I've read "true" horror stories about mother-in-laws online. But it was interesting to read a mother-in-law horror story from the beginning. I guess it could be considered insightful. In here, the evil mother-in-law isn't really evil. Just lonely,trying to live vicariously through her children, and doesn't care about boundaries (mainly because her son refuses to set any). You start to sense this way before any the side characters in the book mention to the main character. I imagine that there are few horrible mother-in-laws out there that are like this, but I also imagine that there are truly evil ones as well.

Luckily, my mother-in-law is not evil, so I didn't pull any true life lessons from this book. But the book was an easy read with good secondary characters that I would have probably liked to have read more of.

The story itself was okay, just not very deep. It's "chick lit", so that's to be expected. However, it bothered me that the stereotype of mothers-in-law was used. My own mom-in-law would never dream of doing most of the things in this book, and if she did, I would have my husband's support in telling her not to.

I enjoyed listening to this one. Not her best but still a good book.

this book was cute, def frustrating at times lol

Jane Green's books are always a fun quick read.

This book was terrible. Sadly I am almost completely unable to stop reading a bad book... :(

Second time around with this book, and I had no clue as to how the (thin) plot would develop, even having read it before. If I can't remember a book, it is usually a pretty big indicator that it is not particularly good, and this is the proof of that particular principle. The main character, Ellie, pretty much annoyed me from start to finish. Her relationship with her mother-in-law was a forced example of the worst tropes about those types of relationships. I remember in the late 90s/early 00s going through a real phase of buying all Jane Green's books. Now I wish I didn't have quite so many on my book shelf.

Ellie is a successful professional in her 30s when she meets Dan for the second time. They click and move into a serious relationship almost immediately. Ellie had a lonely childhood as her mum was an alcoholic who died in a drunk driving accident when Ellie was 13. She brought herself up and is very keen to be accepted by Dan's family and especially by his mother, Linda. She's delighted when she is. She's a bit surprised to find that Dan and Linda speak every day and sometimes twice, but what would she know about how real families work?

Ellie and Dan announce their engagement and Linda takes over. And that is how Ellie feels from here - that Linda is taking over and taking priority. Ellie and Dan struggle with their relationship, marriage and surprise early parenthood. And Linda becomes a large part of the focus of that which none of them know how to resolve.

I didn't particularly enjoy this book which I thought was a shame. It had lots of good ingredients but I found it fairly predictable and while the characters 'resolved' their differences there really was little resolution or depth. And virtually no humour.

It didn't make me interested to read another of this author's books.

3.5 stars to this book :)

Awalnya agak sedikit membosankan, tapi semakin menengah dan menuju akhir semakin seru dan seru...

Topik dalam rumah tangga selalu menjadi favoritku, mungkin mengingat aku sendiri sudah berumah tangga.
Sempet berasa si Ellie sang tokoh utama disini, sangat tidak tau bertrimakasih kepada ibu mertuanya. Bayangkan, dari pesta pernikahan yang gratis, perhatian yang tulus kepada Ellie dan suaminya bahkan, membelikan semua keperluan sang cucu.. Ellie seakan tidak habis2 nya protes mengenai ibu Mertuanya... namun, semakin aku membaca buku ini aku semakin paham perasaan Ellie...

Well, setidaknya endingnya tidak mengecewakan :)

This book was full of characters who are all horrible and overreact or underreact to everything that happens! Painful to read at times.