I started reading When I Ran Away in the Fall of 2020. Though it has a captivating and raw story line, I couldn't find the strength to continue reading. As I read over other reviews, I am hopeful this book is a great story and has many lessons to learn. I don't think I anticipated to start reading a book with a lot raw emotions, tough topics, and retelling of trauma. As a social worker, I already deal with traumatic experiences and I just couldn't find myself to read through a book with much of the same. I am partly at fault for assuming this book would be something I could handle. Those that are interested in reading this book need to keep in mind there are potential triggers and a serious, heavy storyline. I hope to one day come back to this book when I have headspace to do so.

Great story and loved the slight romance. Really enjoyed the characters and how the plot moved and how the characters changed throughout the book. I would read this author again.

Warning: this is not a light read. Filled with raw moments of grief, depression, traumatic birth, and flashbacks to 9/11, When I Ran Away explores one woman’s journey that ended with her alone in a dirty hotel room. Gigi left her family and is struggling with whether she should go back, or if the trauma and chaos in her life is just too much for one woman to bear. I am not a mother, but I appreciated the author shedding light on the fact that parenting is not as glamorous as all the mommy-bloggers and insta-influencers make it out to be. Everything doesn’t just become easy the moment you give birth and your mother instincts kick in. It doesn’t always work like that and the author does a fantastic job showing both the joys of motherhood and the low moments that no one likes to talk about. It isn’t all doom and gloom though. Bannister dropped a few laugh out loud moments throughout the book that helped lighten the mood just a bit. The timeline got a bit confusing at times with all the flashbacks to random moments in Gigi’s life but overall the book was very enjoyable to read. When I Ran Away comes out in Spring of 2021 and should definitely be added to your list if you’re interested in women’s fiction.



Thank you @netgalley and @doubledaybooks for the gifted copy of this book!

The main character drove me nuts. Everything she did or didn’t due to issue communication made me want to pull my hair out. I did not like this one. Skimmed my way through

Gigi has not had an easy life. She left home at a young age, forced to support herself and still send money home to her parents and younger brother. Her troubled home life all but implodes when the 9/11 attacks impact her family with a major loss that follows us through the novel.

Harry and Gigi meet on the Staten Island ferry fleeing from the 9/11 attacks, when Gigi takes Harry to her parents house because he has nowhere to go. Ten years later, Gigi, a now single mother, runs in to Harry again. This is where their relationship truly begins. Gigi and Harry marry and move to London, leaving everything Gigi knows and loves behind.

Later, after a traumatic childbirth to their son, Rocky, Gigi falls into her grief. Nothing in her life has turned out how she wanted it to..she has given up her career, left her friends and family back in NYC and fallen into a state on constant exhaustion and depression. Told between alternating timelines, we witness Gigi’s tragic downfall and all of the events that lead up to her walking out on her family.

This book presented a raw, powerful and honest look into the grief of a woman and how it can manifest itself both mentally and physically. It showed the toll anxiety can take on someone who believes she is never doing enough to make her children happy. Ilona Bannister’s writing style made this book heartbreaking, yet included instances of uplifting humor, constantly dragging the reader in for more. I think this debut novel will be a hit, especially among bookclubs, as there are many aspects of Gigi’s life and character to discuss.

Thank you to Netgalley & Doubleday Books for providing me with an e-book ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What a beautiful, tear jerking, heart pounding debut it is! My emotions are truly everywhere!

When your life turns into your own prison cell: you’re trapped, nothing is on your control even your body, your mind, your hormones, your opinions seem like belong to a stranger, can you just WALK AWAY for a second to take a break and to remember who you were once upon a time?

Can you put distance between the life you just truly hate and the life you wish to live or the person you wish to become?

What if you don’t have any idea about your future dreams, needs, passions? What if you’re just lost and only thing you can do is just hiding into a shithole hotel room, drinking yourself to cry as you watch disastrous dramas at daytime reality shows! That’s what Gigi Stanislawski did!

She’s exhausted, depressed, lost, horrified, grief stricken, hopeless, aimless. How her life turned into such a disaster?

She left her loyal, hard worker husband Harry who truly cares about her and her lovely boys alone in the house. Could she gather her mental and physical strength to turn back or could she continue to draft away aimlessly till she finds her way and what she will do her life?

What’s the reason of her downfall?

Her neglected parents’ careless attitudes: CHECK!

Traumatic experience of losing her brother at 9/11 and carrying burden and caring her own parents throughout the process who switched their places with her by becoming her own children: CHECK!

Forced to raise the child of her brother’s girlfriend who never got through the grief she’d suffered. CHECK!

And finally she found Harry: charming, successful business man, hot British guy with terrible shirt choices: they met 10 years ago. Their workplaces were close, bumping each other at coffee place and they also bumped each other at the very ominous day: 9/11

Harry has nowhere to go and Gigi takes him to her parents’ house where Harry witnesses the shit show of dysfunctional family show from the front seat and he also witnesses the big family drama after they learned the tragic news about their son.

Now 10 years later, they met each other at a park coincidentally and this time Harry has no intention to let her go. He wants to move with him to the UK, leaving her friends, job, family behind. She says yes but can she start over at a different continent and adjust her new life?

Of course processing things, hanging out the pretentious friends of Harry might be a little complex and she might feel lonely, right: CHECK!

And yes let’s not forget when Gigi gave a compelling birth to her son Rocky, living her job and turning into a full time mother who suffers from mental and physical pain.

We’re going back and forth between past and present time to understand what put Gigi at the edge of emotional breakdown and we question motherhood, marriage, life, friendship, suffer, grief, burden from her own eyes.

This is unique, heart wrenching, genuine, honest, natural approach telling us how compelling job to be a mother, not to be good enough, to lose yourself when you try to be everything your children want you to be but to be afraid of not making them happy enough.

I normally give four stars but I loved Gigi so much! The author created a wonderful portrait and made us feel like we just have a coffee talk (or girls night out for more wines!) with her. She just like one of your close friends whom you really want to reconnect and share your experiences. So I’m giving extra half star and rounding up 4.5 stars to 5!

This is amazing debut and I’d like to read future works of the author.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for sharing this remarkable arc in exchange my honest review.

"When I Ran Away starts out like a stand up comedy routine and had me laughing out loud. Then the mood changes and I was sobbing....but not for long, as the author lightens up quickly and the humor is back. This roller coaster novel is the story of Eugenia "Gigi", a mid thirties New Yorker who has settled in as a single when major changes including a little boy, a romance with a Brit, and a move to England turn her life upside down. Adapting to the more formal lifestyle of the "proper British Soccer Moms isn't easy and she misses her girlfriends who binge New Jersey Housewives with her. Only regular calls with these friends can keep her going. Her Colin Firth/Hugh Grant type husband tries to understand, but just doesn't get it. Going through these growing pains with Gigi made for a great escapist read and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity for an early read in exchange for an honest review.
#WhenIRanAway #NetGalley

This book was beautiful and everything I was hoping it would be. I requested it because of the 9/11 subject matter. I'm always looking for books during that time frame and when one is written right like this one, its a beautiful thing.
I loved Gigi's story and the overall uniqueness of this novel.
Gigi and Harry meet as the Towers collapse, she brings them back to her family and they replay the images of the day over and over.
Ten year later, Gigi is a single mother and unfilled with life. By chance, she meets Harry again and they fall in love and move to London. Gigi hopes this releases her from the grief of her past. Gigi comes face to face with her brothers death and the rage of motherhood.
This book is raw and honest. Its about love and how we push ourselves to the limits.

Due out in April 2021. Thanks to Netgalley for my advanced ebook copy.

I know many women will enjoy and identify with this novel. It’s the story of Gigi and the trajectory of her life from the catastrophe of 9/11.

It is then that she becomes involved with Harry, eventually marrying him and moving to London. But, Gigi cracks after the birth of their child. Women will be able to discuss her challenges and reminisce about their own experiences after 9/11.

Interesting and well-written. I recommend it to reading group, especially those who focus on women’s issues.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.