Allison James is a people pleaser and rule follower, but the day before her thirty-fifth birthday, that all backfires: she is unexpectedly fired from the public relations firm she’s worked at for twelve years, only to come home and find out that her fiancé has been sleeping with her maid of honor. Feeling lost, Allison takes her friend Jordan’s advice and uses the time off for some … self-reflection. Over the next few months, she devours countless self-help books (albeit skeptically), schedules a soul reading with an astrologer/psychic/magician, and goes on a meditation retreat in Costa Rica, where she finally starts to feel like she’s getting her groove back.
Back at home, her desire to escape the condo she once shared with her fiancé makes her a regular at the new coffeehouse in her neighborhood, where she finds some guidance from (and eye candy in) the attractive owner, Eric. Between Jordan’s support, the Barnes & Noble self-help aisle, and the Tao of Eric, Allison gradually discovers that her old life wasn’t as perfect as she thought—and that if she truly wants to find her happily-ever-after, she’s going to have to start writing her own rules.
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“Charming Falls Apart” is, well ,charming! After reading a couple of heavy books, this light-hearted romance is just what I needed. I don’t think I’m giving anything away to say it ends on an up note when the girl gets the guy. Of course, it’s only after everything in her life “falls apart” and she has to pull herself together again. It’s the journey that gets her there that makes this lovely story worth the read.
From the very first page, I was hooked on this tale of heartbreak, self-discovery, and one woman’s charming determination to turn lemons into lemonade. Fans of Emily Giffin and Lauren Weisberger will love this engaging and entertaining debut!
Curl up with a cup of tea and lose yourself in this delightful story. There’s heartbreak, second chances, friendship and lots of good advice about trusting in yourself woven in to this charming novel that will leave you smiling, feeling content.
In addition to being a well-woven story about second chances and trusting your own instinct, Charming Falls Apart is also a love letter to the city of Chicago. One of my favorite things about the book was experiencing the city through Allison’s eyes. This book belongs at the top of your list of summer reads.
A breezy read perfect for a summer day. So many young women rush to make a plan for how they think their lives should go without stopping to think about what will make them happy. We can all cheer for a heroine who loses it all and comes to realize she never wanted it anyway.
loved it, couldn’t put it down
This book was fabulous from the first sentence. I never wanted to put it down. Allison’s circumstances are everyone’s nightmare so I needed to see how she got through them, one by one! I mean, seriously, oh my God! Just when you thought it’s the final straw, more happened. This story was inspiring, humorous, emotional, and relatable. The author did a wonderful job with a beautiful story of a woman’s growth and wrote an easy to read masterpiece. I adore it!
A really fast, fun read as we watch a woman whose life falls utterly apart wonder what she was doing to have such bad taste in her fiance and maid of honor, bridesmaid, and career. (!) There’s a really amusing exploration of self-help theories — in fact, I’d say this book is really about personal ethics — but mostly our heroine is just plain fun to hang out with. Extra points for having a couple of tropes I tend to find annoying in romance novels and somehow making them NOT annoying.
Charming Falls Apart is the perfect comfort read. A smart and heartfelt ode to the healing power of friendship and the strength in reinvention. Fans of Sophie Kinsella will root for Allison James as she rebuilds her life on her own terms.
From the beginning, I connected to poor Allison and her life that has fallen apart in one day. We’ve all had the mini version of this day when every relationship and work seem to tilt off-balance at the same time. We can imagine the dread of losing a job, then having a fiance casually end a relationship like it’s a conversation over what they’re going to watch on TV. The stinger comes when he’s actually in love with one of your best friends and that causes other friends to act like she’s the plague. Anyone in this sort of desperate moment would turn to self-help books to search for a shred of hope. Anyone, that is, who is going to fight for a great and deserved future.
The problem was that I didn’t feel that determination in Allison. She wasn’t a fighter. She wasn’t searching for inspiration in those self-help books to launch her into the comeback of her life. Things just sort of happened and then other things happened. She had a victim role that I wanted her to pull out of on her own but instead, the story lacked thrust for me. I mean, it was a decent story. It wasn’t offensive or badly written, but it wasn’t unique either. It walked the line of a typical romance trope when the cafe owner just happened to be cute and fit and they liked each other, and there were cute misunderstandings and lots of fretting. I was expecting a little more of a women’s fiction flair with Allison becoming the grown-ass woman she should’ve been on her own. Sadly, I would not say it’s a must-read but I will not discount future books from Angela Terry because she does have a style of writing that I liked. I will look for her other books.