This was a great book about dealing with heartbreak, loss, and the uncertainties of life. It tells the story of Abby, who went to school for marine biology and has a passion for all things oceanic. When she meets her future husband Dennis, however, her life takes a turn she hadn't expected or planned for. Years later, after having lived and worked in California for a while, she is back in her hometown and struggling to face the things in her past that she never made peace with. The story goes back and forth between the present and the past, and I really enjoyed how it all came together by the end. Definitely recommend this book!

*Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ARC! :)

I enjoy this author's writing style. It's hard to explain but it just flows so easily that you feel like you know the characters. The one thing that keeps popping up in my mind when I think of this book is Abby is a Marine Biologist. She makes some choices about her career for other people and puts herself on the back burner. This decision digs a hole in her soul and she is desperate to get back on the water. Life with Dennis is anything but exciting. The love of her life is comfortable in the little town they grew up in but doesn't realize the anguish Abby feels working at a bank so they can pay bills. She yearns for a life of freedom and finds Eli a bank customer who is a professional photographer who travels the world who can provide conversation to draw her back to where she wants to be. Abby's choices affect more than herself. I loved the characters the author created of her best friends Chrissy and Nick. Everyone should have friends like them to help get us through the most difficult aspects of life.
Thank you to NetGalley and Lakeside Authors for this ARC of this story.

⭐️My first book of 2020!⭐️ And also my first 5⭐️ star read of 2020! Thanks to @cometreadingsblogtours for the novel - you should not miss this one by @jennifergoldauthor. ⁣
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Keep Me Afloat tells the story of Abby, a woman who has returned home after the research project she was working on has ended. It’s clear at the beginning that Abby is tentative to come home for a lot of reasons, and the way Jennifer develops the story makes it a complete page turner as you’re looking to find out what the true story of Abby’s return home is. There’s elements of struggle with her love life, family, job, and more - but the end of the book was what really surprised me. ⁣
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Make sure you add this one to your 2020 TBR list!

I really enjoyed reading this book by Jennifer. I was part of a Book tour as well for this book and I am glad I got to be a part of it. Keep me Afloat by Jennifer Gold talks all about friendships, relationships and mistakes you make in life and how you manage to get through them. This story, Abby returns to Virginia after losing her research grant but not only is she returning because of that but also because she needs to fix some things in her life. It was a really good and interesting story and you could tell that Jennifer really put meaning into writing this book.

Jennifer Gold has written another heart stopping novel in Keep Me Afloat. The story takes place beginning in 2000 and also in 2018, the present. It weaves seamlessly from past to present and back to the past again in the life of Abby and the love of her life, Dennis. I found it very hard to put down and also very emotional, especially toward the end. I felt anger, sadness, peace, fear and joy nestled in the pages of this lovely novel. I knew Abby’s love of the sea aboard the whale watching boats where she worked. It all began with one drop of sea water, she says, and I as a reader, felt alive as the whales breached and dived by the boat. This was an excellent novel. The characters were so real, their emotions so well portrayed. I highly recommend Jennifer Gold’s Keep Me Afloat! Thank you to the author and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book.

It's a lovely book. My HEARTT!! Words will fail me. This book did something to me. My heart exploded about a million times whilst reading it and I cannot express how much I loved it! How much I'll continue to love it. It was expressive, imaginative, and absolutely beautiful.
It was filled with so much emotion and passion and it really felt like I was living the events in this book along with the characters. Overall this story was truly beautiful and brought out a lot of emotion in me, I was very pleasantly surprised by this book and will definitely be reading it again in the future! Absolute freaking perfection!!! I now have a new favourite author!

Keep Me Afloat was a first Jennifer Gold book for me and I loved it. Ms. Gold wrote a wonderful story which drew me right in, making me forget everything else and did not let me go until I turned the last page. This is a book about learning to forgive yourself and so much more. You must face and deal with the past to have a better future. This book was very well written, the characters were well developed and believable. The descriptions were very vivid making you feel you are right there in the Pacific Northwest watching the whales and hanging out with the characters. This is a heart-wrenching, tear jerker book that will have you with tears in your eyes. Make sure the tissues are close by. This book told in both the present and the past. The unexpected twists and turns will have you turning the pages and keep you fully engaged. I loved this book and will have to go back and read her book “The Ingredients of Us”. I am excited to see what she has in store for us next! This is a must-read for book!

This well written story tugged me in from the start! The main character, Abby, narrates her story from the past and present perspectives. This was a strong way for the author to tell of the events of Abby’s life. After she returns home to The Seattle area, broke and homeless, she tries to get a new perspective of her life, and finds her way to forgiveness of herself and others. There are several twists you don’t see coming! The author also provides interesting facts about marine habitat through the job Abby takes on a whale watching tour boat. This is definitely a book I recommend. I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

Love all her books but this one was definitely a top fav!! It will leave u up thru the night reading and begging for coffee in the am! Totally worth it!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 ok stars

This book started with so much promise however a third way through it lost its way I think.

The writing style is simple and writing by numbers; overly descriptive of every action and way till detailed spelling everything out to the reader.

I did like the flash back style of chapters however the Eli big reveal wasn’t so big; nothing really happened. Abby completely over reacted. As did Dennis.

The info about whales etc were interesting but over detailed and didn’t really add to the overall story.

It was however all tied up nicely at the end.

Thoroughly enjoyed Jennifer’s latest novel, Keep Me Afloat. Loved the descriptive setting of the Pacific Northwest coast and the emotional storyline. Will highly recommend this book and look forward to Jennifer Gold’s next project.

I was very disappointed with this book, which I found trite and stale. The main character, Abby, a grown woman of 35, is still having trouble negotiating life and love. The parts of the story that focused on marine mammals, whales in particular, was well researched and made important points about habitat and behavior. The rest of the story I thought was weak and contrived.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley.

This is a beautifully written story of finding ones redemption and forgiveness.
Abby , a marine biologist, makes a mistake that costs her everything. She returns home after a five year absence to heal.
This is my second book by this sighing and it is a beautifully written book. You can see the whales and head the ocean and I recommend it !

This is a beautifully written story about a woman who strives to be a marine biologist and at the same time tries to be fully there for her love. Balancing life with family and a career can be challenging. The main character has made some mistakes which brought on some emotional baggage. Returning home to the beautiful Pacific Northwest to face the past from which she ran from has her seeing changes for her family, seeking redemption and forgiveness, and opening up to a second chance at love. I loved the description of the marine wildlife throughout the book. The beautiful setting for this book is great for nature lovers and for readers of humanness stories.

Jennifer Gold's Keep Me Afloat is fantastic! At its very basic this is a story about learning to forgive yourself, but it's so much more than that.

There are whales and lots of other marine life that I learned quite a bit about, wonderful descriptions and characters that make you want to be their friend. Of course there are one or two I'd like to shake, but such is life.....

Abby is a sweet, but flawed character who tries hard to be everything that others need, even when it isn't a good choice for her life. When she returns home, nothing is as remembered and her journey of discovery was one I greatly enjoyed. Abby's finding of herself while still trying to stay true to her passion is heartbreaking yet sweet and inspiring.

If you like women's fiction, small town settings and just sinking into a beautiful story, Keep Me Afloat is the read for you.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an ARC at my request. My thoughts on this are my own and happily given because I love this story!

I saved Keep me Afloat, by Jennifer Gold, to read during my winter break. The break just started and I already finished it. Its been almost a year since I read Gold's debut novel The Ingredients of Us, and as soon as she released the advanced readers copies of her new book, I was so ready to "dig in". Jennifer has a way with describing people's emotions and places that gives me all the feels. This book takes place in the Pacific Northwest, specifically in Port Townsend, where Jennifer Gold grew up surrounded by the magnificent ocean, mountains, and all the wildlife that she grew to love. I could not "resist" the cover of "The Ingredients of Us", with the mouthwatering cake, and Keep Me Afloat cover makes me want to board the next flight to Washington.

In the book, we meet Abby Fisher, a marine biologist, who is returning to her family and hometown of Port Townsend, because the research project she was working on in California fizzled out. She fled Washington five years earlier to pursue her dream of becoming a marine biologist, but it is clear from the outset that she left some demons behind her five years ago. The book alternates back and forth in time, from her escape to her return, and Gold traps you, so that, you just have to keep reading.

Abby is the main character, but there are some others that are lovely: her parents, Chrissy and Nick her childhood friends, Dennis Abby's husband, Eli, Zach the barista, Robin Abby's new boss, and Marie and her daughter Becca, AND most importantly, according to Jennifer Gold, there are THE ORCAS, those magnificent killer whales that take your breath away.

There is so much to love about this book. Thank you #netgalley for the e-ARC. 5 stars for #keepmeafloat, Pick it up, 03/03/2020!

I really enjoy this story of wonderful characters and I fell in love with the setting of the book!! Highly recommend

This book wow’d me, I couldn’t put it down and I was a ball of emotions throughout it. Beautiful story of life and what we go through- life is life. I could’ve kept reading this for much longer than it was. Loved this book!

This well told story provides an in-depth look at relationships. A look at how they begin, the hardships they face and how relationships evolve over time. The main character,Abby, is a marine biologist, who returns home after having fled four years earlier. As she tries to find peace with her return home the reader learns about why she left. The way the story is told is from the present with flashes back to the past. This story held my interest throughout and I enjoyed the satisfying conclusion. Thank you to the author and NetGalley for an advance reader copy of this story. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4/5 stars

This is a lovely book, aspects of which I will remember for a long time. This is the story of Abby, her relationships, friendships, the mistakes and errors of judgement she makes, facing up to them with the chance for redemption and a fresh start and I like her story. However, the stand out thing for me is her job of marine biologist and aspects of this struck a real chord with me and that is mostly what I’m taking from this story. The story begins with Abby returning to Port Townsend WA, from California after she loses her research grant. She is returning partly because she has to but also to lay to rest some ghosts. It charts her relationship and marriage to Dennis Nelson and sadly the first thing I thought of when I saw the name was British serial killer Dennis Nilsen, though the fictional Dennis is a lovely man I’m pleased to say. She meets Eli a few years into her marriage when she is stultified in her job and this is where she questions things in her life. All this is intriguing and keeps your interest as Abby wrestles with her conscience. There are some lovely characters such as Abby’s parents her friends Chrissy and Nick and Zach in the coffee shop. Yes Zach, you are right, most things are better for coffee! I admit to having some issues with Abby. At times she is very selfish and judgemental but as she has the courage to admit her faults and finds the courage to face up to things, I warm to her. She’s fallible and makes mistakes as everyone does. I absolutely love the setting of the WA area as it sounds like my kind of place. It provides an atmospheric backdrop to events in and around Abby’s life and most things feel better for gazing out to sea!

However, it’s the marine element that grabs me my my heartstrings and there is one event that moves you to tears. Abby takes a job with the lovely Sound Adventures team taking people (with care and thought for the wildlife) into the Puget Sound to watch the marine life especially whales. I’ve been whale watching off the East Coast of America and it’s a profoundly beautiful and emotional experience and the story took me back to that but also moves the story on showing the precarious situation of this magical mammal. At one point in my watching experience I wasn’t sure who was watching who. Whale breath anyone? 🥴. So to say that I love this part of the story is somewhat of an understatement! Then Abby mentions Sir David Attenborough (several times. 93 year old national treasure, possibly international?) and so I was all in! I love Jennifer Gold’s sentiments and her reasons for writing the book and it struck a real chord.

Overall, a beautiful and emotional story which is well told. There are some lovely characters and descriptions, some moments of wisdom, some of sadness, some of joy as Abby is able to put her past to bed and move on. It makes you laugh, cry, want to give her a good shake and a stiff talking to and tell her to wake up and smell the roses. Thankfully, it ends on a positive note and we can only hope that the same will be true of the Orcas and other marine life.

For anyone UK based you can see Orcas and other whales off the west and north coast of Scotland but despite me nearly wearing my eyes out I’ve not been lucky enough to see one yet! Plenty of dolphins though!!!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC.