Cover Image: The Things We Keep

The Things We Keep

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Member Reviews

I've read quite a few good reviews of this debut novel, so my feeling that this was just "ok" could likely be a "it's just me " issue. Unfortunately, I did not relate to the main character in the novel and found her self-centered and a bit cold (except with her daughter). I found her unreasonable in her relationship with her husband (who I thought bent over backwards for her) and her sister (who had done nothing wrong). I know the point here is that she was going through a lot with her mother's death and trauma from childhood, while struggling to balance the mother she wanted to be with her career, but I guess I don't believe you get a pass for bad behavior even when you are struggling...especially when others are extending so much grace to you. So, I struggled through the first half of the book....then a little mystery came in to play which grabbed my attention for the second half. To be fair, the main character did redeem herself a bit, and the book ended with me feeling more positive overall. As this is the author's first novel, I would be interested in reading more from her in the future. Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital ARC for review.

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As soon as I started this novel I couldn’t put it down. I was completely engrossed and connected to the main character, Serena. After losing my dad in 2020, the way the author describes the grief of losing a parent spoke to my soul. While I was very close with my dad and our relationship wasn’t tumultuous like Serena’s was with her mothers, and we had no family secrets, those feelings that Serena felt while processing that grief was exactly the feelings I felt while processing my own. This story was beautifully written and raw with emotions. Thank you for this beautiful story about loss, grief and healing.

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And life happens. That is what this book is about, life and all the beauty in it, the hard times we go through, and the very bad choices we need to make along the way.

A very fast read and unexpected events happen, couldn't put it down one second. I can not find a better book to finish my 2021 reads.

📑This ARC was granted to me through NetGalley and approved by GenZ Publishing, in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

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This one was an emotional rollercoaster. It is all about how difficult and confusing things are when we try to get over our grieves. Slow read but totally worth it!!!
Not the type of story I prefer, but it had a suspense element that kept me going. And I am glad I came across this book. Relatable and intruiging <3

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I came across this title by accident and I am so glad that I did. The story reveals long-held secrets and a series of circumstances within a family that could cause anyone to grieve.

The character's struggle also prompts you to question and explore your own thoughts and feelings surrounding hurt or loss . . . about the dynamics of maintaining our sanity, a marriage, siblings, our parents, and our own parental roles . . . how these relationships can evolve or dissolve.

Julee Balko has written a beautiful debut novel featuring the complex nature of family, of real love, tried and tested by the hardships of life.

I'd like to thank the author, NetGalley, and ‎ GenZ Publishing for allowing me to read an advanced copy of The Things We Keep for an honest review.  4 stars.

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If you're looking for a novel that dives into the complicated nuances of mother and daughter relationships, especially after losing your mother, may I suggest The Things We Keep.⁣

This debut was beautifully written and invites the reader into the complexities of a difficult relationship with your mom, the grief of losing her and how that relationship affects your own relationships and roles including motherhood.⁣

While it is a fictional story with a twist of figuring out what secret Serena's mother was keeping, it is written so realistically when it comes to family dynamics, emotions and loss. It came as no surprise to me that the author wrote this after losing he own mother as she was able to so deftly weave the realistic emotions at play into this novel.⁣

If you gravitate towards character driven novels that explore generational family dynamics, get yourself a copy of this one, as you won't be able to put it down.⁣

𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬: Cancer, Loss of a Mother, Difficult Childhood, Complicated Mother/Daughter Relationship⁣

It's hard to believe this is a debut novel

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The Things We Keep
Author, Julie Balko
Publisher: GenZ
Pub date: July 21, 2021 Available now!

~ You can bury your mother, but not your childhood. ~

I read this beautifully written debut novel by Julee Balko this past weekend and I can't stop thinking about it. Serena is a busy wife, mother, sister, and a successful molecular biologist who is driven to discover what causes breast cancer recurrence. Ironically her mother, Barbara has just passed away from breast cancer. She and her sister Abigail are each dealing with their grief and their uniquely complex relationships with their mother.

Serena always believed that her mother hated her. She was cold, unaffectionate, and indifferent with Serena when compared to the easy, loving, and natural relationship that she had with Abigail. However, when Serena and Tom had Maggie, her relationship with her mother began to change and Serena began to learn a different side of her mother. When Abigail discovers a piece of paper in her mother's closet one day, she shares it with Serena and always one to solve the problem, Serena slowly unravels a part of their past that they weren't sure they were ready to discover.

This heartbreaking yet compassionate novel explores secrets, truths, grief, and motherhood. And if we do keep secrets from each other, maybe they're kept to protect rather than to deceive. The Things We Keep has complex and relatable characters with complicated family dynamics who are struggling to balance life and grief. And in the process, they may learn how better to live their lives- with a little more grace and a lot more understanding of each other.

Balko writes with such empathy that only someone who lost a parent can fully grasp and with such heartbreak that you can feel the pain of her strained relationship with her mother. I truly felt for Serena and wished her only peace. I highly recommend Balko's debut novel and am looking forward to anything that Balko writes next!

Thank you @suzyapprovedbooktours, GenZ publishing, and author Julee Balko for this beautiful gifted book and the opportunity to be in this debut book tour! And to NetGalley for the e-ARC! I am so grateful.

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* Debut author * with a fantastic book *

Julee Balko does an awesome job weaving a story with really complicated family dynamics after the loss of a mother. Initially my thoughts were that there might be too much grief involved and it wasn't quite what I was looking for in a book at the time. But I would highly encourage you to give it a chance, because this book is about more than just dealing with sadness/grief.

I was really drawn in by the cover. I read the description and didn't think this book was for me, but somehow I kept coming back to it and gave in. I'm so glad that I read it. And its been 6 weeks and I keep thinking about this book! I love how this book is organized. Chapter 1: Beets, Chapter 2: Stone, Chapter 3: Clothes ...

I don't want to give away the plot; its complicated and its revealed perfectly.

I was really taken by this book. At about 75% through this book, I looked at GoodReads to see if the author had written other books. Didn't look like it, so I messaged the author to ask her (I'm sorry, I could have just read About the Author at the end of the book). Julee Balko was kind to provide the nicest response. I was afraid that I would jinx myself and that by reaching out to the author, I might not enjoy the remainder of the book. But I thought that it was perfect through and through. So, I would encourage you to give this book a chance. Its really very good.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Julee Balko and the publisher GenZ Publishing for the opportunity to review The Things We Keep in exchange for an honest review. Publication date is 21 July 2021.

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"Grief can do that to you, turning the familiar into the enemy." This book is filled with raw emotion and takes the reader on a beautiful journey back and forth between the past and the present. The way Julee Balko describes Serena's grieving process over the loss of her mother will be an emotion you will feel in your heart. It was hard for me to believe that this was a debut novel.

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The Things We Keep starts with Serena, a scientist who performs cancer research, only to find out that her own mother has cancer. As Serena grapples with her mother’s illness, then her death, she also comes to terms with the cold relationship she had with her mother. As Serena and her sister Abigail begin cleaning out their mother’s closet, they find things that make them question everything about their relationships with their mother.

This one was a real tear-jerker. It is similar in some ways to The Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. The book was sad but an enjoyable read, and it moved quickly. If you’re looking for something about a family analyzing their relationships and coming to terms with impossible change, this is the book for you.

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I was provided a free copy of this book by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This was a tough read for me. While Balko has written a terrific book, this novel was very depressing and focused much more on the negatives of loss and death than the process of moving on. Trigger-warning for some people who had tumultuous childhoods. Worth reading though.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this novel.

Serena is set adrift after her mother dies from cancer. She doesn't know how she is supposed to feel and begins to look for answers as to why she and her mother had such a complicated relationship.

I think there were parts of this novel that were beautiful. it is very much a study of grief and its complexities. However, the timeline jumps around a lot, making it sometimes difficult to stay within the narrative. That was my biggest issue with the book. It was at times very unfocused. However, as grief can also be very unfocused and disorderly, in some ways that made sense. I just couldn't read whether the author was doing this intentionally. All I know is that it pulled me from the rhythm of reading more than once.

The book is also fairly vague on details. For the longest time, I thought Serena was older than her sister Abigail. That wasn't the case, but it took over half the book for me to figure that out. I don't know if I skipped over it earlier or if it was just that unclear.

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I really found this book to be captivating. The characters were very relatable. There was an element of suspense that made me keep reading long into the night. I have never read a book that examined the the effects of a lie in quite this way. I was compelled to try to understand the motives of the characters.

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This story explores nostalgia in families, family relationships, grief and parenting. It was an interesting read, and one that I would recommend. It navigates through different stages to depict the past and present in Serena's interactions with her mother. It was painful and emotional to read at times, but thought provoking. Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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The Things we Keep is a journey you might not expect. Emotions aren’t easy to navigate when you confront all you’d prefer to avoid. Julee Balko is spot on here.

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Complex relationships can really take a toll on us and it is often the complex ones that mean so dear to us and we stand helpless not knowing how to deal with it. The author has brilliantly written about such a mother-daughter relationship in this story that I adored.

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Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. This story was well-written and insightful. It is apparent that no one ever really knows what goes on in other peoples lives and the extent that a parent will do their best for their child. Somewhat depressing to me and a slow read.

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The Things We Keep by Julee Balko

4 stars / 5

This is a story of family dysfunction, grief, and the pressures of modern motherhood. So, it feels odd to say I enjoyed it, but I am glad I read it. Thank you to Gen Z Publishing for an electronic advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The story goes back and forth between Serena’s past and present. In the past, we see Serena’s mother Barbara through Serena’s eyes - a mother who seems to be indifferent to her at best, and often uncaring and cruel. In the present, Serena’s mother is dying of cancer. The birth of Serena’s daughter Maggie improved the relationship somewhat, but the way Serena relates to her husband Tom and the wider world are impacted by the way she grew up. How Serena grapples with grief, serious problems in her marriage, society’s high expectations of mothers, and the aftermath of a family secret revealed makes for a realistic and compelling read. I found myself rooting for Serena and her family, hoping each person would make what I considered to be the “right moves” to bring them back together.

This would be a very discussable read for a book club.

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This was a good enjoyable book!
Things I liked....
The writing was so well done! I couldn't stop reading!
The characters wow were well developed I was hanging on every thing they did!

This was a beautiful book and the author did an amazing job with this book!

Thank you NetGalley and GenZ Publishing for this advance ebook copy!

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