Joy For Beginners

I think I enjoyed The School of Essential Ingredients more than this. While you got to know each character and how they knew Kate, it didn't flow for me like the last book of hers I read.

I wish it were longer, because I want to spend more time in these women's lives!

The challenges that the ladies in this book undertake are interesting and their emotional connections worth exploring, but overall, this just felt overwritten, full of purple prose. I couldn't believe in the characters or their situations.

Joy for Beginners has Summer Read written all over it. Six friends come together to rejoice in their friend Kate's recovery from cancer. At the gathering, Kate offers a challenge: She will attempt to do something which has always frightened her, but her friends must also take on a task that frightens them, a task she will assign.

I delighted in this book. It combined elements that I love to find in books: happiness, friendship, challenges, facing-your-fears. Great summer read.