It All Comes Down to This is Therese Anne Fowler’s new family drama. I had high hopes after enjoying the rollercoaster that was A Good Neighborhood, but unfortunately this book didn’t work for me.

This is the story of three adult sisters in the aftermath of their mother’s death. They’re all at crossroads in relationships and careers. Secrets are revealed and the women are forced to decide to make big life changes or continue with the status quo.

This seems like a book that I would love. I enjoy character driven family dramas. However, the pacing didn’t feel right. The big revelations didn’t come until the end of the book, so it felt like there was a lot of lead up and a fairly anticlimactic resolution. The characters reactions to the reveals didn’t feel real to me, and the tidy conclusion certainly didn’t. This book would be a better fit for
a reader who prefers feel-good books and unambiguous endings.

Big thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review an advance e-book copy.

I just could not connect with this story. The sisters each had struggles, but I found myself not caring much about them. The storyline was good, but again, just didn’t hook me. Maybe it was my current frame of mind!

It all comes down to this is a book for someone. I don’t know who that someone is, but I know now, after several months of trying to get through it, that that person is not me.

The premise was interesting. I love women’s fiction, and I love when said women’s fiction involves sisters or really close friends. I was really excited to start this book, and then, when I did, the narrative couldn’t keep my attention.

The issue is, I think there’s potential for an interesting story here, but the way this particular work was executed wasn’t it. Again, at least not for me.

The characters were hard to relate to—the sisters in particular come off self-centered and self-obsessed, overly preoccupied with their own first-world problems. I think in an attempt to humanize the characters, the author inserted a lot of unnecessary detail about each of them (even the side characters—and while I’m all for giving a side character their own spotlight once in a while, this felt excessive and like there were more characters than were necessary running around, taking up space where they weren’t needed). This makes for a rambling narrative. I spent a lot of time waiting for the characters to get to the point, for something to finally happen, and when it finally did, I just didn’t care, feeling burned out from the long, drawn-out narrative.
The mother’s POV, Marti was the one bit of the story where I felt truly engaged. However, seeing as she dies, this didn’t last very long. And even after reading through those chapters, there was so much discussion about her disease that I felt more triggered than engaged.

I ended up skimming through the last few chapters because I had a pressing feeling that I was wasting my time and would’ve much rather spent it reading or doing something else.

There have been very few times when I have felt this way about a book. And even in those times, as I’m writing the review, I keep thinking maybe I’m wrong and maybe I missed something. I’m sure in the end this book will find its audience. There are bound to be people out there who are into this kind of narrative. This particular one, unfortunately, was not for me. And that’s what it really comes down to.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of the latest book by Therese Anne Fowler and beautifully narrated by one of my favorite narrators, Barrie Kreinik - 4 stars!

Beck, Claire and Sophie are the daughters of Marti, who is dying of lung cancer. Marti has planned her estate to make things as easily as possible but it includes one stipulation - their Maine cottage must be sold right away and the proceeds split between the sisters. But each of the sisters has a secret and each is struggling with their life.

I absolutely loved this author's previous book, A Good Neighborhood, and thought it was a must read for everyone. This one didn't invoke the same passion for me, but it was a good family saga and character study. I loved the setting and the importance of family stories. It's beautifully written - I'll look forward to Fowler's next book!

3.5 Stars. This book went real, real slow for me. I normally love family drama type stories told from different perspectives, but this one felt very hard to get into. The story felt cobbled and all over the place, which made it difficult to feel invested in any of the characters. It just felt like their were so many pieces missing and questions unanswered and the ending felt abrupt. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

This book was a fun treat! I loved it! It was a good reset after I read a heavier book. It kept me flipping pages well past my bedtime!!

A multigenerational family drama about three grown sisters dealing with the death of their mother and the sale of the family summer house on an island in Maine. I really wanted to love this one more than I did but unfortunately I didn't really connect to any of the characters and didn't find the story very interesting or compelling. Full of secrets, lies, infidelity, mid-life crises and authorial aspirations. Recommended for fans of The paper palace. I loved the cover and REALLY loved the author's last book but this one turned out to be disappointing unfortunately. Much thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review an early copy.

This story is about finding love, fulfilling desire, and connection. It is also about keeping secrets and each woman in this book has one. The story begins with Marti Geller going to hospice to die peacefully alone. She leaves her three daughters, Beck, Claire, and Sophie a letter explaining that she wants them to sell their cottage in Maine that each would visit in the summers growing up.

The sisters have very different personalities and aren’t close. Yet, they must come together to get the house in order. The reason Marti wants to sell the place does becomes clear. Marti also began her life based on a lie. So, what held my interest with this book was why each sister was behaving the way she was. I think it is important that each is living with a secret and that secret is based on a lie about themselves. It is not really possible to create intimacy in your life when you are pretending for whatever reason. It comes down to being true to yourself and being honest with yourself. Once you do that, it is possible to reconnect. This begins to happen with Beck, Claire, and Sophie as I got further into the book. I liked that change and connection is always possible.

I had some issues with this book. The biggest was really connecting to the characters. I don’t think any of them had found a way to connect to themselves, so what could each offer me the reader? Yet, I related the most to Beck and understood her feelings and decisions, while Sophie I hardly understood at all. Claire, somewhat, but needed more. Some of the twists and turns in the sisters’ lives did not seem plausible or if they did happen would cause a lot more problems then presented. The male character CJ, who is looking to buy the house, I thought he was not well developed and that part could have been dropped completely.

The bothersome parts of the book were not enough to keep me from liking it. I kept coming back to the theme of pursuing your own passion and being authentic and how that changes a person for the better. It is really the only way to live a full life. The book explores this and finding joy in your life. I like Therese Anne Fowler’s writing and connected to this story.

I had both the Kindle book and the Audio book. I really like reading this way. The narration by Barrie Kreinik was done very well. Reading the book allows me to absorb all the writing and highlight passages that I thought presented the book’s message.

Thank you NetGalley, Therese Anne Fowler, and St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for a copy of this book to review.

3.5 🌟

Three sisters, Beck, Claire, and Sophie, inherit a summer cottage in Maine when their mother, Marti, dies. But Marti leaves instructions that the cottage should be sold and the money split between the girls. This simple act allows Marti to still be in control, at least in some manner.

It causes the now-adult sisters to work together. Beck wants to write a novel and doesn’t want to sell the cottage. Claire, a doctor, is divorced but is in love, and the man she’s in love with complicates things. And Sophie is living the glamorous life, but is it all for real?

There is this parallel storyline of C.J. who is recently out of prison and becoming attached to a young boy named Arlo. At first, I wasn't sure how this part even fit into the overall story, but when C.J. takes an interest in buying the cottage, his past clashes with one of the sisters.

As much as I’m a fan of messy family stories, I struggled with this one a bit. The writing is good, which I expected from this author, but the story doesn’t develop into much and feels a bit scattered at times. The ending felt a bit too transactional to me. I did, however, enjoy the sisters and their relationships, and I look forward to reading what Therese Anne Fowler writes next.

Thank you to @stmartinspress for the gifted ebook and @macmillan.audio for the audiobook.

A well-written story of three sisters, Beck, Claire, and Sophie and the impending death of their mother, Marti. Each of the sisters are very strong, independent women with busy lives. Beck is the oldest sister and is a freelance writer and is married to Paul. Claire is a pediatric cardiologist and recently divorced. Sophie works for an exclusive art gallery and is also a social media influencer. Each sister is dealing with their own issues they must face and try to overcome. Secrets are uncovered as the book progresses.

This is a character driven novel dealing with relationships, some messy situations, some self-discovery, betrayal, loss and regrets. Mixed in there's some humor too. Each character is portrayed distinctly so the differences are clear. My favorite charcters were C.J. and Arlo, although the sisters were good characters too.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published June 7, 2022.

It All Comes Down to This by Therese Anne Fowler
2 Stars

As a big fan of the author, I was so excited to receive an ARC through Netgalley from St. Martin’s Press of this book. Out of almost 120 books, I considered A Good Neighborhood to be the best book I read in 2020. I recently read and adored A Well-Behaved Woman. I expected to be similarly pleased with It All Comes Down to This. Unfortunately, I was not.

In her acknowledgements, Fowler calls this a “messy-families dramedy”, adding another genre to her belt alongside historical-biographical and literary tragedy. It may be partly that I don’t tend to be drawn to family dramas, but I also missed any comedy aspects entirely. The story follows the three Gellar sisters following the death of their mother, Marti. Marti has stipulated that the family’s vacation home on Mount Desert Island (MDI) be sold, and the proceeds split between the sisters, Beck, Claire, and Sophie. Marti also shares a long-held secret posthumously that reveals that the girls are more connected to the island than they knew. As they sort through their feelings about their mother’s death, her secret, and the sale of the house, the girls are also forced to look more deeply at their own lives and are brought closer together. Meanwhile, we also get the story of CJ Reynolds, recently released from prison and searching for a house on MDI, where he befriends an orphaned boy named Arlo. His story feels only loosely connected to the three sisters, and the three sisters all seem to be lacking in maturity: Beck is struggling to write her novel and thinks her husband is secretly gay, Claire is a working doctor getting a divorce after admitting to a long-held infatuation with Beck’s husband, and Sophie is working in the art world and living and dressing like the big names she comes into contact with but is actually homeless and deeply in debt.

I’m not really drawn to family dramas, but was surprised the author termed this story a “dramedy” and remarks on how it is “upbeat” in her acknowledgements. I missed any comedy all together. I don’t necessarily need to like the characters to enjoy a book but these characters didn’t stir any feelings in me at all. I kept hoping that what felt like discordant snippets of the four characters’ lives would come together into something more resembling a cohesive plot, but it never did so in a satisfactory way. Not only was the story a disappointment, I didn’t even feel that I was reading the same author’s writing. I was distracted by an overuse of parentheses and metaphors.
I don’t normally give less than three stars because I DNF books that warrant poor reviews, but as I received an ARC I felt obligated to finish the book. I will continue to read Fowler’s future books, but this one was really not for me.

I SIMPLY LOVED Therese Anne Fowler’s prior book A Good Neighborhood. It was in fact one of my favorite reads of 2019.
It All Comes Down To This was just as good, I think that Therese Anne Fowler is a beautiful storyteller.

Beck, Claire and Sophie are sisters dealing with their mother’s death. Fortunately she saw to every detail for after her death, including that the house on Mount Desert Island, Maine. During a video at the reading of her will, she reveals a secret about herself and requests that the girls go back for one last weekend.

Beck is a freelance writer whose husband is more like a roommate.. Claire is a pediatric cardiologist whose is newly divorced because she is in love with the wrong man. Sophie has an exciting life full of glamorous fashion, art and celebrities. What these three also have in common is that they each have secrets holding them back from living their best lives.

I really enjoyed A Good Neighborhood so I couldn’t wait to read It All Comes Down to This but this one fell short for me. I liked the characters and the storyline but it was lacking. I feel like we could have gone deeper into so many aspects…like the secret that their mother revealed. It was mentioned and then, nothing. I feel like more back story or a longer bit of tidying up would have been helpful. 3.5⭐️

I received this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This novel is characterized by Fowler's graceful writing, and her typically insightful characterizations--in masterfully differentiated voices--of the three Geller sisters. Beck, Claire and Sophie are very different adults, each plagued by self-created problems of the upper middle class, but they're very much drawn together by the death of their mother Marti, first unwillingly and later surprised by their emotional ties.

I was particularly moved by the relationship of the ex-con and the eight year old orphan, Arlo.

This is a lighter read than Fowler's last book in my opinion, and she gives the reader a very feel-good ending that's perhaps more neatly red-bow tied than life ever is, but that may be just my preference for realistic endings as opposed to happily ever after ones, and this is definitely a good read that will have earned the popular success I expect it to have.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance e-galley to review. 4.5 stars.

I always get super excited when Therese Anne Fowler comes out with a new book! Her books always take me through all the emotions. This one was another winner and I cannot wait to see what she writes next! Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review early!

I enjoyed this enough that I also listened to the audiobook version. It's the classic telling of a family's reckoning with their lives after a loved one passes away, with a modern edge to it. Yes, it is a bunch of white people with resources/privilege to take the time to re-evaluate their lives, but still well done.

ARC from publisher via NetGalley, but the opinions are my own.

It All Comes Down to This is a memorable book that will have you pondering your own life and state of happiness.

Three very different sisters from Manhattan are faced with losing their mother to cancer. They all have great careers (journalist, doctor & assistant at an elite art gallery) but as the women reunite to grieve, they discover they are each hiding secrets. The secrets started long ago with their mother. As they make sense of their mother’s past, they encounter CJ Reynolds. Reynolds is a trying to navigate life after being released from jail recently. Will the characters be able to make sense of their past, forgive each other, and make choices to live fulfilling lives?

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves an easy, family drama!

I have become quite a fan of Therese Anne Fowler. I thought A Good Neighborhood was exceptional. I also read one of Fowler's historical fiction novels, Z, and enjoyed it immensely. I was thrilled to see another novel and be granted an advanced galley.

It All Comes Down to This was not quite what I was expecting and doesn't stand up against her other novels.

What I liked:
-This novel focuses on three adult sisters who rekindle their relationships with each other after the death of their mom forces them to. I think Fowler did a great job depicting what adult sisterhood looks like.

What I didn't like:
-We are introduced to Marti, the mom of the Geller sisters, early on in the novel and her death was seemingly significant event to the characters, but I didn't really sense that the sisters were grieving her death, just inconvenienced by it.
-The novel's pace was pretty slow and ending was just fine- not great not terrible. But left me a little unsatisfied
-I didn't care for the sister's blasé attitudes toward divorce

4.5 stars

There's a quote toward the end of this that sums up the plot to me, and I'm not quoting the NetGalley ebook I was given, but Mick Jagger.

"You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find
You get what you need."

This comes at a turning point for Beck, one of the three sisters whose life, at middle age, is changing too quickly, with too many surprises, which she's not used to. Actually all three of the sisters, after just losing their mother, are experiencing changes; but it all seems too unfair to Beck as she's used to always having her way.

This book! I can credit it with finally getting me out of a two month long reading slump. I will say it's unlike the Fowler books you may have read in the past. It's a warmer lighter read, more similar to an Elizabeth Berg offering, but a real page turner too. I predicted how it would end for all of them, but it was satisfying and reassuring to me in this case.
I highly recommend.

Thank you to @StMartinsPress and #NetGalley for the digital ARC of #ItAllComesDownToThis. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

I enjoyed Fowler's previous book "The Good Neighborhood" so I quickly requested this ARC when it came across my screen. And I wasn't disappointed.

The book centers on the Geller sisters - Beck, Claire and Sophie - who reunite in New York following the death of their mother. Her will calls for the sale of the family's vacation cabin in Maine which sets the drama in motion.

This is not intense family drama - it's enjoyable/amusing family drama. Everything was resolved pretty neatly which was a little unbelievable, but overall, I liked the characters and the story.