Thoroughly enjoyed this book, great mix of characters. Covered the painful truths of Alzheimer’s well. Great story with a few surprises along the way. Looking forward to reading more from the author.

To call me a fan of Camille Pagan would be a huge understatement. I fell in love with her quirky sense of character and narrative when reading “Art of Forgetting” and have been reading everything she has produced ever since. To get a chance to review her next novel is always a pleasure. “Everything Must Go” had me hooked from its opening page.

Laine and her husband, Josh, have been married for almost a decade. She wants a child, but Josh does not. Losing her dog, Belle, is the last nail in the coffin as she compilates divorce. When Laine’s sister, Hadley, contacts her to help out with her mom, Sally, Laine uses this as an opportunity to create some space between her and her husband. But what turns out to be a short trip to New York becomes much more involved when it turns out Sally might be hiding more than her emerging dementia. Laine also reconnects with her former best friend, Ben, and works on rebuilding their fractured relationship.

Pagan is a master at her craft. She is skilled at creating both characters that you cannot help but root for and situations that you can easily identify with. While my mom is good health (knock on wood), I easily related to the plight of caring for an aging parent. I also adored the relationship Laine had with her sisters, Hadley and Piper. I did not quite buy into Laine’s relationship with Josh, which was why it didn’t bother me too much when she walked away from it so easily—especially since her connection with Ben was so much more interesting. But that’s a minor complaint in what I found overall to be a fantastic novel.

Thanks to Camille Pagan, Lake Union and Netgalley for my advanced copy.

This is a story about a woman (Laine) in her late 30s who has just gone with the flow her whole life and then wakes up after a personal tragedy and realizes that it may be too late for the one thing she has always wanted: a baby.

Laine has a major martyr complex. She is a people pleaser who is desperate for everyone to love her (especially her mother) and will do pretty much anything to avoid conflict. Her personality (or lack of one) led to some pretty frustrating and often downright annoying moments in the first 75% of this book.

Her manipulative mom and sisters and clueless husband (whom she seems to have a basically platonic relationship with) control her easily and she flip-flops on every decision she makes.

However, her character growth by the end of the book redeems a lot of the earlier moments that had me bashing my head against a wall. We see Laine grow into herself and find her own voice. There were some touching moments surrounding Laine’s mom’s memory loss and I think this book would especially resonate with anyone who has dealt with a loved one with dementia.

Everything must go is a book told in Laine's and Sally's perspectives. Laine lives in Michigan and her mother, Sally lives in New York with Laine's sisters, Hadley and Piper. It's a story about Sally's struggle with memory loss and how the three sisters have to decide on how to care for her. It's a story about family, life and one's growth. I really enjoyed the book and how it portrays life. I like how Camille Pagán has written it - it's not too dense, not too sad.

For anyone who has a family member with dementia this will ring a bell. The story focuses on laine who wants a baby as she isn't getting any younger but she feels her husband doesn't. She loves him but feels they can no longer be together. When her sisters tell her they need her as their mum isn't well she is torn between wanting to stay and leaving everything behind so that she can be with them.
I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

This is my 4th book by Camille Pagan and her books are a nice change from the psychological thrillers I’ve been reading. Laine is a professional organizer by trade and her marriage is down and out. She wants a baby and her hubby says no way. Her sister tries to convince her their mother has been having memory issues but Laine insists on going for a visit to see if it’s true. I have lived this same story with my own mother and at 74 yo, my sister and I put our mom in an assistant living for Alzheimer’s. Laine’s old friend, Ben, from her teenage years is back in the picture. This story is about love and family. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

Excellent book. Engaging.

Once again Camille Pagan has a hit! This was such a fun book. I was hooked from the beginning. I highly recommend this great book.

This didn't work for me. Laine's story is compelling; she's mourning her dog, her marriage, and shows some really impressive character growth throughout the novel but it just wasn't enough to really hook me. Pagan's a fine writer and she writes emotion impeccably well, but this novel just didn't click the way it should've. It jumped between Laine's POV and Sally, her mother's who has early-onset Alzheimer's POV. While this allowed us to really understand the inner-workings of their family and to further exemplify the ultimate moral of the story, which seems to be that women are expected to make sacrifices to appease those around them, the switched POVs somehow make it harder to relate to both women.

I wish I liked this more, but ultimately am glad that I read it, even if it wasn't my jam.

This book reiterated the importance of family. Yes, Lainey, Hadley and Piper had different paths but they are sisters and wanted the best for each other regardless of the decision made. What really struck with me is Sally and Reggie. We have all felt the feeling that when someone steps into our lives, everything changes forever more. This a book about true love. The messes lead to greatness..

Everything Must Go was such a great book! I laughed. I cried. All the while rooting for Laine, the main character, to do what was best for herself. I liked how the novel depicted tough circumstances that families have to face. Sometimes it's hard to put your wants and needs before those you love, but often you can do it without being selfish to your family. Once Laine was able to communicate what she wanted, her family was able to also add that into the equation to come up with a solution to help their mother. The support her family showed Laine was amazing, and it's great that they all found a way to deal with an ailing mother, end of a marriage and life in general, while still supporting each other.

DNF at 50%
I thought this is going to be a cute romcom but its way too serious and I'm not feeling it. I really don't like both the MCs and the conflict seems so contrived

This is a complicated story to try to summarise, so I won’t! What I will say, is that it’s a beautiful story of A trio of sisters- Hadley, Piper and Laine, whose mother, Jayne, suddenly lets slip the cover that she’s coping with life and they must decide how to deal with it- as well as, for Laine, look at the tricky relationship she has with her mum and whether she should give up everything to care for her or live for herself. Throw in Ben, and Josh… like I said, it’s complicated! It’s incredibly well written, realistic in a scary way (dementia in my own parents is genuinely something that concerns me) and yet easy to read. I devoured the whole book in less than 24 hours and would absolutely recommend it.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle by Lake Union Publishing and #NetGalley for my honest opinion. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

A delightful read that’s funny, sentimental, engaging and entertaining. You won’t want to put it down.

Laine Francis is in mourning. For her dog. For her marriage. For the life she didn’t get to live. As a professional organizer, she’s great at cleaning up other people’s messes and lives by the platitude “a place for everything and everything in its place.” But for all her professional abilities to organize and fix, she struggles to do so in her own life, alternating between her husband, her sisters, her ailing mom, and her estranged childhood best friend.

Told in alternating perspectives between Laine and her mother who is at the beginning stages of dementia, the story strives to examine all of the things we try to compartmentalize: our childhoods, places and roles in our family, and our own personal desires. The alternating perspectives fell a little flat since so much of the novel is told from Laine’s perspective with Sally only peppered in; the epilogue told from Sally’s point of view was, in my opinion, the only piece of her narration that moved the story forward. Perhaps an alternating timeline between current-day Laine and the Sally she grew up with would’ve been more compelling in terms of character and plot development. Laine’s biggest conflict is something that’s not unheard of - she must accept her own shortcoming, namely people pleasing. In order to get to the root of what she really wants, the life she gave up with her childhood best friend, a Black chef named Ben, she needs to assert her wants in life and place a higher importance on that instead of her sisters, her mother, or her husband. . As she stands her ground and becomes more communicative about her own needs, her family pushes back and she struggles to navigate these new adult waters. It’s something relatable for readers who left home at 18 to create new lives and are then tasked with reconciling their adult identity with their familial identity years down the road when the people who KNEW you best are no longer the ones who KNOW you best.

Pagan’s prose is solid - not too descriptive, but enough to hook and hold attention. Ultimately, like Laine’s struggle, the biggest hurdle the book needs to overcome is what it’s supposed to be.

Laine is 38 years old and living in Michigan, apparently happily married to Josh. The death of her dog, Bella finally ignites a real desire to have a child but her husband still feels that he isn’t ready. She decides that she has to put her own needs first and tells him that she wants a divorce. As they are both coming to terms with this, Laine’s sisters in New York ask for help with their mother who they are becoming concerned about.
This novel deals with the problems felt by many women in their 30’s and 40’s of feeling responsible for aging parents while still trying to decide what it is they really want from life. Laine is a vividly portrayed character and I loved her journey during the novel. Her relationship with her mother Sally feels really honest and the chapters from each of their points of view allows the reader to get inside their heads. The three sisters are close despite not seeing each other very often and they each have their own clear personality.
I felt that the depiction of Sally gradually becoming more and more confused was a very true account of how dementia can gradually takes over. Her increasing confusion and the desire to hide what was happening felt very real. I was less convinced by Laine’s relationship with her husband Josh. He seemed too laid back to be true and their relationship felt very grey. I also felt that the ending was a little bit too tidy. Sometimes you need a couple of loose ends.

Book : Everything Must Go
Author : Camille Pagán
Personal rating : 3.5/5 stars

At the age of 38, Laine is facing a mid-life crisis. She and her husband Josh has been married for almost a decade. Now, Laine has started to discover that their takes on life and views of future are totally different. Laine wants a happy family and Josh needs money and fame. Right when she's struggling in her marriage, a devastating new arrives.

Laine's mother Sally is sick. She may have dementia. Laine's sisters want her to go back home to take care of their mother. And the poeple pleaser Laine agrees.

To Laine’s relief, Sally seems no more absentminded than usual. So Laine vows to help her mother maintain her independence, then hightail it back to Michigan.

Except Laine’s plans go awry when she runs into her former best friend, Ben, and realizes she finally has a chance to repair their fractured relationship. Then she discovers that memory loss isn’t the only thing Sally’s been hiding. Sally shares her biggest secret with Laine; something that can be the final wave that would break their family apart. Laine has to decide whether to keep everyone happy or to follow her heart.

"Everything Must Go" is a warm and beautiful novel about family, love, happiness and sacrifices. Told from two different perspectives, Laine and Sally, this is a book that is equally funny and heart-breaking. The author Camille Pagán has an amazing writing style. It is very easy to get get into and flows smoothly. The pacing is perfect. The book managed to keep me hooked from the very beginning to the end. I loved the main plotline. The story discusses various important topics like how many a woman has to make sacrifices in her entire life for her family. A woman endures a lot to keep her family happy, even if their happiness comes at the cost of her own. We all acknowledge the truth but how many of us do anything about it. How many of our old mothers are wandering in the dark lanes of the city with tears in the eyes? "Everything Must Go" raises such intense, realistic yet complicated questions that many of us usually try to avoid. Can you really define every action with good and bad? Can everything be regarded as either white or black? Or are there some grey areas too? The book teaches what a great mistake one can make by judging others without knowing the whole truth. How can you blame anyone for what they do when you aren't in their shoes?

"Everything Must Go" really is an wonderful book. It enlightened me on lots of subjects and answered some questions I had - about family and love. It is not a romance. So, don't expect anything romantic from this book.

Now though I like a lot of things about this book, I also have some issues. I hated how manipulative and pushy Laine's family is. The author should have discussed this particular topic more - how this is not acceptable. The characters are very bland and uninteresting. I didn't care enough about them. The characterization could have been better.

At one point, Laine literally jumps from Josh to Ben. Who does that when they are in middle of breaking off their decade old marriage? That's not all. At the end, the author pairs Josh, Laine's ex-husband with her younger sister. I mean how!!! I didn't see them being a 'thing'. Their relationship has no built nor has chemistry. I get that the idea of everyone getting their happily-ever-after is appealing but this rarely happens in real life. For a book which deals with so many realistic and heavy subjects, I would have loved it to end in a realistic way. That might not promise happily ever after for everybody but that would make this book a fantastic piece of literature. However, I overall enjoyed it. My average rating will be 3.5 stars.

Everything must go by Camille Pagán is a journey about how Laine Francis faces her family problem, handle her mom's health, and a lot more about communication is important.

I'm attracted to read this book because of the title and the description. I simply wanted to know how she will face or handle everything that happened in her life and it's worth it. I love how this book makes me feel so frustrated. I even cry because of how Laine's siblings push her to do something that she doesn't make any final decision yet. It's so frustrating that I keep yelling in silence because of her sisters but that's one of the reasons I stay with this book until at the end of the story. When you read this book, I'm pretty sure you'll have this feeling, "I want to see Laine happy, I want to see Laine get what she wants, and so on." Because the whole story will tell you how she is struggling to even feel happy with her life.

I rate this book 3.8 but it's okay, I'll round up to 4 stars. I just don't have the feeling to give this book more than this. I can't process how easy for Laine to jump from Josh to Ben. I understand they were childhood friends and something happened between them that make them separate. But that doesn't give her the reason to easily change from Josh (her source of happiness) to Ben. Because for me, it seems like she is stuck with the past. When this happened, I'm questioning, "why did you marry Josh then?" Maybe it was just me who can't understand Laine feeling at that moment.

This book is not a romance book, so for those who expect this one to be 'romance', no. This is not romance. This is exactly about how a woman handles her family. It's all about family. Please make sure you are very clear about this book before you read it or you'll feel disappointed and decide not to finish it. And that's not good because you should finish this book to see what happens to Laine and Sally at the end of the story.

This one was bitter sweet, but so good. As someone who has lost their own mother I love reading books about mothers and daughters. Of course if I had been in Laine's shoes even if my mom was okay there's no way I would have considered going back to Michigan but then there'd be no story. All in all I enjoyed this one and learned a lot about myself in the process.

Solid Examination Of Childlessness And Alzheimer's. This book continues Pagan's trend of writing books about real-world issues women in their 30s ish encounter and doing so in a thoughtful and poignant manner that allows people to more fully explore their own thoughts and feelings on the matters at hand even while telling its own unique story. In this particular book, Pagan brings out two issues that I've seen up close and personal in my own (late 30s male) life - childlessness and Alzheimer's. While there are some (such as my wife and I) who start out childless (no kids, want them) and later become childfree (no kids, don't want any) and there is considerable debate within the childless and childfree communities (yes, they are distinct), this tale accurately explores a woman realizing that becoming a mother is truly important to her and what she must do to ensure that. Its explorations of Alzheimer's and the familial relationships it both strains and enhances also ring true to what I observed from my own mother - then in her late 30s/ early 40s - when she, along with her over half a dozen siblings, dealt with her own father developing the disease. I've even known friends and family to divorce as seemingly seamless as happens here, particularly before kids are involved. So ultimately, I see the plausibility in virtually everything Pagan did here, and the story thus became, for me, likely more of the thoughtful examination she meant for it to be rather than getting hung up on "I don't think [this thing or that thing] is realistic enough" as so many of the other reviewers (on Goodreads as of December 29, nearly 4 months before publication) have done. While not quite as powerful or funny as Pagan's previous books (which you should absolutely read as well), this one still does its thing quite well indeed, and is thus very much recommended.