Genre: Contemporary Fiction (Adult)
Series: –
Format: Paperback
Pages: 532
Publication Date: June 25, 2019
Publisher: W&N
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
GoodReads || Book Depository || Amazon US
Synopsis:
When Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, they are blithely ignorant of all that’s to come. By 2016, their four radically different daughters are each in a state of unrest: Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men; Violet, a litigator-turned-stay-at-home-mom, battles anxiety and self-doubt when the darkest part of her past resurfaces; Liza, a neurotic and newly tenured professor, finds herself pregnant with a baby she’s not sure she wants by a man she’s not sure she loves; and Grace, the dawdling youngest daughter, begins living a lie that no one in her family even suspects. Above it all, the daughters share the lingering fear that they will never find a love quite like their parents’.
(source: GoodReads)
Review:
The Most Fun We Ever Had is a book which will make you feel like this is the most fun you ever had (not the least bit sorry about this pun).
As I mention in the title of this review, the first thing that came to mind as I started reading this book is how similar it is to This Is Us. I’m not saying that it is copying the show, but the vibe I get off it is definitely the same: that heart wrenching, warm nostalgia feeling. Those of you who watch the show know what I’m talking about.
The story is told in multiple timelines and multiple povs: one for each member of the family. We have the original couple, Marilyn and David and their four daughters, Wendy, Violet, Liza and Grace. Their lives are messy, turbulent and far from perfect, but they are so unapologetically humane. Each and every one of them is a person, with real problems, real flaws and strengths. If you’re looking for a clear dichotomy between good and bad people then this is not the book for you. No one here is perfect and no one here is evil. They are a mix of the two; they are people trying to survive using everything they’ve got; they are people who make mistakes, pay for them and go on living hoping they’re doing the best they can.
One of the many reasons I enjoyed The Most Fun We Ever Had is for this realistic feeling it gives off. The readers can’t help but feel like they’re reading about real life stories with their ups and downs, and that is an element that captivates me every time.
The way the story is unfolded is also so well crafted, that I was actually shocked to realise this is Lombardo’s debut novel; I could have sworn she has tons of experience in perfecting her narrative.
I also mentioned Little Women; since the books is about 4 sisters and their relationship with each other, I couldn’t help but make the comparison in my mind. They are all women who love each other and who grew in a loving houselhold, but somewhere along the line life happened and divides started appearing bewteen them. Lombardo navigates this very complicated maze of being a sister and having sisters and not just sisters but siblings in general; how you love them but also want to bash their heads in sometimes; and how you want to hold them close but also get them as far away from you as you can.
To sum it all up: The Most Fun We Ever had is a character driven story, following important events in the lives of a nuclear family, as each member tries to make peace with the life they’ve lead and the choices they’ve made, as well as the choices that have yet to come. Very emotional and wholesome, reading this will defintely give you a warm, nostalgic feeling for things you thought you didn’t need anymore. Fun and enjoyable, it is one of the few adult novels which can be characterised as a page turner.
Marianna's Corner 
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