Ohionative sisters decide to bridge the geographic gap, one lives in NYC and the other in Singapore, by deciding, one Christmas, to keep in touch via snail mail.
They hope to become closer and relearn what the sister is about,
Cassie, the New Yorker, decides to keep copies for her posterity by scanning the letters both those she sends and those she receives onto her computer.
Since the bulk of the book is told from Cassie's perspective the reader is presented with a microcosm of New Yorkers the neighbor who knows how to fix any situation AND requires only the top of the line products, the uncle "who has a friend who can get it for you", the mothers at play dates, etc.
It was a quickly moving, humorous read that has been wondering, "How many secrets do I have" Keep Me Posted is the first novel by American author, Lisa Beazley.
One Christmas, Cassie and Sid Sunday decide they need to reestablish the close connection they had when they were growing up, Rather than
regular communication by more modern means, they opt to write each other letters: the kind that need paper, pen, envelopes, stamps and a trip to the post box.
What could go wrong
Cassie Cassandra Marie Sunday is married to Leo Costa and they have twin threeyearold boys, Joey and Quinn, Leos job as IT manager for a chain of gyms gets him out and about, but since Cassie gave up her work as a magazine editor, her horizons have narrowed considerably.
Sid Sidney Sue Sunday is married to Adrian, whose banking job has taken them to Singapore to live with Sids son, River and their baby daughter, Lulu.
With Adrian often absent on business trips, Sid involves herself with trying to better the lives of the Filipina help that many expats employ,
In the spirit of honesty and openness between the sisters, their letters are completely candid: Sid comments of life as an expat in Asia and other, more serious concerns Cassie shares her frustrations about their toosmall Manhattan West Village apartment, her disillusionment with fulltime motherhood, her irritation with her perfectmommy neighbour, her dislike of her inlaws, her dissatisfaction with her sex life and her encounters with an attractive exboyfriend.
If her plot is perhaps somewhat predictable, the execution is so well done that Beazleys first novel is a very enjoyable read, The characters are appealing and even those who attract Cassies criticism have redeeming qualities, The banter between the characters is entertaining and the relationship between the sisters, and with the extended family, their shared history and their obvious love and care for each other is heartwarming.
Theres plenty of humour in this tale, but Beazley also touches on some topical contemporary issues, Cassies poorme attitude, while it is perhaps understandable, will see some readers considering the inevitable disaster that ensues as just deserts, Certainly, this novel realistically illustrates the potentially far reaching effects of mishaps with the world wide web, This is an impressive debut novel and readers will look forward to more from this talented author,.s
I loved this story! It captured my attention from the start, and I couldn't put it down, Two sisters living across the world from each other decide to start letter writing, There are heartfelt moments in the story and funny adventures throughout, It's amazing to me how drawn into the sister's lives I got, They are dealing with things with their marriages and children, and trying to work it all out through their letters, It's great how close they are and how they tell all in the letters, But then it's horrifying when the letters end up on the internet, you can only imagine this happening to you, It's very good reading. I highly recommend this book, and can't wait to read more by Lisa Beazley, Thanks to the author and goodreads for providing the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review, This review can also be found at sitelinkCarole's Random Life,
I really enjoyed this story of two sisters reconnecting with each other through letters, I found myself relating to this book a lot more than I expected, I remember the joy of getting a hand written letter even though it has been years if not decades since I received one, I am from a family of girls so the focus on the sisters really appealed to me, I was completely entertained by this story and once I really started reading it, I didn't want to put it down,
Cassie and Sid are sisters who are separated by a lot of miles, Sid is living in Singapore with her family while Cassie is in New York, At their family Christmas gathering, their grandfather reads them some letters that their grandmother sent to him when they were young, This sparks an idea between the pair and they decide to reconnect through letters, In the process, they both end up learning a lot about themselves,
The book is told from Cassie's point of view, Cassie is the mother ofyear old twin boys, She was a working mother before losing her job but now she spends her time taking care of the household and her family, She isn't really at her best mentally, She is really struggling and looking for something more in life, I can completely relate to Cassie, I wouldn't do some of the things that she does in this story but I can understand what she would have been feeling, I know how easy it is to lose yourself in the needs of your kids and family and how important it is to take care of your own needs.
Sid is dealing with her own set of problems but we learn about them from the letters that she writes to Cassie, I loved reading the letters that they wrote to each other, It was such a nice way to tell a story and it really gave Sid a wonderful voice in the story, After reading all of their letters to each other, I kind of want to write a few myself, I liked watching both of these women grow and come together when things start to fall apart,
I thought the writing style was wonderful, Cassie had such a authentic voice and even when she did things that made me cringe, I still wanted to root for her, The letters helped tell the story at just the right moments and really worked to help control the pace of the story, I loved how the story was really about real problems that people I know have gone through,
I would recommend this book to women's fiction or chick lit fans, I actually haven't read anything in that genre for a long time but this book has me wondering why that is, I am very impressed by Lisa Beazley's debut novel and look forward to her future works,
I received an advance reader edition of this book from Penguin Publishing Group NAL via First to Read for the purpose of providing an honest review.
The story in this book is told through a combination of the main character's firstperson account of the happenings, and a series of letters between her and her sister, Sid.
It's definitely quick and fun, and has moments of pure hilarity, and goes off as you would expect, The letters going viral on the internet happens about twothirds of the way through the book kind of odd for the main "bad thing" to happen so late.
But it wouldn't have worked if it had happened earlier, This also reads like a love letter to New York City, The author's descriptions are lovely, and made me feel like I was there,
In many ways, I enjoyed the book, Cassie states what pretty much every mom in the history of moms has thought: am I a bad mother Wife What am I doing with my life Who am I now On the one hand, it was refreshing to see it all laid out like that, instead of the pictureperfect life displayed on Facebook as she pointed out, but on the other, I just wanted to shake her and say, "stop beating yourself up!"
The other thing that bugged me was.
the book is fully centered and set in the here and now, In a few years, Facebook and Twitter and Viper and all the other social media outlets that are big right now and that she mentions might not even be around.
So the book feels almost like it's already dated,
Overall, tho, it's a very REAL voice, and I think moms especially or ones thinking about being moms will get the most out of this book.
.After reading this book I still wonder about a lot of things, I do think there was an important thing that was not mentioned in the story and because of that a big part of it is not possible.
Or am I wrong
I also think that you do not discuss those issues in a letter to a sister who lives miles away from you and you have to wait a long time before you get an answer back.
I would say you wanted to offload right away and get some feedback,
It was all a bit to fake to me, I do understand that Cassie maybe is a rahter common name but Sid is not, So why did nobody ask any questions
I admit there were some beautiful parts but overall I did not really enjoy it,
Thank you, Netgalley. dnfo I received this ARC in a giveaway from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review,
I unfortunately was disappointed with this novel, To be fair, this was probably not aimed at my demographic early's and was more intended for new moms or possibly women in their's Either way I didn't connect with our main character Cassie or really any of the characters.
She has a rather cynical outlook that I found incredibly negative and offputting,
Cassie continuously complains about every detail of her life some of it justifiably while living comfortably in Manhattan, made several,purchases on her own luxuries, took yoga classes, had a parttime nanny and got pedicures regularly throughout the book, along with having two healthy boys and an assumably good husband.
All of this and she still finds all the problems with her life more important and it made her sound whiny rather than having a real crises.
I expected the relationship with her sister, Sid, to come into play more than just a continuous reminder of how jealous she is of her.
And an unrealistic wrap up between the two by the end, Cassie compared herself with Sid in personality and looks and often divulged in selfhate which I found cliche and overused in apage novel,
In conclusion, I tried to love the idea of this overworked young mom trying to reinvent herself and discover things about her and the relationship with her sister in the backdrop of the always charming NYC but it just didn't work for me.
I recommend this if you enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger, .