A Girl's Guide to Moving On by Debbie Macomber

During the early days of this blog, I had this huge Debbie Macomber reading addiction. I actually tagged books with her name, and I almost never tag books with author names (my tagging system is very strange). I loved the The Shop on Blossom Street, and I even own one of her knitting pattern books. Needless to say, when I saw her new book on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to read it.

A Girl's Guide to Moving On is a novel about Nichole and Leanne, a daughter and mother-in-law learning how to, you've guessed it, move on after divorcing their husbands. Leanne has put up with her husband's philandering ways for many years, but she's had enough. Nichole has found out that her husband takes after his father in the less savory aspects, and she's not willing to put up with it. As the two live on their own, they draw up a list of guidelines to help them move on.

And this is the backstory. The story really starts when Nichole meets a tow-truck driver called Rocco, and we find out about Leanne's ESL student Nikolai. Yes, this is a love story (and about moving on. Really).

Ok, should I go with the good or bad first? I think bad news first.

The bad news: the start of this story did not work for me. Because the story was in first person, Nichole's summing up of the events felt like someone giving a lecture. It was basically an info-dump of everything that I told you in the second paragraph of my review, but with more detail. Not the best way to bring me into the world.

That's what I didn't like. Now for the good parts.

This is a uplifting and encouraging read. I really, really enjoyed it. I basically picked it up after a really tough exam that I'm still pretty sure that I'm going to fail, and I ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting. After the awkward first few chapters, I found that I loved the characters, and very surprising for me, love the romance story. I was totally rooting for Nichole and Rocco the whole way, and yes, Leanne and Nikolai too. (Although Nichole and Rocco are what my sister would call "my OTP ship" or something like that. I'm not up to date, ok?)

If you like Debbie Macomber, you'll probably enjoy this book. I certainly did, even though for a while, I had serious doubts about it.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.