I'm usually not a big romance fan but this was a cute and believable novel about three young millennials who desperately want to find "the love of their lives." Joy and Annie are roommates but when Theo moves in, the dynamic changes--as of course it does when you introduce a male into a female home. And so we see how their friendships change, how they cope with outsiders, and how they sometimes let their feelings get in the way of logic. That's just life, isn't it? We do get a POV from each so it's important to see how appearance vs. reality usually works. In love, out of love, none of these characters were as lovable by themselves as they wanted to be, but we can recognize the appeal of that "special someone" when we are young and hopeful.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

I was given a free ARC from the publisher through Netgally in exchange for my honest review.

Joy, Annie and Celine are three woman all experiencing life and love in their 30s. This book jumps between the perspectives of each woman. The characters and the issues they face are very real, their stories are relatable, and they all grow a lot by the end of the novel.

I actually started reading this right before my own life went into turmoil. I started out liking the book, then it lulled for a long time and I almost gave up on it multiple times. I'm glad I stuck it out though because I absolutely loved the end of the book. I was sitting at about 2.5-3 stars until about the last 10-15% of the book which I enjoyed so much that it bumped my rating up to 3.5-4 stars.

If you like character-driven fiction, you might like this book; unfortunately, it didn't work out for me.

"How to Fall Out of Love Madly" follows three young women (Joy, Annie, and Celine) whose lives intersect with each other in various ways as they deal with the trials of their everyday lives. It was character-focused in the extreme; I usually like character-driven stories, but in this case, I felt like the characters weren't driving much of anything until maybe the last ~10 percent of the book. They - and the plot, along with them - were stagnating. (This doesn't actually seem like it's *not* what the author was going for! But it made it really hard to feel engaged in any way with the story.) I spent so much of the time hoping that something would happen, and very little did. The characters were also, in my opinion, difficult to get emotionally invested in, which I think added to my discontent with the book overall when so much of it was about the characters.

The plotlines also felt unbalanced in a way which is difficult to explain. It felt like Joy's POV dominated and Celine's was somewhat neglected, though I don't know if that's actually true; Annie's work-related storyline felt like it should have been more intense or urgent-feeling, but it lagged behind for me, too. (The single exception was the anonymous first-person narration section about that particular plotline, which was *excellent.* I wish the whole book had felt like that did.)

Ultimately, I probably should have DNFed this when I realized it wasn't my cup of tea, but I kept on with it because I was hoping it would get better. The final ten percent of the book helped redeem things a bit; things picked up significantly and a lot of character growth was squished into a very small part of the book. And, as mentioned before, the anonymous first-person narration section that fit into Annie's storyline was excellent.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this in exchange for my honest review.

Get angry. Get even. Get free. That is the crux of this book- female rage. It is about the rage that we as women keep inside of us, the rage that builds whenever someone mistreats us and, instead of remarking on this mistreatment, we apologize. It is about the what it's like to be female, alone, and broke in a city that does not respect you and in a culture that was not built for you. It's about utterly flawed and unlikeable women who are still no more flawed and or unlikeable than the men even thought they're treated as such. It's about wanting domestic things- the baby, the man, the house- and still being a feminist. This reads like a more self-aware version of "Girls" set in a post me-too era where everyone is deeply flawed and unable to grow up. This book is a stifled scream.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was cute, nothing life changing, but a cute read.

I really liked this book! It was a quick, easy, fun read. While looking at other reviews I saw a lot of complaints about the characters being unlikable, but I don’t think characters always need to be likable. If they were likable the whole time, how would they show growth? And they do grow by the end, for everyone who said they quit reading it. My understanding was the characters were SUPPOSED to be flawed and cringy.

I thought it told a decent story about the three women’s lives, how they’re different while also having similar aspects like unfulfilling relationships. I also thought it gave an interesting look at people’s expectations of others and how they can fall short, and romanticizing ideas of people in their heads.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC!

I had to give up on this story about 30 percent through because I was having a really hard time connecting with the 2 main female characters. I dont want to taint anyone else's opinion of the story but it just was not for me.

This book was simply not for me, though I feel like it might be for another audience. Like the protagonists of this story, I'm also in my 30's. I know that stories like this one typically speak to women within the 20 - 30 age bracket ---especially single women. However, I didn't enjoy being in these character's heads because there was so much honesty, self deprecation and cringe. It sent me back to a very eating disordered, immature mindset of my 20's that I do not wish to return to.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random Publishing House, and the author for providing me with the e-ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

Joy, Annie, and Celine are all mid 20's, early 30's ladies trying to figure out themselves and their lives. All having their respective faults and insecurities—this book took relatable discomfort and ran with it. I found this difficult to read because of how much I relate to the subjects within... it gave me vivid flashbacks where all I could do was cringe for my past self. It put me through all of the emotions from happy to sad, depression to longing, and especially anger. It's like looking into the heads of women struggling in this current world dynamic.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't really get far in the book because I couldn't get past the whole self-loathing the main character had for herself. I certainly couldn't connect to her either.

Thank you netgallary for this ARC.
This story follows 3 women in their 30s through their relationships with men each other and themselves as they struggle along the way. I think every woman can relate and found things though out the book very relatable. I really suggest this to all my female friends in their 20s and 30s.

Possibly this is a generational thing (I'm a gen x'er), but I just couldn't really connect with the three main characters in this novel and, ultimately, did not finish this one.

I enjoyed this book well enough that I rounded up from 3.5 stars to 4. The synopsis provides a little more intrigue than the book delivers, but it was rewarding in other ways. It did a really great job of portraying the nature of female friends who are also sometimes frenemies. It is truthful in its telling how women can find themselves being overly generous to the men in our lives at the cost of ourselves and it shines a hopeful light on how to navigate our way out of that situation. With an August release date, it'll be a great summer read - light-hearted but still grounded in reality.

Rating: 4/5

Thank you to NetGalley, Random Publishing House, and the author for providing me with the e-ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I was initially intrigued by this novel based on the cover alone and didn't know that much going into it. This made for an incredible payoff as I felt emotionally wrapped up in the lives of Joy, Annie, and Celine. I was able to relate with them and also be annoyed by choices they made. They were all complicated and messy but still very real and relatable. I am still in my 20s but I was able to recall times where I stayed with a partner for way longer than I should have but was just so unable to see that he wasn't "kind," as one of the characters has to come to terms with in this book. I loved the writing style of going back and forth between characters and felt like I could empathize with some of them more due to this. Overall, this was a great novel about friendship, family, and relationships.

Not for me. It seemed only a step above YA as far as the emotional level of the characters in the first part of the book and I did not finish it.
Joy has never had a relationship before and doesn't know how to rank her relationship with Hot Theo until her roomie tells her that Joy is in love. Sitting there watching movies together without any romance or affection week after week? Is this love? Hmm... Then Hot Theo brings his girlfriend home. Cue Joy's tears.
In the meantime, the roomie only wants to move in with her boyfriend who doesn't sound like he's the kind you'd ever return a phone call, let alone feelings, so who is she to give advice?
That's as far as I got and am not interested in knowing more.
Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

I absolutely love the cover, but the contents were not my cup of tea. I couldn't really connect with either of the three women that we focus on in the novel, and although I kept coming back to it and finished it, I feel like I won't remember this book going forward. It did not stick out to me, but was simply fine!

This was an exciting read in that I didn’t really know how the story would unfold. We follow Joy, Annie, and Celine, three women in their thirties as they struggle with their careers, self-love, and relationships. We are immersed in their respective perspectives and there were fascinating contradictions in how they perceive themselves and how others perceive them. I appreciated the overarching theme of “men are terrible” and Joy, Annie, and Celine finding their own versions of happiness. I really enjoyed this!

One thing I noted that felt odd to me is that the story is set in the present but didn’t necessarily read that way (perhaps it was the Jenny Craig references? Or that the characters aren’t constantly on social media?). A very minor point is that I don’t think Trader Joe’s has coupons.

Read this if you enjoy stories about women told from women’s perspectives, love and dating, journeys of self-discovery, friendship, and finding your place in the world.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an opportunity to read this ARC. My review will be posted to Goodreads and online retailers on the publication date of August 2, 2022.

Update: I originally rated this book four stars. After reading How to Fall Out of Love Madly and moving on to other books, I found myself thinking of Joy, of Annie, and a few remembering moments during which I laughed out loud. These characters are staying with me, as are the wry observations of the experiences of being a young woman in America.

3.5 stars
The story is about three different women in their thirties and their relationship with their bodies, their families, and men. As a thirty-year-old woman, I really enjoyed this read- it was relatable, endearing, and heartbreaking. The themes in this book are well-articulated and relevant, offering thoughtful commentary on the issues that women face. However, this story has a very specific audience. It’s a book about millennials for millennials.

Thanks to Net Galley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Highly recommend!! I loved this book and all its messages of female empowerment. This was my first book to read by this author but I will definitely be on the lookout for more since I really adored this book from start to finish!

3.5 stars.

As a woman in her late twenties constantly dealing with finances versus working in an industry I love and carving out a domestic space for myself, this book almost immediately clicked with me. Reading about Annie, Joy, and Celine's troubles—personal but also wrapped up in gender and the cultural expectations foisted upon women—reminded me that my worries and anxieties and fears aren't so unrealistic, that it's an experience others share in, that I'm not as isolated as I sometimes feel. How to Fall Out of Love Madly is so much about love, but it's the love between friends and families and the love for oneself that makes this novel remarkable. I personally wanted more interaction between Joy and Celine though, especially as they navigated around one another while orbiting the same man, and there could have been more individuality when it came to the three different perspectives. That, and some of the stereotypes about men and rape left me uncomfortable.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.