Title: All We Ever Wanted Was Everything

By: Janelle Brown

The Skinny: Three women, Janice and her daughters Margaret and Lizzie, have their outwardly perfect lives in Silicon Valley upended by an unexpected and sudden divorce, bankruptcy, disillusionment, teen angst, and shame. The women, whose relationship is already fractured, are forced to come to terms with their mistakes and find their way back to each other.

The Pros: An engaging story, filled with upper crust characters, who still manage to evoke our sympathy, not just for their shallow situations. When the layers are peeled back further, we find that these women can hurt deeply as well.

The Cons: The reader is shown through clues about the betrayal of Janice’s best friend, but not enough of their actual friendship is shown beforehand, which would have made the betrayal that much more tragic.

The Bottom Line: According to the cover, this book is considered a breezy summer read. The story is fluid and effortless, but far from breezy, there is very real pain experienced by all three central characters, which ultimately transforms them into better, healthier versions of themselves.

 

   

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