Happy Friday book lovers!

Excited to share with you today my review for this book that is full of culture, family, and conflict! Many thanks to Kim for my invitation to the tour and to Beth Miller for her wonderful words!🌹

My Thoughts

A thought provoking story packed with culture, family, and choices.

This was a well told story about an Orthodox Jewish Woman struggling to find where she truly belongs. Eliza has lived her first 20 something years sheltered by the Orthodox Jewish religion, no television, no cell phones, strict rules about food and dress and ultimately an arranged marriage. I found this to be a terribly interesting and unique premise. I loved getting to know Eliza and I found the orthodox Jewish culture and customs fascinating. This is a complicated story with no easy answers, it was about life, choices, and how no matter how hard you try things can get very messy. Now if you are taking another look at the cover and the blurb and wondering if I am actually talking about this book, the answer is yes! This book in my opinion was done a disservice by the blurb and cover. Both the cover and blurb imply a fun fluffy lighthearted read that will make you “laugh out loud“. Now there are some humorous moments in the story but I found this to be a much more serious story than I anticipated based on blurb and cover. Additionally the books that the book was compared to were confusing, this is a good book that I don’t believe can really be compared to any previous book.

A complicated tale with a dysfunctional Love story. I would certainly not classify this as a romance, the love story in this book is a mess. Both Eliza and Alex do some pretty questionable things. Eliza ran away with Alex on the day she was supposed to marry Nathan, see it is complicated. Alex is not an Orthodox Jew and he is eager to show Eliza the ways of the “real world“. Alex’s methods are sometimes a little interesting borderline creepy, and Eliza is not quite sure what she wants. The book jumps between present and past so when Eliza and Alex‘s teenage daughter finds a picture Tucktaway in a shoebox it leads to many questions.

This was an engaging heartwarming story. The characters weren’t always likable, and they don’t always make the best choices, but they are real. Life is messy and some choices are more difficult to make than others. This book really made me think what would I do in this situation? Also made me look back on some choices I have made in my own life. I truly enjoyed the story, and that ending was perfection, absolutely loved it!

🎵🎵🎵Song Running Through My Head

Why do you have to go and make things so complicated?
I see the way you’re acting like you’re somebody else gets me frustrated
Life’s like this you
And you fall, and you crawl, and you break
And you take, what you get, and you turn it into
Honesty and promise me I’m never gonna find you fake it
No, no, no
You come, over unannounced
Dressed up, like you’re something else
Where you aren’t where it’s at you see
You’re making me
Laugh out, when you strike your pose
Take off, all your preppy clothes
You know, you’re not fooling anyone
When you become
Somebody else
‘Round everyone else
You’re watching your back
Like you can’t relax
You’re trying to be cool
You look like a fool to me
Tell me…

*** many thanks to Bookouture for my copy of this book ***

About the Book

She followed her heart to change her life, but she didn’t realise how much she left behind…

Eliza Bloom has a list of rules: long, blue skirt on Thursdays, dinner with mother on Fridays, and never give your heart away to the wrong person. Nothing is out of place in her ordered life…

Then she met someone who she was never supposed to speak to. And he introduced her to a whole world of new lists:
New foods to try – oysters and sushi
Great movies to watch – Bambi and Some Like It Hot
Things I love about Eliza Bloom

Eliza left everything she knew behind for him, but sometimes love just isn’t enough. Especially when he opens a hidden shoebox and starts asking a lot of questions about her past life. As the walls Eliza has carefully constructed threaten to come crashing down, will she find a way to keep hold of everyone she loves, and maybe, just maybe, bring the two sides of her heart together at last?

An uplifting and heartbreaking novel about finding yourself, perfect for fans Jojo Moyes, The Hideaway and P.S. I Love You.