Allie is a single mother who works as a ghostwriter for celebrities, politicians, and others. The downside to being a ghostwriter is she doesn’t get paid very much and she can’t disclose that she actually wrote the book. Her latest client, Lana, is a lawyer and women’s activist who wants help writing a book about raising boys to be feminists. The problem is that Lana is not very forthcoming with information for Allie to use in the book. Allie finds herself drawing on her own experience as a mother to a son. But as a writer for hire, Allie has gotten too used to being accommodating. At what point will she speak up for all that she deserves?

This is a character driven novel and Allie is a fascinating character. She is imperfect and struggling to be enough--to her job, her clients, her son, and herself. Throughout the book. I was pulling for Allie to speak up for herself and finally get what she deserves. In the end, Allie does stick up for herself, but in the end I still think she could have been more assertive.

Part of this novel takes place during the 2016 presidential election campaign. It was interesting revisiting all of the things that came out in the presidential campaign that year. I remember watching the election returns late into the night and waking up in the morning to the news that Trump was elected president. I took that journey again along with Allie and could relate to her outrage and confusion over what had just happened!

One complaint I had with this novel is that it dealt with so many, and in my opinion, too many issues (single mother, metoo movement, politics, feminism, access to healthcare, working mothers, access to reliable child care, and so much more). I think there were too many issues to sufficiently wrap up in the end. I really wanted to hear more about Cass’s father and was left wondering how that was all going to play out.

This novel wasn’t just about heavy, deep topics. There were some funny and relatable moments for me as a mother of sons.

I recommend this if you like reading about politics (especially political campaigns), motherhood, or just current events in general. 3.5/5

Thank you NetGalley and Algonquin for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The story of Allie, ghostwriter and single mother to one young and sensitive boy. A wry yet insightful tale which takes place in current times; of politics, publishing, ambition, feminism, class, power and raising children (particularly boys) in today's politically charged world. This was an interesting read and it was easy to keep turning the pages. Thank you to @netgalley @algonquinbooks and the author for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Pub date 8/18/20 #impersonation #heidipitlor #algonquinbooks #netgalley #goodreads #bookstagram #booksandmrdarcy #withhernosestuckinabook ❤️📚

As an experienced ghostwriter, Allie Long excels at expressing the interior lives of her clients, but although she needs the money and is pleased to be working on a “mom-moir” for Lana Breban, a famous feminist lawyer she’s also frustrated with Lana because she provides little material from which Allie can work.

Around the same time, her parents move to Florida, her “it’s complicated” leaves on an extended trip to find himself, and her son’s sitter exhibits increasingly unreliable behavior. Needing to supplement her writing with secondary jobs but with fewer childcare options, her financial situation takes a toll on her well-being.

With years of being a shadow providing the voice of others, Allie has begun to lose her own at a time when she desperately needs it.

The novel takes place between 2016 and 2017, and expertly (if painfully) captures the zeitgeist of the election and early days of the Trump presidency. I had such a visceral reaction to a scene describing the rollercoaster of emotions of election night—I remembered feeling the exact same way—and also the jubilation of the first women’s marches. It also is imbued with the ramifications of the #metoo movement, and Allie how struggles with being both a victim of and complicit with patriarchy.

Much of Allie’s concerns revolve around motherhood and its necessary compromises and how options collapse in lower income brackets. Allie and Lana are a study in opposites—appearance, style, background, class, career, and approach to motherhood. Their opportunities and ambitions are shaped by their priorities and constrained by means, but who gets to arbitrate what it means to be the better mother?

Impersonation hinges not on plot but on larger questions regarding values, relationships, and choices. The characters are difficult, frustrating, and often prickly, but can be endearing, and the situations will resonate highly with mothers of all kinds.

Pitlor writes beautifully and integrates a number of pressing social issues, and Impersonation is a provocative and rewarding character-driven novel.

The Facts: Contemporary feminist fiction
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The Feel: Character-driven, slow burn, empowering, current
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The Focus: Allie is a ghost writer for former politicians and B-list celebrities. When she's hired to write a memoir for the country's leading feminist voice, she starts to question her own life, abilities and goals as both a woman and a mother. It's a very current, satirical look at society, culture, feminism and the 2016 election.
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Things To Know:
🟣 If you're looking for a book about current issues, this is it. Pitlor hit on basically everything - Me Too, whitewashing books by Black women, feminism, the election, single motherhood, gender roles, the role of privilege in pregnancy and birth plans. It's all there. Pitlor wrote a story about women trying to have it all, and it was very timely and witty.
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🟣 If you're the mother of boys, this one will especially appeal to you. A running theme in the story is how to raise feminist sons. How to foster empathy and sensitivity in a world that promotes rugged hardness and lack of emotion in men. There's one part of the book where Allie describes what the ideal children's clothing store would look like without the constraints of gender, and it was fascinating.
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🟣 It seems as if lots of books about the 2016 election are finally being published this year. This is very much one of them. It almost seemed a little outdated with the current election only 3 months away, but that's understandable. As Allie was describing how disenfranchised and nervous she felt about a Trump presidency, I wanted to tell her to wait. You just wait, Allie. It gets so much worse 😬
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🟣 I wish there was more intersectionality. Poverty and privilege were touched upon, but not race itself. I also wish the story was a little more condensed; the last 50 pages didn't seem necessary and messed with the pacing. Also, Allie had this weird aversion to dogs, and that's a no from me.
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Read If You Like:
🟣 The View
🟣 Miss Congeniality
🟣 Commiserating
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Overall a fun, timely read that went on just a few too many tangents.

Meet Allie, she is single mom who struggles constantly with money and keeping steady work. She is a Substitute Teacher, Landscaper and a Professional Ghostwriter when she can get work. Things start looking up for her when she is asked to ghostwrite Lana Breban’s memoir. She is the political it-girl, and they want to give her a softer image.

While Allie is professional and understands what she needs to get this book written, she just cannot seem to pull much information from Lana especially about being a mother, which is the crux of what the publisher wants. Allie does what she knows best and starts inserting her personal experiences into Lana’s book.

Throughout the book, Allie is holding on by a string. She is always trying to figure out how to pay rent, she has a less than desirable boyfriend at times who can’t seem to earn money to help with rent, and she cannot afford childcare for her son.

This book was laugh out loud funny at times, and very relatable. Pitlor wrote a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat at times which culminates to a unexpected ending. The book started off a little slow, but stick with it, because about 25% in, I did not want to put it down. The author does a great job of capturing today’s modern woman in all its goodness and craziness that we endure.

Thank you NetGalley and Algonquin for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ghostwriter Allie Lang is hired to write feminist lawyer Lana Breban’s motherhood memoir. Allie tries to create a compelling story though Lana offers her very little to work with, and writes the book while trying to get by, financially, and as a single mom.

I really enjoyed the ghostwriting theme in Impersonation but struggled with other aspects — I wanted Allie to stand up for herself and demand that she deserved more, professionally and personally. While it was clear she cared deeply for her son, Cass, she fluctuated between coddling him and bribing him and this became somewhat tiring as a reader. There was a lot of dipping into timely topics in the book: politics, the 2016 election, motherhood, feminism, and the MeToo movement, but not a lot of depth with many of them.

Impersonation kept me curious — I appreciate the message that there are different ways to parent and to find success, yet it was difficult for me to like or connect with Allie and Lana.

The author's ability to capture ghostwriting of a memoir due to having to be more appealing politically is excellent. So many best-selling memoirs have ghost writers and no one knows! The author also is able to capture the struggle of Allie, who is putting up with a lot, deciding when it is enough to speak up. Allie desperately needs this job to pay her bills and doesn't want to lose it by speaking up about the treatment she receives. This is a struggle many women have had in their jobs and in life. I thought that the author captured these feelings beautifully.

Allie is a single mother whose job it is to ghost write the stories of others. She has become so good at it that she can often tell a person’s story better than they can. She can read between the lines of what someone is telling her. She can adjust and regroup if the voice she has written isn’t what the person wants. She can write a persons memoir and no one would ever know that the person didn’t write it themselves.

But when Allie gets paid from a job, the money only lasts so long. And sometimes she has to wait a while in between ghost writing gigs. And other times the books get shelved and she only gets part of what her paycheck should be, like with her latest book.

At the time that Nick’s book deal gets canceled, Allie has already written most of the memoir, booked a vacation that isn’t refundable, and started looking for a new home to rent. Allie isn’t sure now what to do.

Her agent tells her that he has something in the works for her but how long will that take before she runs out of money?

So when her agent finally comes through with the job, Allie is pleasantly surprised to discover that it entails writing the memoir for Lana Breban, a famous lawyer & women’s rights advocate. Lana has been advised to soften her image after winning a bid for the senate. Her team thinks that by having her memoirs main focus be her experiences as a mother that they can achieve this. Allie thinks that she has landed her dream ghostwriting job, but in reality it is more of a challenge than Allie is used to.

Lana is not very helpful when it comes to providing the necessary material needed for Allie to do her job. As a feminist herself, Allie struggles to write a fake memoir. Lana travels across the world advocating for women’s rights, but when it comes to her own life, a nanny raises her son. Allie has a hard time when it comes to lying about this fact especially since child care has been a problem for her personally. Really Allie has a hard time lying about all that Lana wants her to write.

I loved that Pitlor looked into America’s current political climate, feminist viewpoints, public shaming, motherhood, and all that goes with it. Allie’s story of being a ghostwriter got me thinking about how many memoirs that are published are written by someone else and how many are based on lies. How many are some form of the truth, but with a spin to make the “author” seem more appealing?

Allie Lang is a single mother, by choice. She lives with her five year old son, Cass and her on-again, off-again boyfriend. Allie is a ghostwriter by profession, although she has to supplement her income with substitute teaching and landscaping odd jobs. Her childcare is shaky. She can't afford a fulltime program so she has Cass in a childcare center one or two days a week for the socialization and then she has a neighbor watch him on other days. Unfortunately, the neighbor is elderly and getting forgetful but it's what Allie can afford. Her days are filled with uncertainty and she can't plan for the future like those in more stable situations are able to. But she has tons of time to spend with her son and she is her own boss, reliant on herself and her creativity to carve out a life.

When her latest ghostwriting assignment blows up, Allie is at loose ends. Then a dream job comes her way. Lana Breban is a famous woman, a feminist who has come to embody the struggle. She is a household name but her team feels that a biography would humanize her, showing her as not only a revolutionary but a wife and mother. They hire Allie and she is ecstatic as Lana is one of her heroes. But the work doesn't go well. Lana is constantly off somewhere, at conferences and rallies, brainstorming with corporate heads and lawmakers. She gives Allie very little material and it becomes apparent, there is little to give. Lana has been a very hands off mother, leaving the raising of her child to a housekeeper and nannies. Under pressure, Allie slowly begins to substitute in her own memories and struggles of being a mother. Lana is pleased and tells Allie to do more of that and when the book is finished it is more Allie's story than Lana's. But trouble is waiting in the wings.

Heidi Pitlor has worked in the publishing industry for most of her career. She is also the senior editor of the Best American Short Stories series since 2007. Her inside knowledge of the publishing industry makes this novel authentic. She is a wife and mother to twins so she knows the difficulties of motherhood. In Allie, she has created a woman that the reader can instantly relate to and cheer for. The novel illustrates the difficulties women face without being preachy about them. This book is recommended for readers of women's fiction and relationships.

I finished this one up earlier this month and it was quite good! 3.5/5 from me. The characters were interesting, the writing style was one I gravitate to and the plot was certainly intriguing. Really my only complaint would be something around how it ended but obviously I can't give you the details around that without spoiling anything. That being said I'd still recommend it. Likely to fans of Liane Moriarty.

Impersonation is about a ghostwriter, Allie Lang, who writes books for celebrities or other famous people - without getting any of the credit. She lives a simple life with her son, Cass, in Western Massachusetts. Her life may look different than the norm, but she strives to be a good mother while also teaching her son how to grow up well in the years following the 2016 election. Allie is hired to ghostwrite for a feminist activisit, Lana Breban, who is looking to improve her image and seem more "motherly". But getting information for the book from Lana is like pulling teeth, and Allie is forced to supplement from within her own life. Things get complicated, and Allie must figure out how to continue on.

I felt that the message of this book was very powerful. It's something that realistically could happen in this presidency, and a lot of it is focused on the aftermath of the 2016 election. It is a somewhat political book, it takes hard stances on certain people. The overall message of the book Allie is ghostwriting is how to raise boys to be feminists, and respect women - which is really a questions plaguing society. The highlight of this book is how real Allie is. She's honest, raw, and not trying to be someone she isn't. She doesn't have the typical nuclear family, she has flaws and makes mistakes. So often books pain the prettiest pictures of characters, but that isn't Allie - which I think is the whole point.

This leads into the characters. No one is particularly "great". Each and every characters has a mountain of flaws, so if those aren't characters you enjoy reading about, this book may not suit you. I guess this book also just made me sad that this is the state of our country right now, but it's real! There's no getting around that, and Pitlor is right to call it out and grow attention to it. Especially in an election year.

**Thank you to Algonquin Books and Netgalley for and early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

Heidi Pitlor's new book, Impersonation is the story of Allie, a ghostwriter who struggles to make ends meet for herself, her son and her inconstant boyfriend. She is writing for a public figure with political aspirations who is both inspiring and unavailable, forcing Allie to make up most of the book from her own experiences. It provides an interesting peek into the perilous world of ghostwriting, as well as a poignant remembrance of the painful year of rising #MeToo awareness as Donal Trump was elected president of the USA. The story maintains a tone of sadness and yet is hopeful, reminding us to marvel at the beauty that surrounds us. Thanks #NetGalley and @heidipit1 for the paperback copy as well as audio copy of #Impersonation! The narration was great, and I also enjoyed curling up with the book in bed.

I’ve often wondered if books about writers are as interesting to other people as they are to writers themselves. There’s something that’s so difficult to describe about the writing process and the life of a writer that seems like it would feel foreign to people who aren’t actually going through it in their day-to-day lives. “Impersonation” is about a ghostwriter named Allie who gets hired to write a book for a promising feminist activist, Lana Breban. As a writer, I felt like Heidi Pitlor perfectly captured the desperate search for ideas when writing and how downright tempting distractions can be (“I’ll just casually flip to Instagram or Twitter to see what’s happening”) when you’re actually trying to write.

Allie is hired to ghostwrite a memoir from Lana’s perspective that focuses on motherhood and what Lana has gone through raising her son while still practicing her strong feminist ideals. The problem is that Lana isn’t entirely forthcoming with stories or details about being a mother (seeing as how she mostly leaves her son in her nanny’s care). Allie is a single mother raising a precocious little boy named Cass, so when she begins facing looming deadlines (and with Lana’s encouragement), she starts to write her own experiences in the memoir as if they were Lana’s stories. Allie has to handle the fact that she’s sharing private memories of the life she leads with her son and publishing them as if they were some other mother’s intimate recollections.

“Impersonation” is not incredibly heavy on plot. Most chapters are simply about Allie trying to figure out what to write about, reminiscing about her own experiences as a mother, and coaxing Lana to give her any bit of guidance on how to move forward with the project. Allie struggles financially and works to make extra money aside from writing in order to pay her bills. These struggles are certainly relatable, and I’m sure any parent would delight in her dogged attempts to make it past the first page in a Virginia Woolf novel without getting distracted by countless things. But for readers who like action or suspense, they won’t be finding it here. The most exciting part of the book happens towards the very end, but even then, I felt like there was a pretty swift resolution to the conflict.

I don’t know if non-writers would find this book as enjoyable as I did, but I can say that Pitlor’s writing feels fresh and accessible.

As I struggled to find time to read and review this book, I was struck with the parallels between it and my life, of raising my children while making time for work in this day and age. Having been a single mother for a time, the personalization of this novel and its message was rife and thought provoking.

Despite my outside distractions, within the span of the first page, I was hooked. Equal parts frustrating and fascinating, "Impersonation" is achingly relatable, and not much of a literary “escape” as it is highly relevant, magnifying some of today’s most acute concerns.

Personal lives and politics intertwine in a complicated braid that often lies in territory where I heavily disagree or is out of my comfort zone, but is impactful and valuable, nevertheless. The main character, Allie, and I could be friends in real life, trade parenting tips and tribulations, hash out the current state of our government over drinks and Happy Meals. We would enjoy swapping grammar jokes and lament about rent prices. I might joke with her about where the landlord can stick his recycling bin next time he comes around to complain about where it was in his yard.

As I write this review, I am simultaneously nursing my youngest, typing one-handed (a practice I’ve perfected over the years), and reflecting on my own path and career. I think of all the women who I will recommend this book to, how I will talk it up and share it with enthusiasm. This book is a timely piece of prose, so important now, and necessary for change in the forthcoming years.

REVIEW. Book 79 of 2020. 3/5 stars.
Thank you Algonquin and Heidi Pitlor for the ARC of this book!
Unfortunately this ARC had 47 pages missing! There were 47 pages that were printed twice, so I don't know what happened between pages 182-231. I was able to piece together a few things but otherwise I am probably missing some important parts!
With that said - I still enjoyed the book. It is set in 2016-2017, US, with the backdrop of the election. Hillary Clinton is mentioned by name often, and Trump is discussed but never named. I found the story interesting as a character study of the main character Allie, and the subject of her ghostwriting - Lana. They were very realistic and nuanced characters. Allie is a single mom, freelance ghostwriter who is generally broke between books. Lana is a high profile attorney who speaks at NARAL events, fights trolls on Twitter, and writes op-eds in the New York Times about policies and laws that affect women.
Allie is trying to ghostwrite a book for Lana about being a feminist mother and raising a feminist son (Lana's son is 12). Allie has a son who is 4, and she finds herself putting in stories from her own life since Lana basically refuses to provide personal information and keeps asking her to write about studies and data showing that women suffer disproportionately from the medical system, etc, etc.
Allie also had a brief gig ghostwriting for a very famous man who ended up getting his book deal cancelled because of allegations of sexual harassment. Allie reflects on being "one of the guys" at an old job, and how she got along with the famous man but definitely could see him sexually harassing someone. There is another theme of men overcoming a #metoo scandal in politics, towards the end of the book that basically just made me sad!
I liked Allie's character and I was interested in the logistics of the ghostwriting. It was pretty clear from the beginning that Lana was not exactly the warm mom everyone wanted her to be in her book. The missing pages were right before the final third of the book, so I may have missed something important, but the feeling I got from the ending was one of disappointment. A lot happened to Allie that I felt wasn't fair and I felt that she didn't stand up for herself as much as she should have. On the other hand, the book really delved into politics and the need for compromise in order to get ahead, ESPECIALLY for women - but I still just felt kind of icky about all the compromise going on. Without spoiling it, I will have to stop here and say this was entertaining, realistic (maybe too realistic - i.e. depressing - about the state of US politics!) and a quick read. It comes out on August 18th!

“No human being can be a mother and save the world at the same time. Our expectations of women are, as always, absurd.”

I’ve been reading more memoirs lately and so the concept of a book told from a ghostwriter’s perspective was fascinating to me. Unfortunately I had a hard time with Allie. She was a chameleon who gets into the heads of her clients in order to write as them. But it feels as if because she’s done this so many times, she no longer has a clear voice and can’t seem to stand up for herself at all. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her, I just felt indifferent at times. Also she doesn’t like dogs....

However, the book is set in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the year following it really anchored the story. The author did an excellent job of bringing back first the hope, joy and optimism that many women felt thinking that finally we’d have our first female president and then the pain, frustration, and sickening feeling when we realized we still live in a misogynistic world that belittles us. I felt those emotions so strongly while reading and remembering my experiences during that time.

The mental gymnastics that Allie would do to defend Lana’s actions felt so familiar. I think most women probably do this at some time or another for a family member, boss, friend, or politician. Overall, it’s a book that I will need to continue to think about and digest in the coming days.

Thank you to @algonquinbooks and @heidipitlor for the #gifted ARC of IMPERSONATION in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3490969796
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CD4E_4MAYn-/

To be quite honest, this whole book kind of reads as a self-conscious assertion that the author is on the right side of every single divisive hot topic (race, class, feminism, the me too movement, politics, etc.) and yet so much of this—especially race—is handled pretty poorly. If we’re going to set that aside, then the bigger issue is that Allie is an insufferable character who whines 100% of the time, has no ability to set or respect boundaries, and also blames literally everyone else for problems that she herself causes. And nobody else is much better. Most notably, Lana, who receives all of this weird adoration simply because she is an immigrant and campaigning for women’s equality, as if this inherently cancels out all of her very shitty qualities.

This book dives into far too much, has no discernible interesting plot (it is truly just a daily deluge of Allie’s various anxieties and problems), and is a chore to get through.

Would be happy to fight (read: emphatically go deeper) about any of these thoughts, because I’m honestly surprised that this review seems to be so wildly different from everyone else’s.

Heidi Pitlor’s new novel, Impersonation, follows a woman as she juggles work, caring for her son, and caring for herself as well. Set to be released on August 18th, this “timely, insightful, and bitingly funny story of ambition, motherhood, and class” takes a look at what life in America is like for one woman at this moment in time.
I loved the concept of a ghostwriter being the focus on the novel since it’s a profession not many people know about. However, what seemed to be a story of two women facing the same struggles actually is just a story about one woman trying to be the best mother she can be. I also was hoping for more interactions between Lana and Allie. Instead, all of the focus was on Allie and Lana is just seen through her eyes and it seemed borderline obsessive at times.
The narration quickly shifts from Allie’s writing to the past to the present which can cause a bit of mental whiplash at times. The book starts off slow and the direction of the novel is hard to navigate in the first two sections. It isn’t until the third and final part of the book that it becomes more fast-paced and palatable.
Additionally, I couldn’t really connect with the characters like I was anticipating. Maybe it’s because I’m not a mother myself, but I just found it hard to relate to being a middle-aged single mother struggling to raise her son well and comparing herself to those around her.
This novel also takes a very politicized stance on certain ideas, which I wasn’t really expecting. Topics like #MeToo Movement and the events leading up to the 2016 Presidential Election are brought up in terms of how Allie tries to portray Lana and how Allie wishes the country could be.
While this novel was interesting and might be a five star read for others, it wasn’t really my cup of tea. However, if you want to read a novel that digs deep into motherhood, feminism, and American politics, then I would definitely give this one a read!

*I received an ARC from Algonquin Books in exchange for my honest opinion.

Allie is a single mother of a biracial child she adores and a freelance ghostwriter and landscaper. As a ghostwriter, she knows fame will always elude her. Also as a ghostwriter she melds what others say, not what her creativity might provide, and she is a channel, as it were, for whatever others do in their lives, their beliefs and perceptions, not her own. It seemed to me that this was her life pattern: adapting herself to others, for even as a marketing copywriter at a Manhattan equity firm, Allie molded herself to what others wanted her to be. Now, however, she is confronted with evidence regarding a client's sexual offenses, an eruption that will greatly affect her own income and hopes to improve life for herself and Cass. It's time to stop being a reflection, a mirror, a channel, and find her True Self, the real Allie, whoever she is.

"Impersonation" by Heidi Pitlor started off strong, but around the middle mark - this novel became a chore to get through. I am familiar with Pitlor's previous works. I very much enjoyed her last novel, "The Daylight Marriage". It was haunting and disturbing. An excellent thriller. "Impersonation" felt very basic and predictable. I don't even know how to categorize this book. It has a strong literary theme of feminism which I found rather drab. I don't think the author really understands what feminism really means. She contradicts herself so many times through her main protagonist, Allie - who's a ghostwriter and single mother. The most compelling aspect was Allie's backstory - her unstable childhood, and her early struggles of raising her biracial son on her own. The whole ghostwriting plotline was interesting but lacked substance. Allie wasn't a believable character. I never felt like she had a strong opinion about anything. She basically just impersonates the subject she is ghostwriting about - hence the title. Allie complains a lot but doesn't have much backbone. I found her incredibly timid which is upsetting because I really wanted to root for her. The ending was safe and not impactful. I absolutely hated Allie's live-in boyfriend. A total flake. The only reason I'm giving this 3 stars is I like Pitlor's writing style. It's a mixed bag for me.

Thank you, Netgalley and Algonquin for the digital ARC.

Release date: August 18, 2020