Single mom (by choice), Jessica, saw this college tour as a way to reconnect with her teen daughter, Emily. Juggling her successful career as a lawyer with parenting has always been a challenge, but now Jessica was ready to give Emily her full attention, and hoped it wasn't too late to salvage their relationship.

The number one reason why I come back for Waxman's books is her humor. She never fails to make me laugh, and I really enjoyed this amusing and heartwarming story. For me, it was a tale of a mother and daughter trying to figure out where they fit into each other's lives. Needless to say, I related to this story. I remember how my relationship with my daughter morphed and changed as she grew older. It challenging trying to allow your child to exercise their autonomy, while still having some say-so in their life. I thought that idea was beautifully and realistically explored in this book. I legit felt Jessica's pain and frustration, when she had to hold her tongue or resist giving her daughter a push in the right direction. But, she couldn't argue with the end results.

I obviously connected with the mother part of this mother-daughter story, but I also enjoyed getting to know Emily better. She felt like a typical teen to me, and her interactions with her mother were signature teen girl. However, she had a lot of hidden depths. I especially like how she was grappling with what to do after high school. She was expected to go from her tony private school to college, but Emily wasn't sure that was the right path for her. I always love seeing this in books, because I agree, that college isn't for everyone. I, therefore, definitely welcomed this to the story.

The book was filled with fun antics, and a lot of meaningful discussions and self reflections. As much as Jessica wanted this trip to help her get to know her daughter better, it also allowed her, and Emily, to learn a lot about themselves. Both women figured out a lot of important things about the impact their mothers had on their lives, and influence they had on each other.

Overall, I had an incredible time on this road trip. Not only were Jessica and Emily fantastic, but they were accompanied by a full cast of characters, who all added to the fun. As always, Waxman managed to both fill my heart with warmth and laughter, but she also me wistful and wanting to relive those days with my own daughter.

So much love for Abbi Waxman! This book is fresh, funny, poignant & topical. I have already recommended it to a few people.

One of the joys of  reading is finding new favorite novels. I’ve discovered a few great books in 2020 but Abbi Waxman’s I Was Told It Would Get Easier has easily carved itself a spot in my top ten list.

Jessica Burnstein is in the midst of a kid-life crisis. She can barely speak to her sixteen-year-old daughter Emily any more without the discussion descending into an argument. Even a stellar, successful  lawyer like Jessica doesn’t want to spend her every conversation as part hostile cross questioning, part loud-voiced debate and she is hoping that the week-long college tour they are embarking on will give her and Emily a chance to strengthen their relationship and build communication  bridges that will serve them well during the university years.

Emily is tired of being a disappointment (Jessica doesn’t think this, but it’s how Emily feels). She knows her single mother works extremely hard to pay for the outstanding Los Angeles private high school she attends, but her mom does a mediocre job of hiding how concerned she is that Emily is only an average student. Emily wants to have time  with Jessica that doesn’t center on chats about her future or that doesn’t get cut short by Jessica having to respond to a text or phone call from work. Her mom doesn’t seem to hear her when she says she doesn’t have a career plan and that she’s sick of sitting in classes that bore her. The only good thing about this college tour is that it will pull Emily away from an approaching catastrophe at school, one that may very well cast her into the role of complete social pariah - or result in even more dire consequences.

The tour doesn’t get off to a great start. Jessica is running late, Emily is frustrated that her mother can easily get out the door to go to work but falls apart when they are leaving to do anything else. They wind up seated separately on their flight from California to the East Coast. Then they discover that their frenemies from school - Alice and her mother Dani Ackerman are on the exclusive Excelsior Educational Excursions (E3) tour with them. Both Emily and Jessica are mildly horrified by this. As Emily puts it, “My mom is never mean about people, and she once said that Mrs. Ackerman was not a nice person. That’s strong stuff for my mom.”  Fortunately, the nasty surprise of finding Alice and Dani on the tour with them is balanced by meeting the handsome Chris Berman and his equally adorable son Will. Maybe they will have time to explore something beyond pricey universities on this trip.

I loved this book. From its celebration of female friendships to its laugh out loud moments during deep examinations of the mother-daughter relationship, it doesn’t hit a wrong note. Emily and Jessica are extremely relatable characters who both have the best of intentions but somehow can never seem to say what they feel in a way that connects with the other. The story is told from both Emily and Jessica’s points of view, and watching their differing (but often similar) reactions to the same scene is hilarious. During one moment, when Jessica fails to bring snacks to stave off her daughter’s low blood sugar induced snark, and Emily is growing increasingly hangry as a result, we get this gem of an episode:

From Emily’s perspective: Then Will appeared, smiled at me, said hello to my mom and asked me if I’d like to share a Twix. We’re getting married next week.

From Jessica’s view point: Oh my god, The Boy showed up and offered my furious daughter some chocolate. There goes her virginity.

Jessica spends some time texting her best friend, of whom she says,

“I knew she was The Friend for Me when one day she showed up at my door with toilet paper because she’d seen it written on the back of my hand and knew I hadn’t made it to the store that day.”

There are some great moments with an ex from her college days, with her former roommate from that same era, and in which she and some other parents share drinks while listing all the things their kids say that they used to say and all the things their parents said that they now find themselves parroting. I had to laugh when at one point Jessica remarks of the tour group,

“It’s entirely possible that somewhere there is a group of people in their forties who can drink a lot of wine, then do tequila shots, then dance like Beyonce but we were not those people.”

 And when she says,

“I’ve become painfully aware of my age lately. I’m not springing back the way I once did, and if I’ve been sitting for a while, I make sad noises when I stand and start walking. People I grew up with are starting to die of cancer; the children of celebrities I loved in my teens are becoming famous. Is this what aging is? A gradual loss of the faces you remember, and as gradual a replacement of those faces with ones whose names you can’t be bothered to discover. “

 I loved her intelligence, her humor, her kindness and even her quirkiness. When she says, while at the Ford Theater,

“I love a good museum gift shop; it makes it possible to both spend money and feel erudite. Sure, some people would argue that museums are for education and inspiration, not the purchasing of assissination -themed merchandise. But they would be wrong.”

I knew she was The Book Best Friend for Me.

Emily is an absolutely charming girl who is shy but resourceful, smart, kind, has loads of integrity, is a great person and good friend. In spite of all those stellar qualities, she’s achingly real and accessible. She offers a lot of insight into how life is different for teens today than it was for those of us who experienced that age a few decades ago.

These two were great people to spend several hundred pages with. Not just their humor and insight but it felt wonderful during this stressful era of COVID-19 to watch two people juggle some highly stressful situations and kill it.

While Will and his dad Chris appear frequently throughout the story, there is little romance here. The emphasis is on building friendships, enhancing parent-child bonds and self-discovery. Both Emily and Jessica come to some important realizations about what they want and need from life during this trip and that helps them recognize what they want and need from each other.

I Was Told It Would Get Easier is an absolutely amazing book with eloquent prose, a heartfelt tale and wonderful, lovable characters. It’s the perfect ray of sunshine in a world that can seem frightening and tumultuous. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good story, to anyone who loves women’s fiction and most especially, anyone who has a teenager or twenty something.

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Before even picking up this book, I was an Abbi Waxman fan and after reading this book, I am a complete and utter fan!

A mother daughter story at the most pivotal moment of the relationship, the time where wings are growing and the bird is about to depart the nest. Jessica and Emily are mother daughter and they are going on an east coast swing of college campuses to find Emily's future, but she isn't sure if college is the future for her. At the same time, Jessica is also going through a crisis of sorts at her job fighting for the future of the young women at her law firm and her future and trying to decide what it will look like after motherhood takes a turn.

First, I am a fan of this moment in life. I think it is so interesting to dissect as parents and children are making a large transition and it is just difficult. I am so glad that Abbi Waxman allowed both Jessica and Emily the opportunity to narrate the book; switching from one to the other and seeing their inner thoughts compared and contrasted to the other was just genius. It made me laugh out loud a few times as it reminded me of the times where my mom and I have thought the same thing and only one of us said it and the other made very large gestures in agreement!

I loved this book so much that I pre-ordered it for my mom to read. I need her to reminisce at this time that we went through and how it changed the course of our lives. I think mothers and daughters should read this one together to laugh and remind themselves about the special relationship that they have and how the ups and downs are necessary for both to grow!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishing house for providing a review copy of this novel. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

It’s no secret that parenting teenagers is hard, but it is not something I see addressed a lot in fictional motherhood stories. Perhaps that is why I felt so SEEN when reading this mother and daughter story. Waxman is one of those charming women’s fiction writers that writes her stories with such relatable humor that I always find myself laughing out loud.

In her latest novel, Jessica and Emily Burnstein have decided to embark on a college tour together. Jessica is looking forward to bonding with her daughter, but Emily is less focused on the bonding experience and more on getting a preview of freedom.

As the college tour bus takes them from campus to campus, both begin to discover new details about each other. Emily’s surprised to discover that her single mom might be attractive to men (for example) and Jessica begins to discover that her daughter’s idea of the future might look a heck of a lot different than what she expected.

Waxman rounds out the story with a bus full of well-written characters and fun side plots that make this a great little summer adventure story.

This story is sure to hit the right notes for parents of teens, in particular.

*I've received this ARC from @prhinternational in exchange of an honest review.*

I was very interested in this novel because it talks about the mother-daughter relationship during that period of life (adolescence) we always struggle with our parents. They don't understand us, they want to decide for us and they seem to be sure to know what it's best for us. I totally understand this part and I was interested to read about the other side of the medal.
Then, which book could be more perfect than this, that has as premise a sort of bond-trip mother/daughter across the country looking for the best college?
I have to say it has been a cute book and a cute story, with some interesting scenes and plot-twist really unespected that I've enjoyed so much!
Emily and Jessica are two adorable characters (flaws included) and I really appreciated they have two similar but not identical way of talking and thinking.
Dialogues were good too, but I have to admit they were a little bit repetitive. I understand that we are talking about Emily's future at school but has everyone have to say the same things with just small differences through every chapter? Same for Jessica. Ok, she has that problem at work and insecurities about herself as a mother and I understand it's not something that goes away easily, but. I didn't see such big evolution during the whole narration. Ok, this novel is about few days together but I've seen too few emprovement to understand how their relationship will go from now on. It's just obvious Emma and Jessica love each other and that's all.
Same for study/work, frienships and eventually "love" interests. It's all just sketched out (especially for Jessica) and I admit I would have been curious to know in the epilogue something more about how things were going on! Even the "school" problem that Emily has at the beginning of the book - that comes up to be very different from what the reader could imagine - has not been well handled and we don't know how things ended after this journey. As for me, I've appreciated more if some things had been managed differently, with more insights and care. As it is it's a little bit too fast and that's a pity.

So, if you want a light reading and something different from the usual, get a chance to this book! Some parts were really funny and I'm a fan of Chris and Will!


Thanks for the free book, @prhinternational !



#Iwastolditwouldgeteasier #abbiwaxman #penguinrandomhouse #netgalley #review

I Was Told It Would Get Easier had a slow start for me and it took me nearly half the book before I really connected with Jessica and Emily. I think it may just be due to the fact that High School feels like a distant past and I’m not yet dealing with the difficulties of a teenager so I felt a bit removed from their experiences. However, as I continued to read and connect with them I had memories from high school and college came back to me and I found myself feeling for both of these characters and the struggles they were facing. This is a story that reminds you that everyone is dealing with stress and moments of uncertainty no matter their age and to remember to approach people with grace and understanding. It also had some really funny moments and I think this is a book I will be reaching for as my children reach their teenage years for a good laugh.

This is the story of a mother/ daughter relationship that invokes memories of Gilmore Girls and Golden Girls. The bond between mothers and daughters are a very unique thing. It is different for every person, of course, but when you think about the pop culture mother/ daughter relationships, you can now include Jessica and Emily.

As a girl mom myself, I related to this book in many ways. Teenage girls are a fickle bunch and can love you one minute and loathe you the next. Throw in a college tour road trip with a group of almost strangers and the chaos begins. How far is too far for a mother to push her daughter when it comes to college decision making? How does a daughter tell her mother, the only parent she has, that she isn’t even sure she wants to go to college? What happens when an old flame starts hitting on you in front of your daughter?

This was such an enjoyable read, as is anything by Abbi Waxman. I loved the dynamic between both Jessica and Emily and the other peers in this group.

This is my first book from this author and my first written from alternating mother/daughter POV's. It was funny and sweet and definitely one that I could relate to.

I found the story to be different from any I remember reading but it was written with a great sense of humor and total sass that I enjoyed. It was surprisingly emotional and witty. The author did a great job using humor to highlight the broken parts of any parent/child relationship. Go hug your kids and remind yourself that we're all doing the best we can. Then read this book!

I really wanted to like this book. I enjoyed Abbi Waxman's "The Bookish Life of Nina Hill" so I was excited when I saw this ARC on Netgalley, but it fell a little flat for me.

Told in alternating points of view between single mom Jessica and her daughter, Emily, "I Was Told it Would Get Easier" follows the pair as they embark on a college tour, despite the fact that Emily doesn't actually want to go to college (unbeknownst to her mom).

There are a few twists along the way, but this basically follows a pretty standard narrative and is familiar territory for anyone with a mom or a daughter. Mom doesn't understand her teenager; teenager doesn't understand her mom. It's pretty obvious where they end up.

But it's an easy, non-taxing read and it would work perfectly for a summer read.

I went into this book with high hopes because I loved The Bookish Life of Nina Hill. But for me, this one just wasn't love.

Told in alternating POV between mother (Jessica) and daughter (Emily), we get a look at how both parties perceive the same situation while they go on a college tour. It was a very realistic look at how parent and child can misunderstand one another and their struggle and anxiety over their relationship was palpable while reading this.

We start the book with Jessica at work and she threatens to quit her job before leaving on vacation to go on her college tour. I thought the job would be more forefront in the book because we start there but then it sort of fizzles out and we don't hear much about it throughout the rest of the book.

Emily is a teenager. She loves her mom but is embarrassed by her and she totally reads into what Jessica says wrong. For that matter, Jessica does the same thing when it comes to Emily.

I thought there were some funny parts and some cringe-worthy parts and while I liked this book, it wasn't one I'd consider a favorite.

Jessica and Emily depart on a college tour with heavy weighs upon their shoulders but the mother/lawyer in Jessica is intent on connecting with her anxious college bound teenager. Along for the trip is another girl from Emily’s school who puts her own spin on the tour as cute guy Will appears. Full of wit and sarcasm, this road trip will make you roll your eyes and laugh out loud.

I love Abbi Waxman. Her books, to me, have appeal across age and cultural lines. She manages to make the reader laugh without writing fluffy and lightweight books. There are people lessons in every book, but she doesn't beat you over the head with them.

In this novel, high-powered L.A. lawyer and single mom Jessica and her 16 year old daughter Emily fly to the East Coast for a group college tour. The trip is complicated by the fact that Emily is distinctly lukewarm about school in general and college in particular. Mother and daughter are close, but have pretty typical issues and spend a lot of time gritching at each other.

The book is heavily dialogue driven which is fine because Waxman's conversations are stellar. There is a scene very early in the book where Jessica confronts her cluelessly sexist boss about overlooking two perfect female candidates for partnership. It made me laugh out loud and wince at the same time.

They do some visiting with old friends and family in between college visits and it gives Emily a bit of insight into who her mom is and used to be. There are social interactions on the trip between the parents, and between the kids. Yes, they forge a stronger bond by the end of the trip and some uncertainties get resolved, but Waxman does it without it feeling trite.

Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a delightful and sometimes poignant, mother daughter relationship story, timed at the end of high school. Abbi always includes some gem lines that make me cackle aloud.

Have you ever a read a good book and thought to yourself, “I can’t wait to read this author’s next book!” This was exactly how I felt after reading “Other People’s Houses.” I love that book and then read “The Bookish Life of Nina Hill” the following year. Unfortunately, the newest book by Abbi Waxman, “I Was Told It Would Get Easier,” didn’t live up to that same expectation.
Single mom and lawyer, Jessica Burnstein, and her prep school daughter, Emily, are about to embark on a weeklong bus tour of East Coast colleges. While some mothers and daughters are thick as thieves, and describe each other as their best friend, that is not the case with these two. They are more like oil and water or chalk and cheese! Told in alternating narrative, we get to know the two women and that things are not going easily in each other’s lives, but neither wants to share what those challenges are. Long story short, this leads to countless misunderstandings and miscommunications.
I think what frustrated me the most was that book moves along quite slowly and kept re-emphasizing over and over how much Jessica and Emily did not get along. Then, all was wrapped up in a nice, neat bow in the last few chapters.
For some, this is a light, quick summer, beach read. For me, it took effort to finish. Maybe Waxman’s next book will be different.

Abbi Waxman is back with another extremely readable family story. Jessica and her daughter Emily are off to the East Coast for a college tour. The story is told from both perspectives and examines modern parenting, teen life in the age of social media, and the extreme pressure of the current college entrance model. Waxman has an ability to write scenes and dialog that are laugh out loud funny or poignant to the point of tears. I wish her plot pacing was a little more polished and occasionally it got a little preachy. But, this was a fun read.

This is my 2nd Abbi Waxman read, and it didn't disappoint. I loved the alternating perspectives and humor. Being the mother of a newly 13-year-old daughter, this mother-daughter road trip story made me laugh, cry, and sigh. Highly recommended.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to review an advance copy of Abbi Waxman's new book. I Was Told It Would Get Easier features two characters, a mother and daughter. They embark on a journey to visit colleges on the East Coast, which is apparently a "thing" for parents of higher means. The relationship between Jess and Emily is remarkable in its normalcy. It's a great look at how we interact and how expectations and reality diverge. I greatly enjoyed the inner monologues of both women. That, to me, was the genius of this book. We learn so much more from what is happening inside their minds than what they show one another. The uncertainty of successful communication with the person you love most in the world......oh, its essence is captured here with great aplomb!

Oh, lots of mother-daughter emotion in this one! A good read for cross generation #metoo understanding

Single mother and lawyer Jessica and her teenage daughter Emily are on a weeklong college tour. Jessica hopes this will be a chance to reconnect, without work to distract her (except for phone calls and email and texting...). Emily is ambivalent about school and keeping a big secret. But off they go on a whirlwind through the best colleges of the Northeast. Along the way, they meet some new people and have some real conversations. And some fights. And learn about each other.

This was almost too real. It’s one of the most lifelike mother-daughter relationships I’ve ever seen depicted. No perfect, Gilmore Girls besties in matching pajamas here. Jessica and Emily tell the story in alternating first person, and they’re both wonderfully flawed, observant, honest, funny narrators.

The ending felt kind of rushed to me, but perhaps that was meant to be more like real life. Things aren’t always wrapped up neatly, everyone with a love interest and a perfect plan. Waxman is a terrific writer and I really enjoyed this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC to review.