It All Comes Down to This

A Novel

By: Therese Anne Fowler

Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik

Therese Anne Fowler's It All Comes Down to This is a warm, keenly perceptive novel of sisterhood, heartbreak, home, and what it takes to remake a life at its halfway point, for fans of Ann Patchett and Emma Straub.

Meet the Geller sisters: Beck, Claire, and Sophie, a trio of strong-minded women whose pragmatic, widowed mother, Marti, will be dying soon and taking her secrets with her. Marti has ensured that her modest estate is easy for her family to deal with once she’s gone—including a provision that the family’s summer cottage on Mount Desert Island, Maine, must be sold, the proceeds split equally between the three girls.

Beck, the eldest, is a freelance journalist whose marriage looks more like a sibling bond than a passionate partnership. In fact, her husband Paul is hiding a troubling truth about his love life. For Beck, the Maine cottage has been essential to her secret wish to write a novel—and to remake the terms of her relationship.

Despite her accomplishments as a pediatric cardiologist, Claire, the middle daughter, has always felt like the Geller misfit. Recently divorced, Claire’s secret unrequited love for the wrong man is slowly destroying her, and she’s finding that her expertise on matters of the heart unfortunately doesn’t extend to her own.

Youngest daughter Sophie appears to live an Instagram-ready life, filled with glamorous work and travel, celebrities, fashion, art, and sex. In reality, her existence is a cash-strapped house of cards that may crash at any moment.

Enter C.J. Reynolds, an enigmatic Southerner ex-con with his own hidden past, who complicates the situation. All is not what it seems, and everything is about to change.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press.

©2022 Therese Anne Fowler (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Disappointed

This author was all over the map with this story and her characters. Not worth reading at all.

Couldn’t stop listening!

I loved everything about this beautifully written book! The story, the characters, the narrator. The book was recommended to me by a friend who is a respected non-fiction writer. But I was almost dissuaded from reading it by some of the reviews here. Trust me—those reviewers are flat-out wrong! I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a book this much; I didn’t want it to end. Therese Ann Fowler is an exceptional writer and I can’t wait to read her other books now. Do yourself a favor and get this book!

‘Nice’ Story

This book was, in a word, ‘nice’. Took me quite a while to appreciate the narrator. Something about her voice didn’t initially captivate me. The storyline is relatively engaging. Suppose I could say I would have preferred using my credit on another selection. I live in Maine, so I related to the descriptions of Mt Desert Island and the coast’s unique weather. This point of reference made the story more interesting for me. If you have an extra credit and some spare time, you may enjoy this.

A slow burn

The story of three sisters and CJ, an old flame of one of the girls makes for a slow storytelling ride. The extraordinary writing and honest depiction of their lives makes it a jewel and a treasure to read. I loved this story. I loved each of the sisters for various reasons. Beck for her independence, Claire for her hard work and good morals, and Sophie for her hip and cool life. This is an honest story and I highly recommend it.

Sappy and predictable

Some good narrative and descriptive moments but sadly, too little-girl-fantasy predictable. I’d have preferred a more grown up story

Underwhelmed.

I was underwhelmed by the ending. Was a hard read to stay interested in. My book club even had an issue with it (2/6 girls read the entirety of the book).