Life and Other Inconveniences

Life and Other Inconveniences is an amazing and emotional story that is pure Kristan Higgins; you can hear her voice through the words. This story features family and friends who have dealt with loss, love, death, and family dynamics, made me laugh, cry, and be empathetic for the various characters. We get a peek of how each person dealt with loss, pain, grief, new loves, babies, and/or unexpected events. This story dealt with people forgiving others or finding forgiveness within their heart. Then there was family love shown in varying degrees from “I love you because you are my child” to “I don’t mean to smother you but I need to protect you” and those in between. There’s mother and child love, grandmother and orphaned child, widowed father and a devil-child, unconditional love, as well as love between two people possibly in love. There is also the growth of the characters through a summer of ups, downs, lies, truth, as well as all sorts of other unexpected events and feelings. Ms. Higgins wrote a story that reflects family dynamics which many readers can relate to. Reading this story was like being in a room with the characters, each taking a turn to tell their version of their story; each chapter is the voice of a different character, talking and clarifying their point of view or memory. I wondered whether or not it was cathartic for the character, sharing their memories, feelings, and pain. Ms. Higgins wrote an amazing and emotional story that is not to be missed. In typical Higgins fashion, mixed with the teary emotional portions are humorous situations that brought out laughs and smiles. She provided a tale rich with family dynamics, amusing banter, and other endearing characters throughout this story. I highly recommend Life and Other Inconveniences to other readers. I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, provided by the publisher.

This book was not my usual read, but I did enjoy it and found it deeply compelling. Each chapter is from a different person's point of view, which to me is both interesting and little hard to read. The characters were very real and their lives were not to be lived by the faint of heart. This book definitely pulled on a lot of my emotional strings, which is always a good thing. I felt sorry for so many of the characters and for all that they suffered through, but then again none of us are promised an easy life. I noticed a couple of parallels between this story and events in my own life and I hope that perhaps mine will work out the way that theirs did. I won an ARC of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Kristan Higgins is one of my top all time favorite authors. I absolutely love that she is now writing Women's Fiction, but hasn't lost the comedic romance in the process. This book was a multi-generational exploration of family and it's ups and downs. The story includes an older woman, one in her late thirties, a teenager and also a female toddler (world's most horrendous) from another family. This is a book of love--very strong love, withheld love, romantic love, love that breaks your heart to pieces and love that sneaks up on you and is there even when you don't know it. There are also dogs, death, lies and betrayal..and the worst first date in the history of mankind. Ms. Higgins has woven all that into a miraculous book that leaves you in awe and bewildered all at the same time. A must read!