Book Summary: 

When Molly Walton packs up her life in Ohio to start over again in London, she’s not sure the kind of happy life she’s always dreamed of (the kind her sister has had forever) is possible for her. But Molly is determined to succeed, to show not only her friends and family back home but to prove to herself that she can stand on her own two feet.

Her work as an activities director at a nursing home is familiar, the kind of work she can do in her sleep. But not everything in her new life is easy. It’s a lot harder to make friends as an adult than anyone tells you and after a complicated situation arises with a male coworker, Molly feels hesitant to think that she will ever make friends in her new life. That is until she meets Mrs. Wang, her seventy-year-old neighbor who only speaks Chinese and the two women quickly become inseparable. Between Mrs. Wang and the friendship she develops with Linda and Jane, two of the home’s residents, everything finally starts to feel like it is falling into place. Especially after Molly meets Sam, Linda’s handsome grandson who just happens to be one of England’s most eligible bachelors.

When she learns that some reminders of her old life are coming to London for a visit, Molly calls Sam and asks for his help to pull off a con. But after finding herself on the cover of the tabloids, Molly sets into motion a series of events that change her life forever as she learns the value of independence, friendship, and creating the life she never knew that she needed.

My Review:

A novel by Lindsey Brunette, we following Molly Watson as she makes every attempt to make sense of a life that has been turned upside down. Written entirely in first person perspective and in the stylistically of Sophie Kinsella (focusing on her journey rather than the romance), we bear witness as Molly untangles her past, present, and future like a set of Christmas lights.

With one unexpected announcement, life as a Molly knows it is over. In front of family and friends, her now ex-fiancé announces he is in love with someone else, her best friend Becca. Fast forward months later and Molly is in London, attempting to rebuild her life without the support system she knows and loves. Taking a job across the pond at a retirement home as the Activity Director, Molly is determined to prove she can reclaim everything she has lost, despite the doubt coming from members of her family. Unfortunately, piece by piece the few building blocks she has put in place start to fall apart. From unexpected workplace entanglement, to losing a friend, to an unwanted visit, Molly is just looking for a win, something to bring light amongst all the darkness. The shimmer of hope comes in the form of Mrs. Wang, her neighbor who quickly adopts Molly, despite her limited understanding of the English language. As their friendship flourishes, Molly quickly gains more and more perspective of what true friendship really is.

The theme of friendship and the different forms of love brought such worth to the story. I loved that despite language barriers, Molly and Mrs. Wang were able to form such a strong bond. I truly enjoyed Jane and Linda’s story and their life long friendship being the example Molly wanted and needed in her life. 

While I understand that in most “chick lit”, romance involvement is simply an after thought – the relationship between Molly and Sam just seemed too forced and unrealistic – mainly because it evolved extremely fast. The amount of fantasizing and yearning Molly had for someone she simply saw in a bar was far fetched and hard to grasp at times. I did enjoy when he decided to help her out and pretended to be her boyfriend when she had to face her past but again, I felt like a lot of the development of their connection was off page, making it harder for the reader to accept it. I would have had an easier time believing the arc with Jimmy over the impending connection with Sam. Again, I felt like the initiation of that story was too artificially built. 

While I enjoyed Linda, Jane, and Mrs. Wang immensely, I just didn’t generally like Molly. I could not connect with her character and found her first person POV more of a prison I couldn’t escape from. I did appreciate when she acknowledged that she overanalyzed everything because that was the continuous nuance of the book. Some of her analysis would go on for pages and you just wanted to scream “It’s not that big of a deal. Move on!”

I truly appreciated the overarching messaging that having left everything behind, she went 3000 miles to find everything that she ever needed. Her friends, her family, her life was fully in London and it took her cutting that final tie to realize that she was never going to reach her full potential if she kept one foot in Ohio.

While the overall premise of the story seemed intriguing, the vast majority of the book is living inside of Molly’s head and being privy to her every thought. In most cases, this would give the reader fantastic perspective but in this particular case, it simply drags out the story at times. With that being said, her thoughts are like carousel, many of the same sentiments repeated over and over again but with a little more built onto them. We may hear about her breakup, move, and feeling of loneliness an inane number of times but every once in awhile, we get a few more details that make one more time around the merry-go-round worth it. 

My biggest concern about the book is at 45%, I had gotten bored with the story. Again, we are constantly living in Molly’s head, I hadn’t seen much growth as she consistently played the victim or overanalyzed a situation to no end that took more brain power than was relevant to it. I felt like a spectator, watching the rise and fall of aspects of her life without any real connection. Even though it is a single point of view, she never wonders or thinks about character beyond her own self involvement. She doesn’t wonder or think about Jimmy beyond his infatuation with her. She doesn’t wonder or think about Sam beyond her fantasizing about him or how he supports Jane and Linda, her two favorite people. She never takes time to remove herself or her interest when she looks at others, it is always a degree of something that involves her – her love life, her fantasy, her job, her friends – never curious of what their hopes, dreams, or ambitions may be. This is incredibly frustrating because while the overanalyzing was already pulling the story down, this bought it to a halt. We are cheated out of being able to see the world beyond her and how it impacts her. We starve for an objective perspective but are constantly fed a very self-centered viewpoint on everything.

Despite all else, the one thing I did love and appreciate about the book is Molly is her job. The author took great care to show the love and compassion she had for her role as an Activity Director and as part of the residents lives. The sweet connection between Jane and Linda was tangible and the devastation of Jane’s sudden death and Linda’s dementia episodes made you wonder how much real life experience the author has had as those feels are hard to imitate.

I was banking everything on a strong finish in order to at least give this book three stars but it just wasn’t there. I was left wondering what I had missed and what was the take away from this book. I read the author’s notes and applaud her efforts to get her story out there but this just was not the book for me.