Title: Open House

Author: Elizabeth Berg

Publisher: Random House 2000

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 240

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love; Popsugar - Meant to Read in 2018; Women Authors

Samantha's husband has left her, and after a spree of overcharging at Tiffany's, she settles down to reconstruct a life for herself and her eleven-year-old son. Her eccentric mother tries to help by fixing her up with dates, but a more pressing problem is money. To meet her mortgage payments, Sam decides to take in boarders. The first is an older woman who offers sage advice and sorely needed comfort; the second, a maladjusted student, is not quite so helpful. A new friend, King, an untraditional man, suggests that Samantha get out, get going, get work. But her real work is this: In order to emerge from grief and the past, she has to learn how to make her own happiness. In order to really see people, she has to look within her heart. And in order to know who she is, she has to remember—and reclaim—the person she used to be, long before she became someone else in an effort to save her marriage. 

Quite a disappointing read for me. This was recommended by Oprah and a few other bloggers that I follow. I had previously read another of Berg’s novels, Tapestry of Fortunes, and found it fairly charming. This one just fell a bit flat for me. I could not stand the main character and wasn’t all that inspired by her boarders. Struggled to finish this one. Just not for me.

Next up on the TBR pile: