📘 Tales From the Laundry Pile
by Kathleen Kole
Genre Women's Fiction
Format & Source Print ◦ For review, CLP Tours
Publication 2013
Rating ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
📚 What It's About
Claire Jamieson has just moved back to her hometown, Boxwood Hills, after living in the city. With her are her husband, Jake, and their four year old twin boys, Evan and Noah. Already dealing with the stress of raising high energy boys and trying to be the perfect mother, Claire now has to deal regularly with her opinionated mother-in-law and her own crazy mom who live nearby. Claire is told time and again that she should learn to relax, but it’s harder to do than it sounds, and life seems crazy at the moment for Claire and her young family.
📝 My Review
I’ve previously read and enjoyed two of Kathleen’s other novels, Dollars to Donuts and Breaking Even, so I was excited when I saw her latest novel on tour and quickly signed up. As always, I was happy to dig into Kathleen’s book and enjoy a lighthearted story about an every day, regular woman. This book seemed a little more serious than some of her past books, but it was a nice change of pace.
Claire is up to her eyeballs in laundry, housework, and child rearing. She is constantly feeling stressed out and overwhelmed and even acts very uptight which made her almost unlikeable at times, though I know she always had the best intentions at heart. While I had a hard time relating to Claire’s particular stresses as I am not a mother or a housewife, I do understand incredibly well how it feels to constantly stress and worry (just about other things). This book is very character driven rather than plot driven, so if you love a good character driven novel, you’ll enjoy this one (even if Claire bugs you sometimes!). I also noted right from the beginning of the novel how much Kathleen’s writing has evolved. You can definitely tell she is no longer a debut writer and her writing has gotten even stronger.
Pick this one up if you’re looking for lighthearted, character driven women’s fiction. I think mothers will particularly relate and enjoy.
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