The Wise Women

Wendy Wise has been dispensing advice through her Wise Words column for decades.  Her traditionally-minded words have helped countless people with their various issues through the years and spawned several popular books.  It seems the only people she hasn't helped much are her two daughters, successful NYC architect, Barb, in an on-off-on relationship with younger gym owner, Jill,  and marketing advisor, Clementine, who is also mom to a sensitive, inquisitive and anxious six-year old son, Jonah. These are grown women with messy relationships of their own to contend with.  When Clementine experiences a series of crises due to some questionable decisions by her husband, Steve, Wendy comes to save the day.  Will her attempts to mother them now be too little too late?

I have to say I was nervous to pick this book up after some middling reviews came in, but I shouldn't have been.  I really enjoyed it!  Is it as messy as some of the relationships within its pages? Eh. Not really. Yes, there were a lot of threads going on, but I thought it was well-written and they all pulled together in the end, even if a little too neatly.  It's a character-driven story full of dysfunctional people working through their issues, past and present, so if you don't enjoy that, this may not be the book for you.  I, on the other hand, eat up the psychology of how people relate to one another, so this was kinda my jam. It's always nice to see people find their way back to each other.

Speaking of plot, a rather significant theme runs through the story about gentrification and repurposing, as it pertains to both physical buildings and the lives we live, which I thought was clever and eye-opening. There's also an interesting thread involving a social media personality and a little mystery involving one of the dumbest product names in history. Trust me - even the characters in the book all think it's dumb.  Overall, I found this to be a warm-hearted, uplifting book, and I'll be watching for other titles by this author!

★★★ ½ (rounded to 4)

Thanks to Harper Publishing, NetGalley, and author Gina Sorrells for the opportunity to give my honest opinions on this ARC. It's now available.