's connection with her mother and coming to terms with the problems in their relationship. The story line was a bit unrealistic.

A Queer millennial deals with the complexities of grief, trauma, and trust. The narrative so expertly demonstrates the volatile and fluid nature of interpersonal and family relationships.
Heart-wrenching. Driving. Poignant. And for a book largely about grief...pretty sexy too.

I could not put this down. It's one of those books that you finish and want to start all over again. This may be *the* LGBTQ+ book of 2020.

The basic concept of the book was interesting, as Maggie finds out her mother died in a car accident and decides to go home to help her father and brother with the arrangements. Maggie’s relationship with her Mom, Iris, was strained since Maggie came out, but what propelled the story was Maggie’s discovery of letters to men she never heard of, included in a file with her mother’s will. Maggie decides to hand deliver the letters, and finds out some uncomfortable truths about Iris. I didn’t love the characters of Iris and Maggie, and thought the book was just okay.

Interesting and engaging, with characters I both related to and cared about. True look at what grief does to a family.

This was such a powerful read, as Maggie deals with not only her mother’s sudden death, but the discovery of her mother’s secret life thanks to letters that were left to men Maggie had never heard of. Along with all of this, Maggie has to come to terms with it alone, as her father and brother are dealing with their grief. Maggie’s discovery of not only who her mother was, but who she is as well makes for a great debut from this author! I cannot wait to read more from them in the future!

Do we all have secrets? This novel is about Maggie, a young gay woman, taking a journey into her mother’s secret life. When Iris died suddenly in an accident, she left letters to be delivered to the men in her life. Maggie makes the decision to deliver them in person and find out what these men meant to her mother.

As a reader, I felt fortunate to go on this journey with Maggie. I suspect that many book club members will feel the same way. This is like finding a diary and being able to secretly explore everything the writer discloses.

I certainly recommend this to all my reading groups. I thank Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this engaging novel.