3.5 Stars

This is a slow burn story of Laura Costello. She just moved across the country from NYC to LA to start graduate school. She’s in a new town, has no friends and recently broke up with her fiancé. Laura is trying to start a new life away from her overprotective family and trying to cope with an accident that she faced years ago. After a week in LA she finds herself homeless until she’s offered to stay in a boardinghouse with multiple roommates. Laura finally starts to settle in LA by meeting new people, learning to face her traumas and falls in love.

If you were a fan of The Bookish Life of Nine Hill, then you will enjoy this one. It’s a charming story of friendship, mental health with a little sprinkle of romance. The best part of the book is the quirky side characters and the relationships Laura forms with them. Also, Nina Hill is a supporting character. My one complaint was that it was a little too slow what not much happening at times, but the characters made up for it. Overall, it was an enjoyable read.

A huge thank you to @bekleypub and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I received a gifted galley of ADULT ASSEMBLY REQUIRED by Abbi Waxman. Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review!

ADULT ASSEMBLY REQUIRED follows Laura, a young woman making big changes in her life. Raised in a family of professors, her future has always been set for her. She would grow up to be an academic just like the rest of her family, marrying her childhood sweetheart (also an academic) and live a quiet, easy life. After surviving a horrific accident, Laura feels called to take a different path and she’s decided to end her relationship and move to L.A. to enter grad school to become a physical therapist, leaving her upset family in her wake.

When her new life in L.A. takes a drastic turn with her apartment building catching fire, Laura finds herself homeless, with nothing but the clothes on her back. Thankfully she has stumbled into the heart of the local community at the indie bookstore and through her new friends there she finds a room for rent in a house full of quirky, loveable, and supportive new friends.

First off, I was so excited to learn that this book returns us to the universe of Nina Hill. I loved getting some new glimpses of Nina in these pages and the bookstore community she has built! I also really loved Laura and all that she’s trying to accomplish in life. Laura is very afraid of driving after her traumatic experience and she’s moved to a place that is very hard to navigate without a car. I think the author did a fantastic job exploring Laura’s anxiety and PTSD and the ways she manages to take steps toward recovery.

I love a good found family, so I loved the cast of characters in this book as well. I really just wanted to move into the house with them all! Each has their own quirks and issues going on, but they welcome Laura with open arms. I also really enjoyed that Laura was able to help them out too instead of being the one always in need of support!

This book takes a bit of a slower pace, but in a way that I really enjoyed settling into. This is one to add to your TBR!

3.5 Stars
Adulting is hard and no one knows this more than Laura. Newly installed into an illegal boarding house, she unexpectedly gets the support she needs. With new friendships, everything might turn out okay after all.
The dialogue is fantastic. I adored the interactions and cheeky conversations between the characters, particularly in group settings. The narrative could bog down and feel dry at times. I don't remember thinking that while reading The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, which was my first (and continues to be my favorite) by Abbi.
While I wish this had featured multiple narrators, Emily Rankin is fantastic. I have enjoyed her performances several times in the past.
Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the advanced copy and PRH audio for the alc. All thoughts in this review are my own.

Laura moves from New York to LA to attend grad school to be a Physical Therapist. Her first week there she has an apartment fire and loses everything. She stumbles into a bookstore and meets Polly and Nina which leads to Polly inviting her to live in the huge house where Polly and several others rent rooms from the landlord Maggie. There is, of course, the potential for love with Impossibly Handsome Bob. However, Laura just ended her engagement and is dealing with family drama and PTSD from a major car accident.

I haven’t read The Bookish Life of Nina Hill but that was not an issue. I loved the quirky characters in this book and the idea of a found family. There wasn’t a lot going on honestly, but I enjoyed the relationships of the characters throughout. I did find the ending was a little rushed in regards to the relationship. Polly was such a fun, unique character and I would love to see a book about her in the future.

Thanks to @netgalley and @berkleypub for an arc for review!

Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman is a bookish book that I enjoyed. Although not part of a series, this book follows the author's previous book, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and we get to see the continuation of some of the characters from that book.

Laura Costello has moved to Los Angeles from New York City to start a Physical Therapy degree program, and also to escape her overprotective parents and an ex-fiance that isn’t sure he’s an ex. After just a few days, her apartment building burns down and she finds herself homeless in a strange city. After a soaking rainstorm, she stumbles into a bookstore and meets Nina and Polly. They immediately take her in and find her a room at Polly’s boarding house, owned by a lovely woman that houses several quirky and interesting tenants including Impossibly Handsome Bob, who works in the boardinghouse garden in exchange for rent. Laurs soon finds herself part of this unconventional group of friends as they help her navigate adulthood.

I really enjoyed Adult Assembly Required and loved the friendships and all the quirky characters the most. It’s really a story about friends and supporting each other with a side of romance. The banter between these characters is fun and made the book easy to read. The romance is a slow burn romance, that was perhaps a bit too slow burn for me. However, Bob and Lauren did make a cute couple and I enjoyed their friendship and later (much later) their romance. Besides the side human characters, there are several dogs and cats at the boarding house and at the bookstore that have their own personalities and even had their own POV for short bits of the book. The author knows her cats and dogs, and their POVs were hilarious.

I recommend Adult Assembly Required to anyone who enjoys quirky bookish characters. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

There's something sweet about Abbi Waxman stories. There's a nerdy heartwarming nature to her characters, where as awkward as they are, you want to root for them. Laura Costello, newly transplanted in LA from NYC, is no different. She's clearly running away from her academic family who aren't pleased with her decision to go to grad school to become a gasp! physical therapist after a horrible car accident that has left her emotionally and physically traumatized. Let alone the fact that she's trying to navigate her new neighbourhood in LA without a car. Yet, Laura is working to start anew and figure out who she is on her own: moving into an illegal boarding house run by Maggie, a motherly figure completely opposite to her own; making friends with the women from Knight's book store (if you read Nina Hill, you'll see a familiar face or two); joining a trivia team.

“Sometimes you recognize an important moment, other times it passes unnoticed.” There are many moments for Laura that passes by without notice, but I feel like that's reflective of many moments in our lives. Only in hindsight do you recognize the importance. Especially, in Laura's case, her relationship with Impossibly Handsome Bob the Gardener. If you're looking for a light, and comic read, Adult Assembly Required will take you on a path following Laura while she figures out that even if you're now an adult, there's always work to be done and help to be offered.

Arbitrary Ratings:
🍦🍦🍦🍦(Sweetness)
💞💞 (Romance)
⤴️⤴️⤴️⤴️ (Growth)
💫💫💫 (Overall)

Before even diving into this book, I knew I was an Abbi Waxman fan and I knew that I would more than likely just love this book from beginning to end - and that is what happened!

An ensemble cast with a young woman at the center, Laura Costello has moved to Los Angeles primarily for grad school, but also to escape her very opinionated family and their expectations of her. After a very dramatic afternoon, she stumbles into an independent bookstore where the three ladies in the store almost adopt her and help her with housing, clothing and all the things and friendships quickly form. While the book definitely centers around Laura, there is enough plot for each of the characters where they almost have their own full stories.

What I love about Abbi's books are the characters are full - they have a range of emotions and experiences and while, yes, there is some romance, they go to work and have relationships beyond the romance ones. I will always pick up Abbi Waxman's books without even reading a synopsis because I know that I will get a cast of characters that are having full life experiences.

3.5 stars, rounded up

This is a delightful follow-up to The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, it features many of the same characters, so it's important to read that one first or you might get lost in the sheer number of them.

I really enjoyed this rom-com, with Laura who has recently moved to LA from the east coast to attend grad school for physical therapy. She had experienced some trauma, and after a fire at her apartment building leaves her without a place to live, Polly, who works in the bookstore with Nina Hill, offers to introduce Laura to her landlady who rents out rooms in her home. Laura moves in and gets acquainted with the rest of the residents, including "Impossibly Handsome Bob." Laura and Bob click, but they are both a bit shy about pursuing a relationship, so they start as friends. As friendship blossoms into more, neither one is bold enough to admit their feelings to the other. What can they do?

This enjoyable book explores many different angles of relationships, from friendship to romance to family. I loved the witty banter and snarky sarcasm, as well as the respect the characters show for one another. There are some hilarious one-liners that caused me to laugh out loud on more than one occasion, and the cats and dogs add another layer of humor to the tale.

The one thing that I didn't care for with this book was the head hopping. It seemed like whoever was speaking, that's whose head we were in and we see what they are thinking, etc. It is very jarring when two characters are having a back and forth conversation and all of each of their thoughts are open for the reader to see. After a while, I got used to it, but it did make me realize that most books you are only in one head for an extended period of time, whether it be by the chapter or throughout the entire book.

Overall though, this is a fun book with interesting characters. There's some depth, yet the romance and the humor prevail and endear the reader to root for a positive outcome for all.

I adored The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and immediately started reading through Abbi Waxman's backlist. So when this book started at Knights, the same independent bookshop on Larchmont that featured in Nina Hill, I was so excited.

Though this book especially focused on Laura, a new resident in Los Angeles, it has quite the ensemble cast of characters. Laura moved into a shared guest house with many renters who gather together for dinner. Each has a clear personality (even the pets!). This is very much a character-droven novel. The pace is slow, as we watch characters struggle and grow. I love the slice of life insight that feels like I am seeing a group of friends interact.

This book does stand alone. However, I recommend reading The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and The Garden of Small Beginnings first to better understand the references and because so many of the characters are first introduced in those books.

Thank you to Berkley, PRH Audio, and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.

In this delightful new rom-com, Abbi Waxman has revisited our delightful friends Nina, Polly and Liz from The Bookish Life of Nina Hill. This time she's added a new face to the bunch: Laura Costello, a recent LA transplant from NYC, who they meet when she shows up in Knight's Bookstore soaked and crying after a decidedly horrible day that included a fire that's left her homeless. When Polly takes Laura under her wing and finagles her a room in the luxe, slightly illegal, boarding house she shares with tenants Anna, Libby and Bob, and a very wise, kind psychotherapist landlady named Maggie, Laura discovers that "home" is a lot more than the four walls you live in.

First, let me say I LOVED The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, so I was thrilled to revisit, Nina, Tom, Polly and Liz, and while hilariously quirky, outspoken Polly plays a substantial role in this one, as well as trivia-loving, awkward and kind Nina, this is Laura's story this time around. Laura is no repeat of Nina. She's tall, athletic, outdoorsy and a bit more outgoing and relaxed with others, but she's also bearing the physical and emotional scars of a bad accident, oppressive mother, and a clingy, douchebag ex-fiance, who've left her struggling mentally and trying to find her footing for the future.

Enter Bob, the gardening whiz.

Bob is so ridiculously good-looking he's been coined Impossibly Handsome Bob by the others, and while he's a gorgeous, kind, intelligent bottle of "Yum, YES please!", he's also painfully awkward with women he finds attractive, which becomes a problem when Laura, his new roomie across the hall, catches his eye. She, on the other hand, is not looking for love, but when has that ever mattered?

There's charming characters, entertaining banter, awkward interactions, friendship and nuggets of insightful wisdom, and all-in-all I thoroughly enjoyed it. My only complaint is that it follows the rom-com playbook TOO faithfully, leaving little room for surprise, down to the eye-rollingly overused ending trope. I didn't mind that much, since we all know what we're getting with rom-coms, don't we? Nevertheless, I adore the Nina Hill universe, and now I have even more friends in it to hopefully look forward to in future books!

★★★★

Thanks to Berkley Publishing, NetGalley and author Abbi Waxman for this ARC. I’ve given my opinions honestly and freely. It’s due to be published on May 17, 2022.

Thank you to Berkley and Penguin Random house for providing me with an e book of Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman. This was my second book that I read by Abbi Waxman I was glad to see the character Nina Hill. This book had to encourage a character to not be afraid and to conquer your goals.

“Sometimes you recognize an important moment, other times it passes unnoticed”

Sometimes you have to have the courage to end a relationship which isn’t making you happy, so you can find one that does.

And, sometimes you have to leave everything you know behind, to discover the place you are meant to be.

After a car accident that almost takes her life, Laura Costello reevaluates what is important to her, and moves to Los Angeles to attend grad school, and complete her training as a physical therapist.

An apartment fire leaves her homeless in her first week, and somehow, she ends up dripping wet in the rain , and on the doorstep of the bookstore co-owned by Nina Hill. (of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill). She is ushered inside, toweled off, and offered tea and then, after she shares her story, a room at the boarding house where Polly, one of the bookseller’s lives.

It comes complete with a hot dinner when you want it, two resident dogs and a resident cat. Because food makes everything better. As do dogs. Both are most definitely “universal improvers”!

She is given a private bedroom room on the first floor, but she will have to share the bathroom with another tenant who the others refer to as “Impossibly Handsome Bob”

Laura is immediately drawn to Bob, despite his PPST, (I will let you discover what that means on your own 🤐) but since she has just left an ex -fiancé behind, she tries to convince herself, and all of the others, that they are “just friends”. Nobody buys into that, except for Bob, unfortunately, who thinks he is out of her league.

With cameo appearances by Nina Hill, who recruits Laura to join her trivia team, we will spend time with this wonderful cast of characters and watch Laura put herself back together and become the adult she always wanted to be.

And, if she finds her HEA in the process, and her room becomes available….well, I would not mind taking her place!

Other books featuring these characters include:
The Garden of Small Beginnings
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill
The Bookish Holidays of Nina Hill

This HUMOROUS, FEEL GOOD, story will be available on May 17, 2022 so luckily, you won’t have long to wait to get your copy.

Thank You to Elisha at Berkley for the invitation to read this, through NetGalley. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!

Short Synopsis: Laura moved to LA from NY after a recent breakup with her fiancé. A fire in her apartment complex left her homeless until she runs into some friendly bookshop workers. Now she’s living in a home with a group of quirky, outgoing, fun people who welcome her right in.

My thoughts: I adored each of the characters in this book. They were fun, and interesting and especially welcoming and friendly. I loved how they each found a way to get Laura to open up and “find” herself. I thought the author did a great job of bringing in PTSD and mental health issues.

The writing on this was a little different than I’m used to. It was somewhat a mix between a third person point of view, and occasionally the second person. The story is about Laura, but we also get a glimpse into the thought processes of the other characters and how they are feeling.

Read if you’re a sucker for:
* Trivia Games
* Meeting strangers and becoming real friends
* House dogs and cats
* Bookshop friends

“𝐼 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶 𝑔𝓇𝑜𝓌𝓃-𝓊𝓅 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓅 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔.” “𝒩𝑜,” 𝓈𝒶𝒾𝒹 𝒩𝒾𝓃𝒶, “𝒷𝑒𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶 𝑔𝓇𝑜𝓌𝓃-𝓊𝓅 𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝒸𝒸𝑒𝓅𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓅 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓉.”

Laura moved to Los Angeles for a reason. Well, actually, multiple reasons. Itching to get away from her overprotective, over involved family and distance herself from her former life is just the tip of the iceberg. She’s also fleeing her former fiancée who still holds a torch and just doesn’t get they are never, ever getting beck together. Like, ever.

But after an unfortunate fire, Laura fears her new life in LA is going up in smoke, too. At rock bottom, Laura stumbles into a bookstore where one of the workers, Polly, just so happens to know a place she can lay her hat. Going on faith, Laura has no choice but to assume this stranger has the best of intentions, taking her up on the offer. After all, it’s only temporary.

What she didn’t bargain for was the colorful cast of characters she’d be introduced to by doing so. Besides the happy go lucky Polly, there’s Nina, the shy bookstore owner, and Handsome Bob, her swoon worthy housemate, among others. Each one of these people is a little bit broken, too. But with the glue of friendship holding them all together, they just may have enough of the parts necessary to play well with others.

Adult Assembly Required is not the first book I’ve read by @abbiwaxman, but it’s arguably the best. Readers of her previous works will be happy to see the reappearance of the bookish Nina (Hill) as a supporting character here, although you don’t need to read her other books to jump in. There’s a high quirk factor in Waxman’s novels and Adult Assembly Required is no exception. I, for one, found this particular group of “misfit toys” to be most endearing and entertaining. In fact, I’d love to see these characters come to the big screen one day so everyone else can fall in love with them, too.

Huge thanks to PRH International, and Abbie Waxman for my E-ARC in exchange for the honest review.

Adult Assembly Required follows the story of Lauren, who comes to California to start a new life away from her family's expectations and the memories of the disaster. But living in California means leaving behind her ex-fiancé, Nick, and escaping her over-protective and over-controlling family, who refuses to accept her life choices. She doesn't expect to meet her people as she wanders into the bookstore, dripping wet and trying not to cry, but she does. She finds a house and friends and begins to build the life she desires.

The story is hilarious, touching, and charming. One of my favorite aspects of this novel is how Laura's new companions desire to protect her while still assisting her in spreading her wings. There was some romance here, but it wasn't overpowering. More significantly, there are various friendships, with individuals supporting and assisting one another. Adult Assembly Required also addresses mental health concerns carefully, bringing depth to a story.
I wanted to like this book, but I couldn't get into the story. The POV shifts bothered me. It was confusing, and it kept pulling me out of the story and switching focus on characters. Also, consider the length. It simply seemed like an eternity. It was somewhat challenging to get through. Overall, it's realistic and genuine, but it's not for me.

When Laura Costello moves to Los Angeles, looking for a fresh start after a horrible accident, she does not expect to be homeless less than a week after her big move. Taking shelter in a bookstore she meets a gaggle of characters including Nina Hill from Waxman's earlier novel. Before she knows what has happened she is renting a room with a group of eccentric people in a very illegal boarding house. She got some new friends (?) a sexy housemate, a motherly landlady, and an ex-boyfriend who can't seem to leave her alone. Maybe Laura isn't quite cut out for this adult thing after all but maybe with some help from her new housemate and her new friends she can figure it out. This book will draw you in quickly but does drag at parts.

Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman

We are back in the world of Nina Hill. You don't have to read the author's previous books to enjoy this one but some of the characters in this book do feature heavily in past books. Having moved from New York to Los Angeles to get away from her overbearing family, a family that doesn't understand her career and relationship choices, Laura misses her dear grandmother, who seems the only one she is able to relate to...at least grandmother is only a phone call away.

Bachelor's degree in hand and about to enter grad school to become a physical therapist, Laura has only been here one week when her apartment building has a fire and she's out of a home and anything she didn't have on her back at the time of the fire. That's when she meets Polly, employee of the book store co-owned by Nina Hill. Polly knows her boarding house has a room available so she sweeps Laura to her home and we meet the dogs, cat, and people that Polly lives with. What a wonderful place, large, homey, with a garden and a pool and with a gardener/boarder so hunky he's called impossibly Handsome Bob.

Not that Laura is interested in meeting anyone dateable. She's broken up with her fiancé, someone she's known since she was a child, and he's taking it so badly he doesn't believe she's broken up with him. She's also struggling with the emotional aftermath of a serious car accident that left her body scarred and her mind flashing back to the accident whenever it thinks Laura could be threatened. But Laura is in a safe place now, with people who embrace her, accept her, but are also willing to help her move forward and grow. Not that demanding, overbearing mom and smothering, life crushing ex fiancé are ready to let her go.

The story is funny, heartwarming, sweet, without too much of anything as far as I'm concerned. I see room for more from these characters that I've come to enjoy so much. One of my favorite things about this story is how Laura's new friends want to protect her but are also willing help her spread her wings. Each one of her housemates has their own problems, quirks, and fears and they aren't going to hold those things against her. We also get little tidbits of insight into what the dogs and cat are thinking. Waxman knows dogs and cats and I could read an entire book from the POV of the dogs and cats, if only she would write one.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for this ARC.

Being back in Nina Hill's world was so nice, but the story in this book just felt super slow to me. I picked it up and put it down 100 times thinking it was me and finally got through it. But it was just too soft and slow for my pace. If you love quirky characters and a soft story, this is for you.

Adult Assembly Required is a modern day sitcom in book form. The story is a series of small happenings with its cast of quirky characters, some from the Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

Meet Laura, who has run all the way across the country to escape her family and ex-finance. After a series of unfortunate events, she finds herself living at a home full of renters that has cats, dogs and a handsome gardener named Bob. Laura has uprooted her life due to a car accident that has left her physically and mentally traumatized.

Her escape to LA has finally given her space to take control of her life in ways she never imagined since the accident. It is through the help of her new found friends that she finds the strength to address the mental health issues that are plaguing her ability live and love. Adult Assembly Required is realistic and heartfelt in its storytelling.

Step back into Nina's world and meet a new cast of adorable, quirky, eccentric, entertaining characters. Thank you Berkley Publishing for the advance reader copy.

I adored Abbi Waxman's "I Was Told It Would Get Easier." In that book, the point of view shifts by chapter. In this book, it shifts by paragraph. I had a hard time following the story as a result. I couldn't keep track of whose head we were in. There also didn't seem to be a strong plot. Basically, Laura is suffering from PTSD after a car accident, and she's living in a house with some quirky characters, and she and Bob are falling for each other but for some reason they're avoiding that fact… Maybe there's a story here, but I just can't find it. DNF at 50%.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.