This is my first Sheila Roberts book, and I was pleasantly surprised. The book begins with Karissa, whose husband leaves her for the women next door, who Karissa thought was her friend. She moves to a small town near Seattle and gets a job with a small publishing company. She is befriended by the woman next door with her own problems, which brings the neighborhood together along with Josie, Alice's sister.
Each chapter begins with a particular quote from a fictional book.
The 4 woman, 2 divorced and sisters Alice and Josie widows.
We follow each of the women as they
support each other and learn from the book club books.
This is a romance, so each woman gets a happy ending, in more ways than one.
Although several of the books were self-help books, a genre I do not read, Roberts almost convinced me by how the books helped each woman progress.
The only real book that the women discussed was Jane Eyre, whose author is long dead, so I did enjoy that discussion.
I am a little book obsessed, and I am in 8 book clubs a month, so I really enjoyed the book club aspect of this book.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my EARC. This is my honest review. I enjoyed the book and was rooting for all the characters, as I am sure you will be.
I also received a lovely card from the author to give to my book club when we read this book, with a recipe from Alice for Pina colada shortbread that I will attempt to bake.

This book was a 3.5/5 star read for me. I was so happy to be an ARC reader on this one! This follows four women who are all different ages and at different points in their lives. You get to learn about their past hardships. The great thing about this story is that books are really what brought them all together and really started their friendship. They start a book club and every book they read helps them in navigating their life choices and putting them on a path to happiness. The only thing I noticed was the pacing was off. Some of the storylines were rushed and some dragged on. Overall I enjoyed this book and I would definitely recommend it to a friend. I’m happy to know these characters.

This book is a love letter to friendships. Friends can help you through life no matter what you go through. They provide you with the support you need. Karissa, Margot, Josie, and Alice are all different in almost all ways(except their love for all things related to books) but yet they are a group of women that builds each other up instead of tearing each other down. This group of women goes through a lot of life changing events and they are always there for each other. When you find your tribe hold on as hard as you can because those are the people you have chose to be family! Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC in return for my honest review.


Mandy Harris
Angel Wings Bookstore

As soon as I read the synopsis, I knew this was a book that I would enjoy. It was entertaining for me and I found that majority of the characters were relatable in their own ways.

The pace of the story was okay in regard to some jumps between POVs without indication but it was not the end of the world for me. I loved the concept behind the story and the HEA.

Thank you NetGalley for the digital review copy.

The cover of this book is very appealing and the description of the story was interesting to me. I found this book to be an entertaining and ok read.

I liked all four main characters in this book. It was easy to empathize with Karissa, Margot, Alice and Josie as they dealt with the issues in their lives. The secondary characters all added to the story. I would have liked more with Shirley and Andre though.

The story's pace was ok but there were some awkward jumps between characters. Perhaps that is due to the layout of the eARC and won't seem so awkward in the final edition. I just found it to interrupt the flow of the story a little bit.

Overall this was an enjoyable story and, for the most part, easy to read. Similar in style to Debbie Macomber so if you are a fan of hers you will enjoy this book.

3.5 stars.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion which I have given.

The Best Life Book Club is a straightforward, positive adult romance. It starts off slowly with perfectly nice, run of the mill protagonist Karissa, then picks up when her neighbors and their love interests and problems are introduced.
One-dimensional Karissa lives every writer/readers' fantasy: pursuing her handsome editor at her new job at a book publishing house. (I just read that the author's books are made into Hallmark Channel movies, so the stereotypical- or "ubiquitous" as one character puts it- plot now makes sense.)
This book is good for people who want something easy and relatable to read with a HEA.
Thank you Mira and NetGalley for the digital review copy.

One of my biggest bookish pet peeves is switching points of view without clear markers. It is so hard as a reader when things aren’t laid out clearly, and this book was so bad at doing so. I got about 25% in and was so confused that I ultimately DNF’d the book. I just couldn’t follow what was going on because many of the stories started out the same, but yet they ended up being a different character, it was so frustrating. I’m all for different points of view, but add a chapter marker if you are not going to clearly define who’s storyline we are in.

This was an easy, quick, read, and follows four women as they work through various life/personal challenges. I was hoping for a bit more depth, but if you need a quick read, and enjoy stories about female friendship, this is a good one for you!
Thank you, NetGalley, and the publisher for access to this eARC.

Easy read story of a woman making a new life for herself and her daughter, after her husband leaves her for her best friend and their neighbor. She moves to a new house in a new neighborhood and finds a job working at a publishing house. She makes friends with her new neighbors and they start a book club.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a new author for me. I requested this book because I had really enjoyed her short story in "Mistetoe Season". It was romantic and witty. However, this story was written in a different style. Very similar to Debbie Macomber's books but somehow I just couldn't really connect with the characters. I certainly liked it enough to read it all the way through but I must admit that I kept checking the percentage read to see my progress.

I'm going to try one of Roberts' earlier works and am hoping that it has the humor that I felt this story was missing.

Gah! I really don't like giving negative reviews but I wanted to be honest.

Lovely small town, local book for me….Gig Garbor, WA! Love the idea of neighbors of different ages firming a book club and getting together as friends. Each character had issues and their bond helped them each grow stronger.

I wanted to love this book more than I did. I felt that it switched over to different povs at random times but was kind of hard to not get confused. I did like the premise of the story and loved how relatable the characters were.

“Every small need you meet is a stepping stone to fulfilling bigger needs.”
At its heart, “The Best Life Book Club” is about redemption and reimagining your life. When Karissa Newcomb’s husband cheats on her with her best friend and neighbor, she and her daughter move to idyllic Gig Harbor, a small town a respectable distance away, seeking a new start. Karissa has a new job, with a small publishing house, and a group of neighbors who quickly become book club members and then friends. Through the course of the novel, we follow Karissa and her crew, watching each of them grapple with their own challenges and come out the other side.
This book has a lot going for it: charming cover, compelling setup, sweet characters who make you want things to work out for them. While we spent time beneath the surface with each character, I found myself wanting more: more showing, less telling, more letting the women be fully fleshed out people, navigating complex issues.
This wasn’t a home run for me, but I was happy to spend time in Gig Harbor - and pleased to leave Karissa and crew to their HEA after I departed for other horizons.

This book follows 4 different women who have experienced some kind of hurt/loss and their individual healing journeys through finding community in a book club.

I really had a hard time with this book. I found the writing was extremely scattered and switched between POVs without any page breaks, chapter breaks, etc. I felt as though the characters were extremely difficult to connect with, borderline insufferable. Found myself rolling my eyes at several of them. No character development, just felt like they wallowed in the hard times life dealt them.

I feel like picking one FMC to base the story around and using the others as supporting characters would’ve offered more time for a good character arc/development. It just felt like a hodgepodge of stories thrown together.

The premise of this book was super promising, but it really missed the mark for me.

DNF
I usually love books about books or authors, libraries, book stores etc. but the characters and dialogue were very boring and fell flat 40% through the book and I didn’t care to know what happened.

Cute read with lots of heart.

Four ladies start a book club to get back into the flow of the living. Each has their own issue as to what is stopping them from living their best lives. Through the books they read and their time together, they all seemingly find their happily ever after.

It was a fun, quick read. Uplifting right up to the point of almost fairy tale like endings.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this Advanced Reader’s Copy of The Best Life Book Club by Sheila Roberts due to be published May 7, 2024.

I got this one as an ARC from NetGalley, and honestly, I didn't love it.

The story overall is ok but I struggled a lot with the writing style. It felt very juvenile and the whole book was overflowing with tropes. The main character had almost no personality (luckily other characters like Josie did). Many of the obstacles in the book don't really make sense. Karissa falls in love with her boss who she barely knows and also has no personality. Many of the obstacles either don't make sense or are overcome too easily.

Also, the book jumps from character to character often and without great breaks between the jumps. I did have an ARC so maybe some formatting was missing but it was hard to keep track of whose perspective we were on at times.

I do think the heart of the story is ok. The writing needs a lot of polish though and some of the characters need more oomph to them. I also liked the idea of the books the club read being integrated into the story but there were so many self-help books that I didn't know if they were real books or made up for this story.

OVERALL STAR RATING: 5/5
CLEAN RATING: 4/5

What an incredible book! I’m not really one to annotate, but I am quite tempted to pick this one back up and do a reread because I couldn’t believe the amount of tab worthy quotes. I wanted to give this one a standing ovation by the time I was done reading.

The cast of women in this book were relatable and authentic feeling. I was completely absorbed in their stories and couldn’t put it down. It highlighted the beauty of female friendships when you’re walking through the challenges of life. I felt their heartache and grief, their laughter, and their tears.

Recently divorced Karissa Newcomb has just moved to Gig Harbor with her daughter in hopes of a fresh start. Her world was turned upside down when her husband cheated on her with her best friend. She finds herself surrounded by loving and supportive neighbors - each going through challenges of their own. Though quite different in personalities, life’s challenges, and their shared love of books bond these women together. Their crazy banter is going to have you giggling and smiling with each turn of a page. Absolute friendship goals!

Some of the women find themselves on the path towards a second chance at love and it’s just the sweetest. This book is no doubt going to win your heart and have you aching for friendships as beautiful and as fun as theirs.

4-Star clean rating for around a dozen mild curse words. NO F-words and zero spice!

I will be posting this review to my book designated Instagram account on April 28th. My review will also be added to Amazon, Goodreads and BookBub at that time.

www.instagram.com/aliciasbooksanctuary

The Best Life Book Club is a wonderful book, made so by the interesting and well-drawn characters. Their individual life plots were realistic and their personalities endearing, even if it did take a while to warm up to some. The books in the club served as a way to highlight character change and worked as a way to differentiate this book from so many other book-themed novels. Thank you to NetGalley and MIRA books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

DNF'd at 15%

This one had such a promising concept with a newly single mom starting to work in publishing and the neighbors being kind of interesting. I just couldn't get into the writing style.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.