Bigotry And COVID Mar Otherwise Strong Family Drama. On its whole, this is a mostly solid family drama about a mom and two of her three children dealing with a tragedy and trying to move on with their lives in the wake of it.

However, it does have significant problems, problems I've yet to see any of the other 44 Goodreads reviews in existence at the time of this writing address.

The first is the near-constant references to the insanities of 2020-2022, mostly as a way to ground the story in a sense of time and place. But here's the thing: I DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT COVID. PERIOD. And thus a star was deducted for this. Maybe you, the reader of my review, are less adamant about this or maybe you even appreciate such references. Good for you, you'll enjoy those parts of this text. But for those who feel as I do on the matter, know that it happens here.

The second major issue is the portrayal and handling of the Autistic third child. To say that this is a highly bigoted view along the lines constantly spewed by the Autistic hate group Autism Speaks is still being a bit too polite, to this Autistic's mind. This character is every tired and worn out Autistic stereotype rolled into one, and while the family claims to love her, they also drug her into oblivion so that Carr can write her out of the back half of the book. Indeed, if an author treated pretty well any demographic other than the neurodiverse/ Autistics like this in a book, that author would likely go viral for social media cancelling them - and yet something tells me most will be silent about or even praise Carr's reprehensible treatment of this character. That it publishes just days after World Autism Acceptance Day and during World Autism Acceptance Month is a slap in the face to Autistics from the publisher, but perhaps they were not aware of just how offensive this characterization truly is and were not aware of April being so designated.

The third issue, a throwaway line that further reveals Carr's political leanings, is a reference to a school shooting where the shooter got "automatic weapons" from his dad's garage. In California. In the 2000s. BULLCRAP! For one, while *some* automatic weapons *are* legal, the manner in which they are legal is INCREDIBLY expensive to obtain and subjects one to an entire alphabet soup of agencies - both Federal and State, particularly in California - knowing exactly where and how you store such weapons. Further, in the *extremely* rare case of Columbine/ Parkland style attacks as is described in this part of the text, such truly automatic weapons are virtually *never* used. But someone who only follows certain paranoid propagandists on this matter would have no clue about these facts, and Carr reveals herself to be just such a person in this instance. However, this did *not* result in a third star deduction as this was more of a one-off throwaway backstory line and not a pervasive element within the book as the first two issues were.

Ultimately, this is one of those books where your mileage may vary quite a bit. If you don't mind references to COVID in your fiction and if you agree with Carr's views on Autism and guns, you likely will enjoy this book quite a bit. And to be clear, other than these issues - which were *not* on every page - the story itself really is quite good. But if you feel as I do on these issues... still read the book. It really is that well written, mostly. Just know there is going to be some infuriating moments. Recommended.

This story seemed not be about anything. I mean, I know it was about the fallout of secrets revealed when a man (husband, father, friend) dies. But there didn’t seem to be an actual point to the story. Other than Anna, who is for all intents and purposes the main character, and the family friend Joe, the characters are not likable through most of the book. On top of that, here’s another book where the author felt the need to include the pandemic when it was not at all needed for the plot. Truly no reason to bring it up at all. Why are authors so keen on including the pandemic, especially since it’s not truly over yet?

Like I said, Anna is a very likable character. She has a lot to deal with after her husband’s death. Their adult children were all very close with their father and she knows none of them are really dealing with things very well. She has a mother who is in a nursing home and sliding into dementia more and more, she has a high stress/high profile job as a judge, and she knows her marriage was on the rocks when her husband died. That’s a lot for one person to have to handle alone. Not to mention the huge secret her husband was hiding.

It doesn’t take long for Anna to find out her husband’s secret, but it takes forever for her to tell her children. That was the main thing I had an issue with in regards to her character. It seems to me that so many of the issues her kids were having could have been solved if their father was knocked off that pedestal they had him on.

There is a lot going on in this book. Possibly too much. There are mental health issues to be dealt with, some I felt were handled well and others not so much. There is a neurodivergent character that almost seems as though she’s included to just tick a box of having said character included in the story. And again, some of her issues were dealt with and portrayed beautifully and others go a big nope from me.

I’m sorry to say that this book just didn’t do it for me. I was happy to see the characters grow, but it felt an awful lot like telling with very little showing.

**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**
You can find more of my reviews at All In Good Time.

I actively disliked nearly all the characters in this book, and didn’t care about the rest. The writing was very one-note, all tell and no show. I’ve enjoyed a lot of Robyn Carr’s books but this one was a huge miss for me.