I really enjoyed this book! I loved Abby, the Pacific Northwest setting, and the marine biology aspects of this book. The format of the book was also pretty unique--the book was organized by month, and then different years within the month. It sounds confusing at first, but it totally worked, was easy to follow, and gave the story a totally different vibe than if it had been told chronologically. I really felt for Abby and felt as if she was my friend. An excellent read!

My goodness...that was a mighty fine book....

Jennifer Gold's sophomore book is another home run. Its a beautiful tribute to not only love, loss and moving forward, but also an amazing tale of Orca whales. Parts made my cringe when I saw my own life within the passages and there were quite a few parts that had me tearing up as I raced to the end (Damn animals - they'll get me every time).

I'll never look at Shamu the same way again....

I was given this ARC in exchange for a honest review.
Jennifer Gold has written a beautiful book. It's a story about love,loss,friendship and forgiveness,it is set mainly on the coast of the Pacific Northwest. The time line in this book alternates between two time lines, before and after. This normally annoys me but in this story it really does work. works.
I predict this will be a 2020 must read on a lot of lists.

The description for this book wasn’t altogether accurate in my eyes which was disconcerting. Otherwise, I liked the alternating chapters of past and present, it’s one of my favorite formats for a book because you get to discover things in the story in an interesting way. This book dealt with loss and love and forgiveness. Such formidable topics to write about and when done right, they are never trite or cliche. It reinforced the point that you can't escape your problems, and at the end of the day, we all need to go home. Overall an enjoyable read. I appreciated the ending. It didn’t resolve everything but it did leave open possibilities and hope for all the characters.

This review has been posted to my Goodreads profile.

Keep Me Afloat By Jennifer Gold

“We all have baggage,” he goes on. “Haven’t you realized that’s what the coffee is for? It facilitates conversation. It gives us the energy to unpack.”

Unpack and grab an extra cup of coffee because when you pick up Jennifer Gold’s Keep Me Afloat, you are going to want to stay awhile! Her fallible characters will warm your heart on this soul searching journey of love, loss, and healing! Life is messy and complicated and sometimes the baggage we carry around just gets too heavy to keep packed up.
Abby Fisher is lost and no matter how far she runs, she can’t seem to let go of the past. When the research study she is working on loses further funding, she knows it’s time to return home. She needs her family, her friends, but most of all she needs to close the wounds that after more than 4 years are still so raw.
Jennifer Gold’s engaging writing style, the smooth transition from past to present keeps her stories flowing easily. Her characters are broken but repairable, their story familiar yet original. Abby’s story could be anyone’s and that is what makes it so relatable. This is her second novel and as a HUGE fan of her first, The Ingredients of Us, I can’t be more excited to share Keep Me Afloat. It is every bit as extraordinary! She is easily one of my favorite new authors!

Very well written story about searching for forgiveness. Loved the marine biology aspect. Loved the characters. Good plot
4 stars. Will be looking into other books by thus author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own

I received this book "Keep Me Afloat" from NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own. After reading two suspenseful books I needed something different. This is my first book by Jennifer Gold and I really liked it (although I really don't like the title). I found this book interesting and liked the setting of the book. I could definitely feel like I was on that boat watching the whales. A wonderful story about forgiveness, love and finding yourself.

What a beautiful story of love and forgiveness. Abby a marine biologist returns back to her hometown, she left her life behind. When she returns she is forced to face some unfinished business in relationships.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

Even though it took me a while to warm up and understand Abby, I ultimately enjoyed experiencing her journey. I thought the message of the importance of looking forward instead of backward was unmistakable, but not in an annoying or preachy manner. I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptions of whale watching and felt Abby come alive when she talked about her passion. I also appreciated the emphasis on the importance of marine conservation. I am so glad to have found this author; her characters are real and relatable. For a full review, please visit my blog at Fireflies and Free Kicks. Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union for a pre-release digital ARC of the book. All thoughts are my own.

This story follows Abby back and forth between her life today and her life years before. Abby returns home after five years away and is struggling with life. A great read about love, going for what you want and the complexities of relationships and above all, forgiveness.

Abby’s story was interesting and varied. She gave up everything for the husband she loved and now the project has ended she has run back home feeling lost, alone and depressed. She catches up with her long-term friends, but you can tell some part of her is jealous that their lives have continued without her and are changing when she feels like she is standing still. After getting a new job and meeting new friends her life begins to change for the better and she begins to come to terms with her new life and events.

This book left me with all the ‘feels’. Abby has some amazing friends and family around her though she’s travelling a tough journey. The whale watching scenes were exceptionally well written, I could picture being on the boat trip with them and could feel Abby’s joy at finding a new job she loves.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I’ll be reading more of Jennifer Gold’s book in the near future!

Keep Me Afloat by Jennifer Gold. What made this book stand out from other books in my mind is the whale watching. I thought this even before I read the authors note. What a fascinating career a marine biologist. Of course there is romance in the story and sadness.

Forgiving ourselves is one of the hardest lessons we need to learn. This is the lesson Abby needs to learn in this heart felt story that will linger with you and have you cheering for Abby as she faces her last to be able to move toward the future waiting for her. Happy reading!

This story goes back and forth between the past and present in Abby's life. She struggles to find the meaning of home, navigating relationship and career choices.

Abby's passion for marine biology is stifled by her desire to remain close to her husband with a heart condition. She struggles to be honest and ends up making choices that she regrets.

Can she move past the regret, forgive herself, and embrace the new journey?

This is my first read by Jennifer Gold, and it won't be my last!

A story a love & heartbreak, and finding your way. This book bounces back and forth from 2000 through 2018, following Abby as she works through issues with school, career, love and family.
On a side note, I absolutely adored the descriptions of whale watching & boat tours-would love to visit Pacific Northwest and spend time on the water someday!

Thank you to Kate Rock Book Tours for an ARC from the author for an honest review.

A beautiful story of love, forgiveness, coming to terms with the things you have done to hurt others. An added bonus of the extra character found in the Pacific Northwest description. The marine life description was fascinating.

Fans new and old of Jennifer Gold will not be sorry to read her newest!

Abby Fisher has spent the past five years pursuing a career that she loves, but distancing herself from everyone, including those who love her. When the research program is shut down, Abby packs all her belongings and heads home, realizing that she needs to reconnect with her family and friends and deal with the mess she left behind before she can move forward in her life. When she arrives home, she finds that everyone she loves has changed and things aren’t as quite the way she remembered. The only constant is that her parents and her best friends love and support her, no matter what she decides.
Abby is a 35 but has no job, money, or prospects, but a ton of guilt. She knows she needs to move forward and find her path, but first, she needs to deal with the consequences of her choices in the past, both the people she hurt and the guilt she carries. Her journey is a tough one, told in a dual timeline that explores her present, as well as the past that brought her to this point. As Abby makes new friends and embarks on a new career, she begins to make amends with those she hurt, and, just maybe, forgive herself.
KEEP ME AFLOAT is a story of second chances, love, family, and most of all, redemption…and whales. Jennifer Gold has written a wonderful story that has you rooting for Abby, a character who is well-developed that you feel all the emotions with her and I loved witnessing her growth. Her love of whales and the pursuit of a career that focused on them, added another dimension to the novel. Gold’s love for the subject is clear. Abby and her story will stick with me for a long time to come.
#LakeUnionPublishing #NetGalley #KeepMeAfloat

I got this book from NetGalley for a fair and honest review

Keep Me Afloat, is a novel by Jennifer Gold, and tells the story or Abbey a marine biologist who returns to her home town, 5 years after leaving when the research she is working on finishes. However when Abbey left she was running away from her mistakes and going back means she opens up old wounds and even finds new ones.

The story is split up into two time lines the first tells the story of how Abbey deals with, both the reasons why she left in the first place and the changes, while she has been away. The second time line is the story of How she met her Husband Dennis and how life can have an effect on her dreams and how you react to them.

This story well written with each all characters being well defined, both the lead Abbey who’s point of view the story is told through, and the additional ones. The only weakness in the for me was the sense of place where the novel takes place their were basic descriptions, of the town like cold and wet but there was nothing that gave a vision of the town

Keep Me Afloat did have one thing going for it and that was the ending in my opinion, normally when you read a book about going back the writer decides to close the story by finishing every little loop hole but what Jennifer Gold, did in this story is finish a lot of them but leave the rest to the reader.

In conclusion this book is a good read and I can highly recommend Jennifer Gold’s latest book Keep Me Afloat to your TBR pile.

Keep Me Afloat is a beautifully written story of love, loss and finding ones self. There was a plot twist that I didn't see coming and it brought tears to my eyes. I also enjoyed how the author weaved in Pacific Northwest sea life.

Keep Me Afloat by Jennifer Gold

“How can you expect forgiveness from others if you can’t even forgive yourself”.

Keep me afloat was a heartfelt, complex and emotional story that took place on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula in Port Townsend, Washington. Through this gorgeous backdrop, we meet our protagonist, Abby Fisher, a marine biologist who has become a shadow of herself, hiding behind her past and her mistakes, unable to move forward and move on, with this dark cloud of guilt constantly looming above her. The story moved through her process of self discovery, forgiveness and second chances.

The story was deep and complex that covered issues that was definitely relatable and realistic. It touched upon topics on forgiveness of self and others, marriage and fidelity, balancing family and career, reconnecting with the past and ideals of coming back home, and parent/child relationship to name a few.

Gold’s writing style was as easy as the ocean breeze – flows well, was addicting, full of memorable characters, well thought out plots and sub-plots, and was a story that will stay with you long after you have finished reading.

Jennifer Gold was a new author to me but has quickly become one of my favorites and will also certainly be an auto buy author and one that I will be watching for.

This book was good, but not as fantastic as I had hoped. The book follows Abby, a mid-thirties marine biologist moving back to her hometown after a job loss. The book is told in two timelines; one is 2018, and one timeline follows her through meeting her husband as a teen and her life until a traumatic event happens. I would have liked this book more if the past tense chapters had been longer. I feel like I didn't really connect with that half of the book the way I did with Abby's 2018 persona (which had much longer chapters comparitively). Every time I got into a past tense chapters' groove, bam! It was over. However that being said, I did like the story and the book is worth a read. 3.5 stars!