Any parent who is sending a child off into the world should read this book. The author describes the adult and teenager point of view so well. We as adults wanting the best for our children try to do the right thing, but often times our efforts are rejected by teens and we can't understand why. It is also an avenue into the "elite" and their struggles with finding the right school and helping their child any way they can to achieve a status that will make them look good in front of their peers.

Jessica Burnstein, at 45 is a successful partner in an LA law firm in spite of the challenges of being the single mom of 16-year-old Emily. The two are embarking on a seven-day trip to visit colleges organized by Excelsior Educational Excursions, or E3, a college admissions consulting company. As Jessica explains, “One of the selling points of E3 is that they take care of everything on the tour; you just have to pay a ridiculous sum of money.”

They are both leaving behind situations that have each of them on edge. Jessica has threatened to quit her job if her boss John doesn’t promote her mentee, Valentina. John is opposed for largely sexist reasons, and Jessica is outraged over it.

Emily did something at school that has her upset, but she won’t share what is going on with her mom (or the readers).

The narration alternates between Jessica and Emily, and both are amusing and interesting in different ways. Jessica is stressed out over the whole competition to get into college situation, which, as she notes, “is part political campaign, part American Ninja Warrior competition.” Emily, who is adorable, witty, delightful, albeit still a snarky teenager, is much more attuned to her mother than her mother knows.

This passage by Waxman shows in a nutshell who Emily is, after she and her mom find out a schoolmate, Alice Ackerman, and her mother Dani are also on the E3 tour. Alice and Emily were friends when Alice first transferred to her school, and Emily explains why they aren’t friends anymore:

“. . . after a few golden weeks of total focus, she shut down on me like an eclipse, and for the last two years she’s left me alone, out here in the penumbra (see, I did pay attention in Physics). But that’s what she’s like. She spins at the center of the high school universe and her gravity pulls people in, but she spins so fast that most of them get flung back into the outer rings. (Dude, I am killing this out space metaphor; Mr. Libicki would be stoked.)”

Although Jessica hopes the trip will be about “reconnection and bonding” in addition to finding a suitable school, Emily actually has absolutely no interest in going to college. She feels that doing her best is never enough for her mom, who seems oblivious to what Emily would like for her own life instead of what Jessica would like for Emily’s life.

As for Jessica, she laments that the “golden years” of Emily’s childhood passed around the time Emily turned thirteen. “She woke up a teenager, and all the skills I’d learned were useless, and all the time I’d fought to have with her was spent waiting for her to come home from hanging out with friends she’d much rather talk to than me.”

Furthermore, Jessica bemoans, “Somewhere she has a list of my buttons, I swear. There’s probably an app for it.”

But the two have a great deal of love and respect for one another, and as the trip progresses, they do in fact get to know each other better, and “reconnect and bond” just as Jessica had hoped. Along the way, there’s a great deal of Waxman’s trademark humor and snappy dialogue to keep us engaged.

Evaluation: Both mothers and daughters will be able to relate to the two points of view presented in this very pleasant, entertaining story. There are plenty of side plots to spice up the action of a college tour trip, and rewarding growth on the part of the protagonists.

This was another wonderful read from Abbi Waxman! I enjoyed the mother-daughter dynamic and the timely issues explored with a good balance of depth and humor. And Waxman’s humor is perfect as ever. This will be a great book club pick!

I enjoyed the alternating perspectives in what is essentially a mother/daughter road trip story. Waxman nailed the middle-aged mom perspective; not sure the teen perspective was quite as authentic (it's been a long time since I was a teen but I do read a fair amount of YA), but it was entertaining.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Witty and wise, Abbi Waxman captures the brutal beauty of mother-daughter relationships, the pressures of adolescence, and the impossible standards of parenting all in a laugh out loud book you’ll want to share with your mother, daughter and friends. Join Jessica and her daughter Emily as they tour picturesque college campuses, each running from secrets and fears that reveal they are more alike than different. Waxman incorporates the #metoo movement, college admission scandals, and universal themes of unconditional love with sharp dialog and endearing characters.

With I WAS TOLD IT WOULD GET EASIER Abbi Waxman delivers another scintillating, highly relatable, laugh-out-loud funny read! The alternating perspectives between mom Jessica and her teenage daughter Emily as they embark on a week-long college tour allow Waxman to effectively capture the miscommunications and misunderstanding that plague mother-daughter relationships at this time of life. I couldn't put it down!

Abbi Waxman is an automatic read for me and I found this one to be totally fun!
I loved the dynamics between Jessica and Emily and how this trip helped them form new bonds. They met some crazy characters along the way and had some situations that I think helped draw them closer. It was a fun road trip to travel on with them!

Sweet, sassy, emotional, entertaining story about #metoo movement dances with tight pressure about college applications, generation gap, communication breakdown and sweet mother and daughter’s journey about breaking the barriers and reforming their tight family bonds!

I’m a big fan of the author’s incredible sense of humor and original approach to help us get lost in her characters’ different functioning minds. I liked two versions of a mother and daughter’s POVS to the same events emphasizing their differences, resentfulness which slowly damages their relationship.

Successful, ambitious, tough lawyer Jessica, 45, single mom, stands for her colleague to get the promotion she deserved and threats him to quit her job before leaving for the tour to East Coast Colleges she’ll take with her teenage daughter (16) Emily. And Emily just runs away from something she did at the school. She just doesn’t want to face it and has no intention to share with her mom.

Their trip turns into something enlightening, meeting with old friends, some of the colleagues. So we’re introducing so many livid, likeable and well-drafted characters.

This is a sweet, soft, enjoyable, feel-good, women’s fiction and lovely mother and daughter relationship story. I have to admit I enjoyed “Bookish Life of Nina Hill” more. It was one of my best reads of the last year. But this book is also well-written, easy to read with lots of funny quotes and we catch so many sparkles of author’s unique witty mind as usual. I both love Emily and Jessica. And the supporting characters are also adorable. So
I’m giving four shiny, soft, swoony, lovely stars. Abbi Waxman did again! She made me put a big smile on my face! Atta girl!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this incredible ARC in exchange my silliest dance moves, of course I’m kidding, in exchange my honest review. (I was checking to make sure you’re reading my thanking part!)

Writing: 4/5 Character: 4.5/5 Plot: 4/5

A fun new offering from the author of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill. LA lawyer and single mom Jessica and her 16-year old total-teenager Emily tour East Coast colleges. Along the way they connect with old friends, colleagues, and a personality-ridden tour group. Plenty of great banter (both live and text based), likable characters, and some quite decent insight. Amidst the lightness are serious themes around getting into college: pressure, competition, how far parents are willing to go to give their offspring a boost. There is a lot of focus on how to know what the “right thing” is and how to make sure you are doing it. Nicely drawn relationships — mostly female but without (too much) male bashing.

I put this in the category of “hanging out with friends” books — meaning that while I’m reading it, that’s exactly what I feel like I’m doing. While some of the events towards the end veered off the credible scale, they really didn’t affect the main themes or take up too many pages so I found them easy to forgive.

Just a couple of fun quotes:

“I know a lot about philosophy, and people say it’s a pointless subject, but I swear I see human thought changing in front of my eyes every day. In the two decades I’ve been teaching, opinions and attitudes have evolved and altered and swung back and forth, and I have a ringside seat.”

“It’s not a constant interview which is what seems to happen when two adults get together. What do you do for a living? where did you go to school? What does your wife do?” She looked out the window. “You guys are weird, you don’t know how to communicate, you’re too busy stratifying.”

LOTS OF FUN, I felt like saying “been there, done that” as I traveled with a Jessica and Emily on their college tour. Very good insights into teen angst and the difficulties between mothers and their teen aged daughters, despite the underlying love that overcomes all their conflict.

I think I might have gone on the same circuit with my own daughter. It brought back lots of memories and anecdotes. So, definitely an enjoyable read for all mothers.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.