Starting over is never an easy task. Whether it’s a new city, a new school, or a new job, growing pains abound. For Gillian, all the difficulties from starting over are compounded by her very public fall from grace. After a scandal causes her to shut down the PR company she built from the ground up, she returns to the place where she first encountered the lifestyles of the wealthy: Glen Ellen Academy, a boarding school nestled in California’s wine country.

We meet present day Gillian as she’s pulling up to her old stomping ground, reminiscing about the times she’s had and what brought her back to the school she first attended as a scholarship student. The reason behind Gillian closing her business isn’t revealed to us just yet. The reader is also not privy to a scandal that happened in Gillian’s last year of high school, something she begins to allude to early on. Both of these issues are built up so much in the beginning of the novel, that when they are revealed, the payoff is lukewarm. Gillian goes as far as describing the drama regarding her business as traumatic which is quite possibly one of the most loose uses of the word I’ve ever seen.

In this type of story, where the focus is more on the character rather than the plot, it seems important to create a character that the reader cares about. Unfortunately, I did not find this in Gillian. It would be one thing for her to be a character that I hated because at least that would evoke some kind of feeling. Instead, she was a character I felt indifferent about. Near the end, I got annoyed with her hypocrisy and overdramatics and big ol’ mouth, which at least was an improvement, but still it came a bit late.

Another aspect of Gillian’s character that was frustrating was her inability to move on from high school. It’s difficult to read about an adult woman who is stuck in the past. With all the resources she had, it sounded like she needed therapy. It’s quite awkward for her to pine after a man she knew in high school and didn’t talk to for twenty years. It was very hard to wrap my head around.

While this book and these characters were not very relatable to me, the author does a great job sharing the boarding school world with us. She gives peeks into the culture, and it can be very fun to be introduced to a world that one is not a member of. If you’re at all intrigued into the world of the elites, this could be a great read for you.

Ah man, I really wanted to love this. Miriam Parker's Room and Board had so much potential, especially if you're a fan of campus novels. While I was hoping it might end up being reminiscent of books like Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep or John Green's Looking For Alaska (but told from the perspective of a teacher-figure), this ended up falling really flat for me.

The pros: the overall plot is charming, and if you love a character getting a redemptive second chance, you'll likely be alllll about main character Gillian. She's a formerly high-flying celebrity publicist who, after the sudden implosion of her career following a #MeToo scandal involving a client, packs up and moves across the country to be a dorm mom at her alma mater, a boarding school in California. You want to root for her. But though the bones of a fun, albeit fluffy, story are there, things are hampered by cardboard-feeling dialogue and a lack of major conflict.

To the first point, I personally find it extremely difficult to get into a book with subpar dialogue (*cough* The Spanish Love Deception *cough*). And that was a big issue for me in Room and Board. Every word that comes out of these characters' mouths, both young and old, feels stilted at best and completely inauthentic at worst. As in, I honestly wondered if the author had ever met or spoken to a teenager before. (Especially a spoiled, entitled one.) The stakes also feel pretty dang low, despite Gillian’s scandal-filled past, which made the plotting feel pretty slow for me. Everything happens so easily! And perfectly! She settles into her new role with barely a hiccup, which I found wildly unrealistic.

A low-stakes fiction romp with a dash of romance isn’t a bad thing, just not usually my thing. If you’re craving a novel with Big Lifetime Network Vibes (or you enjoy books like The Sweetheart Deal by Miranda Liasson) this might be right up your alley.

Thanks to Net Galley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thankful for Netgalley for providing this book and allowing me to give an honest review.

Room and Board is a light and easy read. I think it was an interesting take on how things may be in a boarding school situation. The dorm mother is what initially intrigued me about this book and it is about the only thing that I enjoyed. I felt like Gillian seemed to be headed in the right direction after her fall from grace, but every time I'd think she was finally being a strong independent woman I'd be proven wrong again by insecurities or Aiden. Normally I really enjoy second chance romance, but this one just felt off to me.

I can tell if I will like a book by the amount of time it takes me to read it.

If I read quickly = good sign.

If I read slowly = horrible sign.

This took me a long time. It felt predictable, it felt overly done, it felt like too much that was undeveloped.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I liked but didn’t love this one. It fell flat and predictable.

Did not finish this one. The plot of this novel didn’t give plausibility to the turns that happen. The writing feels weirdly stilted and I just lost interest.

I think this is a book that failed to live up to its potential. The idea was a good one - throw a sophisticated celebrity publicist into the role of a high-school dorm mom with a bunch of current-day teenagers and see what happens. But the execution fell flat. There was too little tension in the situations, most of which were filled with bland dialogue that did little to pull us into the story but instead were characters exchanging banalities. And the couple of potential incidents that should have held more drama were resolved very quickly or "off camera" where we didn't get to see the consequences. Too many coincidences, too much standard-issue character development. I kept reading until the end but found myself a bit bored and uninvested.

The premise of this book was intriguing. Gillian has lost her prestigious NYC job, her career is over, and she returns to the private school she attended more than 20 years ago. But, unfortunately, it fell flat. As a high school teacher for 30+ years, the story became less realistic and overly predictable. It took me longer to read than normally, as I was either bored or ticked off at the unrealistic dialogue.
Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing this ARC for my review. This review is my own opinion.

I was so excited for this book but it fell short for me. I could not get into the storyline, characters- just ugh.

After a devastating blow to her career as a high-profile publicist, Gillian leaves her ritzy life in Manhattan to return to her alma mater, Glen Ellen Academy, to be a dorm mother. Here she is forced to reconcile with the past she has been running away from, and is propelled into the future with the help of the high schoolers she is responsible for.

I gave this book 1 star. It sounded SO promising and I was very excited for it, but the writing and storyline fell completely flat. It sounds like the author hasn't had any interactions with teenagers these days since they are acting very out of character. I can't fathom multiple teenagers become so attached to a stranger almost 2 decades older than them, to the point that they regularly hang out with her. These are supposed to be incredibly wealthy and well-traveled teens. A disgraced publicist from Manhattan isn't going to be even remotely interesting to them. The story also just doesn't make sense - how can someone who is a dorm mother be constantly leaving for publicist reasons and personal errands? Who is watching over the girls? The descriptions of social media and going viral also aren't correct and don't make sense compared to real-world standards.

It seems like the kind of book where the main character is perfect and has no flaws and helps everyone around her. Which outside of being untrue, makes for a rather dull story. Gillian seems deluded and plays victim in every situation around her, even when she is at fault. I would not recommend this book.

I enjoyed the premise of the book, a publicist who loses her job and becomes a dorm mom at her old school. However, the main characters fell a little flat for me and I didn't love the romantic interest. It was an easy read, would be perfect for the beach.

3 out of 5 stars - It was ok

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for this advanced copy. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Book Summary:

Gillian is a successful publicist in Manhattan who gets wrapped up into the #MeToo movement and scandal ensues. Forced to leave her line of work and find a new start, she accepts a job at her former boarding school as a "dorm mom". She settles into life there as a mentor to the students and friend to a teacher. She even runs into her old high school crush, now a parent of one of the students (and single!) When scandal on campus ensues, she has to figure out how to keep everything moving forward without causing more problems.

Review:

While I totally understood where the initial scandal came from, I had trouble relating to the characters. The rich privileged kids seemed to be complete stereotypes. The love interest always seemed kind of shady and untrustworthy. While the story was a good escape from reality, I wasn't totally enthralled with it.

I liked this book! It definitely has many suspend-your-disbelief moments but sometimes you just want to read a fun, easy book. The main character, Gillian, gets fired from her job as a publicist and magically gets a new job as a dorm mom for her high school alma mater. She's a bit selfish and I am not entirely sure why and how she got the job but, ya know, these things happen in books. I didn't LOVE Aiden but I knew it would be a happy ending. At any rate, if you're looking for an easy, entertaining read, this is a good pick! 3.5/5 stars

I was very excited by the description of this book - though there were several enjoyable moments through the book and the plot had some fun in it, I felt that the full storyline really never got flushed out, making the book feel a little helter skelter.

The plot felt a little too positive all the time. Gillian always had a solution to the problem and was heralded for how she handled all the problems as they arose. However, those solutions didn't always seem to ring true. Bring embezzlement to the PTA rather than the we BOD? Manage the bidding musical career for the twins? Gillian seemed a little.to perfectly placed in the story.

I also feel.like we were left hanging with Miranda. She was a constant presence in the book but at the end, there was no resolution to the relationship. It didn't feel like any closure happened with her character.

I did enjoy the storyline around the teenager girls in the house, even if some of still felt a little too perfect.

Overall, the book was okay but I feel like it has the potential to be better than okay. The storyline really could be fun and a little more depth in the characters could help to get it there.

I loved the premise of this book but it was a letdown for me. There was a lot of telling and no showing. The stakes were extremely low. The romance wasn’t with a redeemable character and I wasn’t rooting for them whatsoever.. I finished it just because I wanted to see how it ended. Hopefully I will enjoy this author’s next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this. The concept of boarding schools/dorm life is always alluring to me, as if creates such an intimate case of characters. Gillian’s resolve to start over, yet at the place that roots her is so relatable. There were some predictable moments, but that didn’t take anything away for me.

I was lucky enough to receive an early copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and opinion. I think Room and Board was a really fun book that gives a little insight into what life at a boarding school would be like. The story itself was well-written and a great read! I highly recommend you take the time to read this on publication date!

What in the world did I just read? This book was absolutely delusional. I’m just going to do a list of the wtf things I found and noted. Enjoy

1. Gillian is shamed out of her job as a PR #girlboss and somehow is hired immediately with no background check or anything as a dorm mother to a bunch of teens at her Alma mater. Not even a formal interview, apparently she just got a call from a board member who saw her “scandal” and thought “the playboy publicist that’s the woman we need to teach our teens the ways of the world” makes total sense.

2. Here we go. Gillian “splashed some water on her face in the bathroom and then went into her bedroom to apply what she called her ‘express’ evening skin-care routine— toner, serum, eye cream, moisturizer. There was another routine that took longer but it was too late for that.” girl if you actually cared about your skin you wouldn’t just splash some water on top of makeup and grime and then add on some La mer. And she’s been traveling all day on a plane in airports etc. Grody to the max

3. Poor Gillian goes the basic um…brat? route and tells us all how she instagrammed a “copy of a bright yellow book with flowers on the cover, that she had gotten in a gift bag at a party, with the hashtag of #selfcare” Gillian you were an English major at Yale. Maybe you could buy your own books or at least read it first? Know the title? It gets worse she also posts pics of a French bulldog in a hat, a glass of rosé (the first of many many mentions of roses in this book ugh), a knitted scarf draped over a chair (stay classy). She notes that her “supporters had commented supportive things and haters had commented hateful things. “ Well I guess that does track. Supporters gonna support.

4. Gillian brags to senior citizen Gloria about her “epic skin care routine” which includes traveling all day and splashing some tap water on your face.

5. The young girls Gillian is entrusted with have a lengthy conversation about mini fridges. Smeg is the preferred brand but poor Julia can’t afford one. Her dad is in jail. You know who else was a snooty snoot who had a jailbird daddy? One of the side characters in Gilmore Girls. Madeline or Louise. Same story different day.

6. Gillian describing one of her new charges, and the daughter of her high school crush “she was wearing Allbirds sneakers. She was a mix of Instagram influenced and Grateful Dead fan” I kind of puked.

7. On the first night, the first night jesus lord, Gillian calls in a babysitter to fill in. This person is supposed to come in one night a week to give the dorm parent the night off. Gillian found it too hard to get to work on her first night so called in a pinch hitter. Was she tired you might ask…but no. She went out socializing.

8. Here’s the Gilmore reference. Someone saying they “always wished they had a mom like Lorelai” Are you nuts? Lorelai did her kid wrong. Rewatch the show, I’ve done it many times. Lorelai is a terrible person.

9. First night still. Gillian is out and orders a vodka martini (since she wasn’t driving since she takes a Lyft everywhere) and she wanted to “celebrate surviving her official first day as a dorm parent” I mean did you? It’s still the first day girl but you are out drinking instead of helping the scared teens settle in.

10. A flashback! Gillian and her bff “grabbed cookies and snapples” from the cafe at school but then end up drinking some vile concoction of “Diet Coke spiked with Mr Pibb” I nearly threw up once again.

11. Help me. Someone asks “Does the existence of Hamilton make teaching history any easier?” Bring the bucket I might need it.

12. For the parents weekend Gillian sets up a table with a sign “Dorm Mother - ask me anything” then gets mad when anyone asks her anything. Since the table is just a ruse to see when Aiden shows up. She even laments that yes she will have to answer parents questions (hello? Gillian? You put up the sign) but that it’s an acceptable trade off for a virtual guarantee that she can gawk at Aiden when he comes to pick up his kid.

13. After a few questions Gillian decides she just can’t take it anymore and throws her sign in the trash. What does she do instead? Runs back to her room to pick out clothes for her date. “She had her own priorities after all” Yes Gillian we see that your priority is always Gillian. Never the kids you are paid for look after.

14. Gillian finds a teen girl at her door. You know asking for help. From the dorm mother. Gillian has to hide her annoyance at the inconvenience of her employment.

15. Emo Gillian arrives to tell us that “sometimes [she’s] the loneliest in the middle of a crowd” well doesn’t that just light up your MySpace page?

16. Gillian tells us she didn’t read in high school (you know when she attended the school she’s working at now) because it was “uncool” to read for pleasure. Ok. Sure. Then she tells us she took back up the pastime of reading in college where she read such literary gems as The Giants House by Elizabeth McCracken, Housekeeping by Marilynn’s Robinson and of course The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. I’m willing to bet she just watched the film on that one.

17. Gillian also mentioned she loved going to the contemporary fiction section and checking out something that nobody else was reading. News flash Gillian: libraries have multiple copies of the same book. It’s entirely possible someone else was reading that book my dear sweet snowflake. But of course she tells us that sure she “loved Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf and even James Joyce” somehow I doubt this.

18. Gillian tells us how after her job meltdown she went and randomly bought all four of the Neapolitan series books. If she was so well read why did it take so long to read Ferrante? And by now she’s only gotten partway through one of them. More reading Gillian, less rosé (which of course she drank while reading the few pages of the book)

19. Gillian owns a Miles Davis album which makes her feel fancy and cultured. You go girl.

20. Oh the date outfit. Black pedal pushers, that “showed off her slim ankles” ( no cankles here!), a black crepe tank top, and a cropped cardigan. The vomit again. What even is this outfit? Gillian calls it sophisticated and casual. I call it CHICOs.

21. Gillian spends an hour moisturizing and contouring her face. An hour. Who does this? How big is your face Gillian?

22. Big face heads off on her date and then keeps pushing Aiden to tell her that he’d like to change the past and date her instead of Miranda. Gillian has read time travel fiction one too many times.

23. A school video goes viral! Never fear Big Fa- I mean Gillian is here! But what’s this? Seventeen missed calls and thirty five texts from parents, kids at the school, her boss, and one from…Aiden. Of course she “clicked on the message from Aiden first, everything else could wait” Next date she should wear her straightjacket.

24. Executives from a record label Gillian has never worked with before are pleased and grateful about her being assigned to their new project. Sure.

25. Gillian tells the girls that accepting freebies makes you beholden to other people. After spending many words telling the reader how much of her own wardrobe is from freebies from clients or brands. Practice what you preach BigFace.

26. Someone from has an interview on live tv and Gillian says she “couldn’t remember such excitement about a television show other than the Oscars or Super Bowl” Gillian do you even watch tv? Last weekend HBO crashed thanks to the popularity of Euphoria and The Righteous Gemstones.

27. Gillian name drops authors a lot. But why? You don’t need to say that someone had a copy of “Siddhartha by Herman Hesse” in her Prada zip tote. We all know who wrote the book.

28. Gloria tells us that she was doing the accounting for the school since the nineties. “There was a finance department that handled everything else” but because she had been there so long they liked having her do the books. Wait what? Just fire the finance dept and give the work to Gloria. Amen

29. Gillian tells us that “the weight of the revelation felt heavy on her head” it must have been huge to be heavier than her big head.

30. Gillian stays up on the phone with Aiden like it’s 1996 again and says she didn’t want to get off then phone but could feel herself fading and she still needed to walk the floors and check the dorm. You know. Her job.

31. Aiden tells Gillian not to wear heels to his winery. Gillian takes fashion advice from her friend amd decides to wear a jeweled flip flop instead. To walk around a winery. Christ girl go to REI. get a decent pair of boots or sneakers.

32. Aiden. Oh Aiden. Gillian tells us that “he smelled like wood and dirt, but clean. Like he bathed in a wood and dirt smell. Maybe Aesop made a cologne like that.” Firstly ew. Wood fine. Fresh soil fine. Dirt no. Unless we are talking 90s flashback Demeter dirt cologne. Maybe that’s what Aiden is wearing? And who still buys Aesop?

33. Aiden gives Gillian a beer from (insert men brewery) that fits perfectly in the chair cup holder. What a guy. But he lives in a winery. Pony up some rosé.

34. Gillian takes 537272 Lyft rides. Do they charge extra for her big head? Who knows.

35. The teens revolt! They call Gillian out for not even doing a hall check the night before and for calling them guys when they are clearly not guys. Gillian is not remorseful. Job? What job?

36. Another Yale hopeful! Did you know Gillian surprisingly got into Yale? (What like it’s so hard? - Elle Woods - yes I know it’s Harvard let’s go with it) and now one of her charges is a Yale early admission hopeful too. Yale is hard. Just because Rory Gilmore got in (let’s be real this was due to her granddad) doesn’t mean anyone can.

37. But wait! Gillian says Yale just wasn’t for her. She was just so different from her classmates and has no friends from her college time. Maybe she blocked the lectures with her big head? Who knows. I mean it’s a mystery for the ages.

38. Gillian and her friend say that if there were ever a gender divide leather sofas are in the middle of it. And Porches. Um ladies have you actually driven a Porsche? No divide there. Absolutely amazing to drive. But I will say a small interior is not good for big heads (or cankles though the wells are roomy)

39. Big head’s friend tells us that she “once dated someone who had a Porsche and the trunk was so small we could barely go for a picnic” Because that’s the priority when buying a sports car. Picnics. And who is having such a big picnic that the blanket and tote of food won’t fit in the back of a Porsche?

40. Gillian deems the high school library “crusty” and remarks that if contemporary fiction and history were available in the library for the few students who might seek it out, that would be nice. Gillian I’m sure they have some crusty old fiction for you to read there. Just go with it.

41. Someone is getting fired! But who cares, the whole parents association just are dying to know what Gillian thinks should happen. Gillian who just started there and can’t even do her own job.

42. Gillian is shocked by a booty call. She leaves the teens alone in the dorm and runs off to his house. Ok she probably took a Lyft. But your kids are alone in the dorm. While she’s getting some.

43. Speaking of that she notices while she’s getting some that there is some nice classical music in the background. #classybooty But since the author doesn’t note the composer I’ll never know who Appalachian Spring is by!

44. We learn that whenever Gillian can slag off and get a babysitter (read: often) they run off for dates. Again, not doing her job.

45. Gillian thinks that maybe what being an adult is is “having a sense of satisfaction about doing the right thing” did I mention this woman is nearly 40?

46. Gillian tells everyone she hasn’t had time to see her own mother since she’s been back (for months) but surely has time for #classybooty

47. Gillian’s mom bites back! She asks Gillian “do you think my life would be better if you were in it? Of course big head tells her “I do, and I think you should think so too” is Gillian really Hannah Swensen in disguise? Hmmmm

48. Gillian wonders if her “love life was more important than defending the rights of the members of the Gem community” Yeah hmmmm I wonder. Tough one. /Paris Geller voice

49. Gillian types a memo that is “vague enough not to implicate anyone yet specific enough to get people to take it seriously” in which she puts words in peoples mouths. You know. Lies.

50. Gillian tells us that “all this time (well, except for when she kissed her friends boyfriend but she was truly sorry about that) she had been in the right. She had acted nobly” when? It wasn’t in this book

51. Gillian’s bff tells her that “If you can’t bear your favorite song from high school, why should you love the same person you loved then?”Such wisdom.

52. This quote from one of the teens (via Step-on-me Tanner) sums up the book “our money was buying her fancy scarves? How rude” How rude indeed.

53. I leave you with this thought from Aiden. That he should leave his job on the pta committee for Gillian because “not being with you is more of a sacrifice”

Honestly nothing here made sense. There was no other way to review the book.

This is a story about Gillian Brodie, who was a big publicist and had elite clients even from Hollywood. But one unfortunate incident brought her to her to work at her alma mater which Glen Ellen Academy as a dorm mother. Unfortunately even her high school life was a mixed bag of emotions and experiences for her and returning back to her school brings back all those memories. Especially her friendship with her best friend Miranda and Aiden (her forever crush). This is book is all about Gillian Brodie and how she navigates her life as a dorm mentor/mother at the academy, handles a scandal that erupted and finally emerges as a hero at the end.

This story is essentially very sweet and subtle. You will find lots of known references throughout such as “Gilmore Girls” if you know what that is. It has detailed description of beautiful sceneries which definitely takes me back to when I visited Davis and Sacramento. If you have lived in dorms or hostel, this book will definitely resonate with you. The problems of teenagers and what they go through on a daily basis will also resonate with you. The problem with the book though is that the character sketches of other characters apart from the main protagonist is not something the author paid attention too. It was very superficial. I never got to know till the end deep details about Miranda. I really wanted to read more about her. What happened to her, bit about her present life but unfortunately I was left thirsty there. So overall this book was a good read for me but not something that I would give a second read.

The premise of this book seemed so promising, and I really wanted to enjoy it, but I just couldn't get on board. The plot was different than I expected, I had a hard time connecting with the characters, and there wasn't much character development - despite there being ample opportunity for it. This may be a home run for others, but it sadly wasn't for me.