A second chance at love mixed with the battle of dementia all mixed into one, Everything Must Go is a above all a love story mothers and their daughters and the challenging, yet beautiful, discovery of finding each ones self.

I instantly fell in love with Laine and her ambitions to follow her heart. As someone who is 110% a people pleaser (hi, it’s me👋🏼) the relationships that Laine has with her mother and her two sisters were easily understood and felt so honest.

While Laine grapples with her own solo desire to start a family, she soon realizes with her sisters that their mother may be struggling with memory loss. Laine is pushed throughout the novel to make the decisions that not only follow her own dreams and passions, but also best support her mother and her family.

Full of love, hope, and heartbreak, Camille Pagán creates strong characters with stronger desires and challenges us all to thing, “How do I show those most important in my life that I love them, without sacrificing my own self love?”

Everything Must Go was a book that sounded very intriguing to me and I was excited to delve into it. For some reason, I couldn’t connect with the plot or the characters at all. One of the few good things about this book was its exploration of family dynamics and how it is to deal with a sick family member.

I enjoyed this book. The story of missed chances, family, health issues, all kinds of love and Brooklyn. I recommend it. Thanks NetGalley for the advanced copy. #NetGalley #EverythingMustGo

I love everything Camille writes...and this book takes the cake. There are some surprising twists at the end, but the story is written with heart and emotion...and it all makes sense. Loved the journey and the read.

This is a wonderful heartwarming/heartbreaking story of mothers and daughters. Laine is a professional organizer married to Josh. Laine realizes she is 38 and wants a baby but Josh just keeps putting her off. When Laine's sisters Hadley and Piper ask her to come to New York because their mom Sally is having some issues, Laine goes thinking it'll do her good to get away for some thinking space. While in New York, Laine reconnects with her childhood bestfriend Ben. I loved the relationships between Laine and her mom and Laine and her sisters. This book is so real you feel like you are reading about your own friends and family. Laine has some tough choices to make, stay married and unhappy, go it alone and try for a baby, go back to Michigan or stay in New York. I loved this book and its amazing characters. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

Everything Must Go is a tender and warm-hearted novel about family. Liane is facing a personal crisis, a turning point in her life and her marriage, when she returns home to help her sisters with their mother. What follows is a poignant story which touches on the complexities of families, and how to keep those relationships healthy and happy without losing sight of what’s important to the individual. There are secrets to unfold, emotions to unpack, and hearts to heal. This is a very relatable book with characters who could be our own family and friends.

I... did not like this. Sadly! I thought based on the blurb that I would enjoy it, but I did not. Laine was so passive, but then when she did make decisions, they felt super rash. I found myself skimming, and eventually read something else in between starting and finishing this, so that's not a great sign. Certainly not the worst thing I've ever read, and I appreciated the way they portrayed the family dealing with Alzheimer's, but otherwise, I could pass on this one.

This one just wasn't for me I had no connection to Laine and couldn't understand how she had stayed with Josh for so long. I did however enjoy reading about her elderly mother and how this was all dealt with.

A well written book and would definitely read more from this author in the future.

EVERYTHING MUST GO by Camille Pagan is a smart, poignant and heartfelt story about navigating relationships. Whether they're romantic, familial, or also, in a way, internal - how we relate to the world around us changes as we get older. As the title implies, main character Laine makes a lot of changes in her life as she begins to take a stand for herself and what she wants most in her life, while also learning to see those closest to her in a new light.
I enjoyed reading about her journey!

Pub date: 4/26/22
Genre: women's fiction
In one sentence: Laine Francis is a professional organizer - but the breakup of her marriage and her mother's dementia may be too much for her to handle.

I enjoy reading family dramas, so I liked getting the various perspectives from Laine, her sisters, and her mother. When Laine heads home, she also reunites with her childhood best friend, Ben, adding a romantic storyline. So there's a lot to enjoy here, but the plot unfolded a bit slowly for me. Luckily, the book redeemed itself with a good ending! I think readers dealing with aging parents and complex family situations will relate to this one.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story
Laine grew up in Brooklyn, surrounded by her older sister Hadley and younger sister Piper. Her best friend growing up was Ben, who she hasn’t been in contact with in years. She’s married to Josh and now lives in Ann Arbor. After her beloved dog dies, she realises that her biological clock is out of sync with Josh’s reluctance to want to start a family. Soon after asking him for a divorce, she is called back to New York by her sisters as her mother is suffering memory loss. The situation forces Laine to confront certain truths about herself, her relationship with her mother and the feelings she has for Ben.

My thoughts
This is the first Camille Pagan book I have read and I so enjoyed her writing style. Lots of self discovery and a journey of finding honesty and truth, even in a really difficult time. I loved the grace that the characters showed with each other, accepting that the end of their marriage was not one parties fault. Accepting that moving on might involve staying close even if there is no reason to. A lovely read!

EVERYTHING MUST GO by Camille Pagán is my type of book and I loved reading it. A novel about family, relationships, and what it means to listen to your own heart, this story took me along with the characters and I eagerly followed them through their ups and downs. Well written, I easily spent several hours wrapped up the the world that Pagán so beautifully created. This novel would be great on the tv or movie screen. Thank you to NetGalley for the complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Everything Must Go is an easy read that tackles issues with dementia, caregiving and being true to yourself. It was an easy read that grabbed my attention from the first page. I did find the main character Laine to be a little irritating as she is such a people pleaser. I wanted to shake her shoulders at time but that is part of the appeal of the book, seeing her transform over time. Overall the story was quite predictable but that didn't take away from the readability. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy to review!

I usually am a huge fan of Camille Pagans work, but this book was not my favorite. It wasn’t necessarily the quality if the book, more so the content. This book was about self discovery and second chances. Trigger warning ** i think the book starting with the death of her beloved rescue dog really was really what did me in. ** Lanie is at a place in her life where she keeps putting off having children because her husband josh is not ready. Eventually she decides that shes wasnt her life waiting around and asks for a divorce. Lanie goes home to take care of her sick mother and runs into an old friend Ben. Lanie’s mother shares a secret with her that could rip the family apart.

Overall I found I had no connection to the characters in the book. I didnt find myself rooting for Lanie and Josh or Lanie and Ben. It was still a good read, just slow and dragged out.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this book for an honest review.
This book was really enjoyable and got more enjoyable the further you read. Initially I didn’t overly like the main character Laine, but as the story went on I got to know her more and saw the different side of her and the relationships that she had.

I enjoyed seeing how much Laine grew throughout the book and see her stand her ground on what she wanted. One thing I would have wanted to see sprinkled in is her progress on getting the apartment cleaned up as I had forgotten that’s why she was there in the first place and only remembered at the very end of the book, it made it hard to imagine each scene in my mind. Also since her mother was a hoarder she would have at least objected to getting rid of everything so it would be nice to see them have a conversation over what to get rid of and maybe it would lead to some fun memories of the past and feel them growing closer.

Life isn’t going well for Laine Francis. She’s grieving her beloved dog, Belle, who has just died. She’s 38 years old and desperately wants a child but her husband, Josh, still “isn’t ready” and it looks like he won’t be anytime soon. Her marriage is on the fast track to unraveling. As if that weren’t bad enough, her sisters, Hadley and Piper, are calling from Laine’s hometown of New York City to tell her that they suspect their mother, Sally, may have dementia.

Laine has always been the dutiful wife and daughter. She’s a people-pleaser who puts other people’s needs before her own. Despite the fact that she’s recently started a new business in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she lives with Josh, she heads to New York, accompanied by Josh, to check on her mother and work out a plan with her sisters for Sally’s care.

In New York, Laine runs into Ben, now a man, the boy who lived down the street and her childhood BFF from whom she grew up being inseparable - until as a teenager her mother inexplicably made her stop seeing him. Laine has thought of Ben often over the years and wondered what became me of him. She’s surprised to find him now the owner and sole resident of his parents’ home and working as a successful chef.

As Laine and Ben reconnect, Sally reveals to Laine a long-held family secret which finally explains why she broke up Laine and Ben’s childhood friendship. Along the way, Laine learns how to start putting her own needs first and begins to make better and more confident choices for herself.

Camille Pagan is a master of telling stories about relationships: friendships, marriages, romantic relationships, parent-child relationships, human-pet relationships, and sibling relationships. In Everything Must Go, she is at her best, taking Laine through grief, disappointment, self-doubt, hope, and, finally happiness. The subplot of Sally’s dementia is realistically and sensitively portrayed and adds a bittersweet element to the ending.

Every single book by this author is amazing!!!!!!! I loved the plot of this book. The characters were realistic. The one thing that irked my nerves was the sister’s newfound relationship with her sister’s ex. That wasn’t my cup of tea. It was sooo obvious the author was moving into that direction early on. This is definitely a can’t put down book.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Laine asks her husband for a divorce and travels home to care for her aging mother. While there, she makes decisions on what to do for the rest of her life.

Laine's life isn't going the way she'd hoped in Michigan. She and her husband Josh aren't on the same page about having kids, she's just starting a new career as a professional organizer, and her mom, Sally, seems to be losing her memory in New York. So when Laine goes to visit Sally, she, along with her two sisters, have a huge decision to make - who is going to become the caregiver for their mom? Her sisters want her to move back home, but Laine wants to remain in Michigan, get a divorce, and find a way to have a baby on her own. Not to mention, her childhood best friend is back in New York and she can't bare to see him after their enormous fight years and years ago. Laine, is a people-pleaser through and through - but will this finally be the time that she speaks up for what SHE wants?

This was a beautiful story of family dynamics and what it means to become the caregiver for an aging parent. The story is told mostly from Laine's viewpoint but you also get to hear Sally's story through her own words, which I found unique and refreshing. Sally knew she was beginning to lose her mind and the heartbreaking honesty with which she opened up during her chapters was beautiful.

But what I loved most were the relationships throughout. The relationship between the three sisters and the dynamic that was present there. The relationship between Laine and her husband Josh, and how Josh was such an important person in her family. I loved that he wasn't portrayed as clueless or a bad guy. The marriage was just two people who wanted different things for their lives, and I loved the way it was handled. Lastly, I just really loved the aspect of trying to let go of being a people pleaser. I think that's such a relatable aspect of this book. All in all, this was a beautiful look at what many people go through as they get older, and in turn, their parents get older - and the decisions that have to be made.

This book will be featured on the April 6, 2022 episode of Reading Through Life - #33 "What We Read in March".