Book Review:She's Up To No Good by Sarah Goodman Confino

My Rating:

4.5⭐️

At the onset of this novel, we meet 34-year-old Jenna whose husband informs her that he is in love with another woman and no longer wants to be married to Jenna who, though aware of the cracks in their marriage, is taken aback by this revelation. Her marriage of four years is over.

Fast forward six months, Jenna is living in her childhood home with her parents and is still unable to come to terms with her marriage falling apart and the uncertainty in her future. Her parents, her mother, in particular, are trying to get her to venture out of the house and resume her life. Enter eighty-nine-year-old Evelyn Bergman Gold, Jenna’s grandmother who announces that she intends to drive from Maryland to her hometown of Hereford, Massachusetts to take care of family business. 

Jenna ends up volunteering to drive her grandmother and stay with her for the duration thereby ending her self-imposed isolation. What follows is an uproariously funny and eventful road trip with Evelyn sharing her own life story hoping to lift Jenna’s spirits and motivate her to move on with her life. 

The narrative is split between two timelines - the present day following Jenna and Evelyn’s trip to Massachusetts and Evelyn’s story that follows her from a teenager in the 1950s and continues through the decades that follow. Evelyn is a force to be reckoned with! While her antics leave the reader in splits and Jenna constantly on her toes, her story, which she gradually reveals to Jenna is one of first love and heartbreak, family, loss, tragedy and the choices people make out of love for each other. She introduces Jenna to Joe, the grandnephew of Tony, her first love. Jenna, initially annoyed with Evelyn’s matchmaking efforts finds herself enjoying her time exploring the seaside town with Joe. Jenna slowly begins to come to terms with her impending divorce while also getting to know more about her mother’s side of the family. Evelyn’s story continues in the present day as well and more is revealed as the story progresses. 

She's Up To No Good by Sarah Goodman Confino is a beautiful and heartwarming story about love, choices, family and second chances. This novel is full of heart (loved Evelyn!) and humor (with some major laugh-out-loud moments) and I enjoyed every moment of it. I look forward to reading more of the author’s books in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for a digital review copy of this entertaining and heartwarming novel in exchange for my honest review.