I have purposefully been avoiding this novel. It has been getting a huge amount of hype; everywhere I go, I see people reading this book, or recommending it to me. I see it in so many stores and everywhere in the library. For some reason, I just didn’t find the premise of this novel interesting enough but after seeing so many people gushing about this book, I decided to try it out. After all, I’ve been wrong before!
Every family has its problems. But the Plumb family is on a whole other level. Months ago, Leo, the eldest of the Plumb siblings, got drunk and drove in a car with a 19-year-old waitress as his passenger. The ensuing accident meant that the Plumb siblings’ joint trust fund, “The Nest”, was depleted, leaving the other three siblings in a tight financial situation. Meant by their deceased father to be a modest mid-life supplement, the Plumb siblings have watched The Nest’s value soar along with the stock market and have been counting on the money to solve a number of self-inflicted problems.
Melody, a wife and mother in an upscale suburb, has to find a way to save her home and send her twin teenage daughters to the college of their choice. Jack, a passionate antiques dealer, has been borrowing against the beach cottage he owns with his husband, Walker, to keep his store running; he desperately needs the cash from The Nest to pay off his loans. And Bea, a once-promising author, can’t seem to get herself to publish another bestseller. Can Leo rescue his siblings ? Or will everyone need to reimagine the future they’ve envisioned?
After reading this novel, I’m still wondering what all the hype was about. What a tedious, flat read! There was nothing imaginative, nothing talented about this writing style or the book. There were so many characters’ perspectives (and usually I never complain about this!) but they all sounded the same. There was nothing interesting about any of the characters, either; they were all stereotypical and cliché. There were also so many draggy areas in the story that I lost focus on The Nest itself, and had to remind myself on what the novel is supposed to be about. I literally had to force myself to finish this book, and even then, the conclusion left me less than satisfied. If you want to read about a family that prides itself on its selfishness and whines about money all the time, then get this book. Definitely a shallow read!
Happy reading ~