October 21, 2015

The Good Neighbor Amy Sue Nathan

book cover
Published: St Martin's Press/St Martin's Griffin
Date: October 13th 2015
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 272
Genre: Women's Fiction
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
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Lies and secrets. Are they okay? Can they bring trouble? Who do they hurt?

Well Izzy Lane is about to find out. She is a single mother, with a delightful five year old son Noah, and she has returned home to her family home and the neighborhood she grew up in.  She wants to move forward after her divorce from Bruce Silverstein.

In the next door house is the delightful older woman, Mrs Feldman. Izzy spent much time with her when she was growing up, and now that relationship takes up again, in all its trust and honesty.

Izzy also has a very good friend Jade and a cousin Rachel who together make up a small team of supporters for Izzy.  She has a job as a school counsellor and everything is moving along fairly well until Bruce  reneges on his child support and heads off.  Izzy is left wondering how she is going to cover costs when Jade who has a successful online social media business gives her a spot on her online media so that she can extend their audience with a Philly over Forty spot. Izzy will cater for those over forties, who are single again, or single parents or.... whatever.

But Izzy is harboring a secret. In her previous blog she had invented "Mac" a boyfriend who is not real and Jade very much wants him part of the Philly over Forty scenario.  So Izzy who is always drumming up the moment to reveal her lie - doesn't.

Throw in a jealous co worker, a somewhat enigmatic lawyer, family and a swag of online commenters and you have a whole neigborhood of people.  Who was the good neighbor? Still pondering, but I think Izzy and Mrs Feldman definitely and that whole neighborhood on Good St. On the other hand everyone is our neighbor, so how good a friend and neighbor is Izzy all round?

My favorite character was Izzy. I am going to go out on a bit of a limb and say what she did I did not find that terrible. Maybe because it's written in the first person and I could understand her point of view. However she did fail to trust  her friends and that could be the crux. I found the fallout from the reveal somewhat severe. At 95% I was thinking.... really!

I really enjoyed the read, definitely one that I'd enjoy discussing in a book club situation.

4 stars

12 comments:

  1. For so long, I hesitated to read Women's Fiction, but this year I've discovered how much I like it and this one sounds great.

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    1. More and more Women's Fiction is becoming my preference out of anything else!

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  2. Thanks Kathryn I have this on my shelf to read and I've got an interview with Amy Sue Nathan the middle of next month. If I don't get a chance to read it I'll link your review again.
    And I love women's fiction, I find that so many times male authors just don't think like we do or write like we think and even in other genres like thrillers/sci-fi,urban fantasy I usually tend to go for female authors.

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    1. Really looking forward to the interview. You ask such great questions.

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  3. Definitely sounds confusing, but intriguing. Like what the heck is happening here? Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I do enjoy "women's fiction" or "contemporary fiction", whatever we want to call it :)

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    1. Anyone that blogs I think would enjoy this one. I was surprised by it. Yeah labels are labels! Genre labelling is quite difficult at times.

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  4. You already know how much I love Women's Fiction so I think I'd enjoy this one and there's just something about the cover that draws me in. I really want to know what the 'terrible' thing is?

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    1. I just adore the cover, it's beautiful and who would have thought - a door! The terrible thing - in my opinion it wasn't but as Elizabeth over at the Evil Overlord said on her reply to a comment I left on her review - it could be our age!!

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  5. I liked Izzy, too, and sometimes when writing, one tends to "fictionalize" things...is that wrong? Probably it should be clear that events are fictionalized...but I did love how the story made me ponder the rights and wrongs. Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed this one.

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  6. Your review definitely makes me want to pick this up soon! I wonder if either of my book groups would like it too.

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