I had high hopes after reading the blurb--especially when it said it was perfect for fans of Evvie Drake Starts Over, which I loved. I expected a funny tale about a quirky, elderly woman and her family. However within a few chapters the story went downhill. 83-year-old Millie is a repeat shoplifter but this is barely addressed. Her son Kevin comes off as a busy at home dad but then makes more than one disastrous decision affecting multiple members of the family. Millie isn't taking good care of herself, acting recklessly so Kevin hires a caregiver named Sylvia for her. Teenage daughter Aideen goes way past typical teenager rebellion with her dangerous behavior. And I can't say too much about Sylvia's character without spoilers.

All in all I didn't find the main characters likeable. As a result it was hard to be invested in the storyline. Some parts veered into unbelievable territory. One bright spot though was seeing Florida and America through Aideen's teenaged eyes.

While the book was not a good fit for me, I want to thank the publisher and Netgalley for my advanced copy.

Good Eggs is a fun ride through a family of  a boisterous, wandering and unsure of life family! Sometimes off the rails and you love everyone of them. The story of a elderly mother, her son and the son's daughter. It is sweet, funny and you must love everyone of them. Millie, Kevin and Aideen will definitely brighten your day. Thank you #netgalley#atriabooks#goodeggs

What a quirky and fun book! This is an intergenerational Irish family drama full of laugh out loud moments, charm and wit. I adored the relationship between Aideen, a moody, disaffected teenager and her nutty 83 year old grandmother, Millie, whose questionable decisions keep landing her in hot water. Their journey to America was my favorite part of the book. ⁣
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This one gave me A Man Called Ove and Where’d You Go Bernadette vibes. A solid read that reminds us that life can be full of adventure at every age and it is never too late for second chances. ⁣

This book was so delightfully precious!!!!!!!  It is such a funny story & had me laughing the whole way. Millie's little antics cracked me up!!!!! This debut novel is one you definitely need to read this year!!!!  I highly recommend this book

I tried really hard to like this book but I just couldn't get into it. Unfortunately I think it's just not my style. Rating it 2 stars because the plot is interesting; I just can't connect with the actual story. Sorry!

Modestly entertaining saga about an Irish family struggling to excel as individual members trip up in their daily lives. Author Rebecca Hardiman has created characters that aren’t quite engaging enough for the wildness she intends in GOOD EGGS;  this wildness is on a par with the grandmother shoplifting regularly and one teen daughter being sent away to boarding school due to bad behavior and rebelling further.  I kept waiting for the humor or the exceptional moment that would really set this tale apart and it never really happened for me. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

I received a free digital advance review copy from Atria Books via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. 

Good Eggs by Rebecca Hardiman is the book to pick up if you are looking for a slightly irreverent, comic escape into a family's sometimes misguided attempts to navigate their relationships with each other. I adored the character of Millie, the greeting card shoplifting senior citizen bent on retaining her independence and thwarting her son Kevin's attempts to send her to a nursing home or hire a home care aide. Another plotline involves Kevin's teenaged daughter, Aideen, the black sheep of the family, who ends up being sent to boarding school. Millie and Aideen's plotlines converge in a way that is just over the top enough to be entertaining and heartwarming. Kevin was the one character that did not ring quite true to me. The story is set in and near Dublin, and I enjoyed the references to shops, restaurants, and landmarks that allowed me to recall a prior visit. Though the book deals with some weighty issues, including marital infidelity, overall, this is a breezy, .light-hearted, laugh out loud story. This would be a good book for summer vacation/beach reading - absorbing and page-turning while you're reading, full of quirky characters and their escapades, but light enough to dip in and out of.

[ARC REVIEW] It’s been an excellent Tuesday, so I’d like to share a review of this egg-cellent book 🥚
 
@goodreads Synopsis: when Kevin Gogarty’s irrepressible eighty-three-year-old mother, Millie, is caught shoplifting yet again, he has no choice but to hire a caretaker to keep an eye on her. Kevin, recently unemployed, is already at his wits’ end tending to a full house while his wife travels to exotic locales for work, leaving him solo with his sulky, misbehaved teenaged daughter, Aideen, whose troubles escalate when she befriends the campus rebel at her new boarding school.

Good Eggs is a fascinating and delightful family portrait. It’s slow to pick up at first, but the back half of the book is filled with hilarious hijinks and I sped through it. I loved Aideen and Millie’s stories, both separately and together. Kevin’s plot didn’t feel fully resolved for me, but I understand why it’s so necessary to set up the events of the second half of the book. Millie is a hoot and a half and she’s certainly one fictional character I’d love to get dinner with. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Good Eggs is available now! Thank you to @atriabooks for sharing an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. You can purchase your own copy of Good Eggs on Bookshop.org through the link in my bio! ✨

A really interesting book, somewhat in the style of Marian Keyes or Maeve Binchy. It takes place in Ireland, following a family, and more specifically, a grandmother named Millie who is having a bit of trouble. 
Millie has been growing old, and has a bit of a problem with shoplifting. Her son is called, and he assigns her a woman to come and help care for her. However, he is having problems of his own at home. This book is wonderful, it really captures a family dynamic. Things in their lives aren't perfect, but they're not messy either. They're just...real. I feel as though this book really does chronicle the lives of people who aren't really sure what they're doing but they're going to give it a go anyway. I really loved the character development and how realistic they all seemed. I would definitely recommend! 

This ebook was provided in by NetGalley exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Atria and Netgalley for the gifted e-copy.

Good Eggs started out a little slow for me, but the more I read, the more invested I became in 83 year old Millie's story.  She was a hoot, and I kind of want her as a surrogate grandma.  I loved her relationship with Aideen (her granddaughter) and want a book just about their adventures and shenanigans together!  The last third of the book (pretty much once Millie and Aideen ran off to Florida) really picked up for me, and I didn't want it to end!  

Definitely check it out if you like family dramas with some antics thrown in for good measure.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Thanks to Atria and Netgalley for an advanced copy of Good Eggs by Rebecca Hardiman. 

If you're a fan of slightly disfunctional families then this is a book for you! Especially if your like slapstick drama and Irish humor.  There were some pretty funny scenes especially with Millie the 80 year old grandmother. 

When Millie shoplifts from the local shops, it forces Kevin Gogarty to hire a caretaker to keep an eye on her, since he's busy with running the household after being laid off and his wife Grace works long hours away from home. While Sylvie, the caretaker hits it off with Millie we later learn that she isn't quite what she seems. At the same time Kevin's two teenage twin daughters hate each other and they decide to send Aideen to a local boarding school against her wishes for some time away from her sister. So between a mom who is shoplifting and a daughter who is getting in trouble at school there is a lot going on. 

The first half of this book was slow. I'm not the biggest fan of character driven books, so I wasn't sure where this was going but the second half when Millie and Aideen go on their adventure had me laughing and I wanted to know what happened. I love their relationship and how Millie didn't give up.

I like how this book humorously tackles dysfunctional families. The characters are likable and relatable. I adored Millie! The story is engaging and charming. There are many laughable moments, and those that I was like, whoa, that's so familiar. Lol.. Overall, I enjoyed it. Thanks Atria!

Three generations of the Gogarty family of Dun Laoghaire, Ireland go through all manner of upheavals in Good Eggs.  Millie Gogarty, the matriarch of the family, has been widowed for a long time.  Boredom and some unknown drive causes her to indulge in the occasional minor bout of shoplifting.  Unfortunately, this has not gone unnoticed in the small family-owned shop that is her usual target, so when her latest excursion results in a call to the police, her only child, Kevin, is called to collect her from the police station.  Kevin has recently turned 50 and experienced another personal setback:  he's lost his longtime job at a magazine that focused on celebrity gossip.  Now he has to compete with younger, tech-savvy applicants for positions covering celebrities he's never heard of.  His wife Grace has a high-paying job that requires her to work long hours away from the family.   Three of Kevin's four children are still at home, but teenaged twins Nuala and Aideen seem to always be at each other's throats.  Sixteen year old Aideen, in particular, is moody and uncooperative.  Kevin is left to try to keep his mother out of jail, find a new job, and keep Aideen from getting into trouble herself.

Kevin tells his mother that the police have agreed not to charge her with any crimes, as long as she agrees to have a home health aide check up on her a few hours each day.  Millie is appalled, but soon begins to appreciate the cheerful, take-charge young American woman Sylvia, who is hired to look after her (and report any misdeed to Kevin).  Is Sylvia too good to be true?

Aideen, much to her horror, is soon packed off to a boarding school across town in order to separate her from her sister and also give her a chance to get her grades up during her last few years of school.  While Aideen didn't really have friends in her old school, physical proximity soon means she has a new friend in the rebellious and angry Brigid.  If Aideen couldn't stay out of trouble on her own, how much hope is there once she has a willing accomplice?

Aideen and Millie have a bond based on their shared feelings of anger at being threated with being sent away.  Kevin continually suggests to Millie that she might be better off in a nursing home where she can be looked after, but of course she wants no part of that.  Aideen is sent to the boarding school against her will, so she can fully understand her grandmother's concerns.  

As more and more problems build for the Gogarty family, can they all navigate their current problems and the new ones that are constantly cropping up?  The book was very entertaining and I really enjoyed seeing what was going to happen next.  Millie, especially, is a character and her constant escapades would make for an interesting series!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for gifting me a digital ARC of this debut novel by Rebecca Hardiman - 4 stars for a redeeming family tale!

Living in Ireland, the Gogarty family are basically all "good eggs" - doing their best, not always succeeding, but trying again to set things right.  There's Millie, the octogenarian mom of Kevin.  Millie is caught shoplifting again and Kevin insists on bringing in a home aide to assist Millie and keep an eye on her.  Kevin is married to Grace and father of 4 kids.  He's unemployed and trying to keep the family going while Grace works long hours and is away from the home frequently.  One of his twin daughters, Aideen, gets into trouble at school and they send her to a girls boarding school where she finds even more trouble.

The story of this family was cute and I fell in love with both Millie and Aideen - both spunky characters with good hearts.  There are lots of fun moments in this book.  I especially enjoyed the Irish take on Americans and their lifestyles.  A great debut that at its heart shows how families come together to love and support each other.

When I read the synopsis of this book I had so many high hopes that I would read this delightful story that would have me smiling and laughing the entire time. While the author gave us these moments they were so far and between that you had to learn to savor them.

Millie is eighty-three and her family is starting to question whether she can stay by herself any longer. When she is caught shoplifting her son Kevin is forced to get her home help. Kevin is out of work and caring for his four children including Aideen who is having major behavioral issues. This starts the premise for this story.

Told in multiple points of view this debut author weaves together a tale that at times was fresh, but also felt had been done before in the overall arc. We have fallibility in all three characters, which I found redeeming, and the author gives us a solid ending that will leave you at peace with this family story.

The book is fine, but with so many similar titles out in the last few years, I am not sure this will be a standout in this canon of books.

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

This one is a fun intergenerational book set in a suburb of Dublin. An extremely dysfunctional family that you feel almost immediately emotionally invested in all the characters especially shoplifting grandma. This is a simple read that is just a period of time in this family, no grand schemes, just meet the family, it's a relaxing good old time.

Millie Gogarty is not willing to be stopped by aging, by her son or by anything else getting in her way. At least, that is her plan. Until, one day, her sticky fingers get her into trouble. She just has this itch to steal... what can she do but give into it? This last time, she is caught and brought to the police station and her son Kevin informs her of the deal he has struck, to get her off. She has to cancel a trip she has planned with her friend to go to America and has to have a part time helper... or else she will be going to jail. Millie is mortified and takes the deal. In walks Sylvia, a lovely American , who ultimately wins Millie's trust. Sylvia has a nephew she cares for, who wins the heart of Millie's granddaughter, Aiden, who is one to get into trouble herself, and this time it is a doozy. This story, set in Dublin, Ireland, unfolds as the antics of these two women get them into new and different trouble, but somehow, they are able to join forces to help each other through. 

This is a cute novel. a fun story, but one that I struggled to stay connected to. I am not sure why, as the characters are lovely, and the story engaging, but I could not connect to it, and thus it took me a long time to get through. I would like to give you more, but that is all I have in review of this novel. If you like Sophie Kinsella's work, this is likely a book up your alley.

3.5 stars

Sometimes you find yourself drawn to certain characters and that's my experience with the Gogarty family. I can't say I loved them, nor do I hate them, but I instantly felt invested enough to want to see what was going on in their lives. Perhaps I just needed to be reminded that each family has good, bad, ugly, and crazy moments and well, we are all just trying to get by, aren't we?

Kevin Gogarty is dealing with a few problems. He's unemployed, his 80 something year old mother, Millie, has been caught shoplifting again and will need supervision, and his teenage daughter, Aideen, is struggling and might need to transfer to a boarding school. The story is basically a snapshot of their lives at the moment and will bounce back and forth between Kevin, Millie, and Aideen's perspectives.

So right off the bat I will say Kevin is not exactly a likeable character and I was more interested in Millie and Aideen. After some thought though, I do think his role as husband, father, and son centered the story. You don't have to share much in common with a character to find them realistic.

If you are looking for a story with a little bit of heart mixed with some shenanigans, this is a decent pick.

Good Eggs by Rebecca Hardiman is a fun intergenerational book set in a suburb of Dublin. This book tells the stories of the Gogarty family from three points of view: Millie the family matriarch who enjoys a five finger discount, Kevin a dad desperate for a job and Aideen a sullen high schooler navigating boarding school. I enjoyed stepping into each character's shoes and seeing how family drama would play out from different points of view.

Meaning of the idiom 'a good egg': "Good egg is a friendly, old-fashioned way to talk about a good guy or a kind person. The expression originally came from its opposite, bad egg, British public school slang from the 1800's for someone who was not nice.”

Rebecca Hardiman's debut novel is about an Irish family in the midst of dysfunction. This is a character-driven story in which she has created some remarkable personalities. I consider the father, Kevin Gogarty, to be the hub of this family. He's a stay-at-home day since he lost his high-level position with a celebrity magazine and at 50, he's caught in the middle between his fractious children and his elderly and somewhat demented mother. His wife Grace has a high-profile job of her own and, to Kevin's mind, is rarely home, so he's forced to deal with all the everyday problems that crop up. And boy, do they crop up! 

They have four children: Gerard, their oldest child, is off to college; Ciaran, the youngest child, is still at that sweet little boy stage, but in the middle are two teenaged twins, Aideen and Nuala, who don't get along at all. Nuala is Miss Perfect--beautiful, talented, well-behaved--while sullen Aideen struggles with her self-esteem and her position in the family. Maybe acting out is her way of being noticed but it's gotten so bad that Kevin and his wife decide she should be sent to a boarding school and only come home on weekends--which only proves to Aideen that she is not really wanted. 

And then there's Kevin's 83-year-old mother Millie who still lives on her own but is not doing well--having auto accidents, forgetting things. And now she's been arrested for shoplifting! What's a son to do? He convinces his mother she must have a caretaker if she's to avoid jail and hires an American named Sylvia Phenning to come in a few days a week to help out. Soon Sylvia is indispensable to Millie but she's no Mary Poppins! 

And then there's the Gogarty marriage--can it handle the strain of all these problems and and a bit of mid-life crisis as well? These scenarios all come to a head, about to explore. If all this sounds rather desperate, it's not really. The story is actually quite amusing and heart-warming. I enjoyed meeting the delightful Gogarty family who are all 'good eggs!'

I received an arc of this novel from the author and publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Many thanks for the opportunity!
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