Book Review: Serendipity by Louise Shaffer

Author: Louise Shaffer

Title: Serendipity

Genre: Historical Fiction, Chick Lit, Romance

Format: Paperback

Pages: 341

Published: January 1, 2009

Where I Got It: My shelf (Used Book store)

Summary: 

A child of theatrical royalty, Carrie Manning is having a hard time getting her own act together. Thirty-seven, aimless, and having just buried a famous mother she never understood, she is desperate to uncover her family’s mysterious past in the hopes that it will help her understand herself.

Carrie’s search reveals the fascinating life stories of her estranged grandmother Lu, a glamorous Broadway star whose dreams came with a price; her great grandmother Mifalda, who gave up everything to come to America as a sixteen-year-old Italian bride; and her father, Bobby, the charismatic Broadway genius who wrote some of Lu’s greatest musicals and died tragically young. At the heart of Carrie’s discoveries lies the reason for her mother’s complicated life, and a dark secret that has been buried for thirty years.

Review:

Picking this one had a couple of reasons. 1) Needed something for book club and this seemed like we could have some good convos and 2) it's been collecting dust on my shelf for yearsssss so it is part of a TBR Pile reading challenge. 

Carrie Manning has had a hard time getting her act together. She is 37 and aimless. And now even more so after having to bury her famous mother. Now, Carrie is desperate to understand her mother and uncover her family's mysterious past and secrets. Maybe she will finally understand herself! Her search reveals a fascinating past of her mother, grandmother, and even her great-grandmother. She will also uncover some dark secrets that have been buried for a long, long time. 

So this started out slow for me. It took me a couple of chapters to really get into it. I did step away for a couple of days to finish up a different book. When I picked this backup.......I could NOT stop reading. I literally finished this in a day. 

Where do I even begin? 

Each woman is complex and different but similar to their daughter. Honestly, I would love to learn more about the great-great grandma now too! It seems that these women have complicated relationships with their daughters. Hopefully, if Carrie has a daughter one day, she can break the cycle. There are so many hurt feelings and trauma with these women. If they all just sat down and tried to be understanding of each other MAYBE, JUST MAYBE there wouldn't be such bad blood and the whole "I'll never be like my mother!!!!!". But we wouldn't have this story and Carrie trying to find her way ;)

I really adored this book. TBH it could be a good contender for best of the year. I don't want to give any spoilers, but I kept finding myself surprised at each turn of the page. I literally ate this book up. 

So many lessons could be learned from this story. 

I can't wait to talk about this at book club! It is unaliving me not to be able to spoil this for ya'lls ;) 

But yes. Great stories. Great characters. There are times you just want to scream, "TALK TO EACH OTHER!!!!!!" But you know the generational trauma continues until Carrie. 5 stars 100% 

Challenge(s):

- #4 TBR Pile Reading