DNF. I just couldn't get into this one. I may try again on audiobook.

Thank you to the publisher for providing this ebook.

I loved this book! It's well-written, enjoyable, and a great read. Anna Bruno did a great job of writing in a way that captures the readers attention, and makes you not want to put it down until you're finished! I would highly recommend it!

Ordinary Hazards is a sad story of a broken life, but told in an original format, in one night at a bar, which kept it interesting.

Not bad but I felt like the book kind of meandered. Maybe I’m just not into existential contemporary fiction

The fact that this book is set in a small town dive bar says a lot. Much like a dive bar I found myself underwhelmed, not really invested in the main character, and telling myself I should just quit coming back. However I found myself drawn to the realness of the characters and wanting to find out just a bit more about them each time I picked up the book. Overall, I appreciated it for what it is....just like my local dive bar.

This book was very much not what I expected.

It takes place (mostly) over the course of one evening, in a small-town bar, with a series of flashbacks and stories told through memories.

It's a page-turner in that it's not clear at the beginning what the main character is going through, but it becomes apparent the deeper you get into the book. I spent a good chunk of this book with a feeling of dread at what I knew -- or thought -- might be coming, but it was still heartbreaking when I arrived there.

It's a deep examination of grief, regret and memory.

5 "an insightful and painful meditation on the injury of a woman's heart"

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Atria Books. This was released January 2020. I am providing my honest review.

This is a superb piece of contemporary fiction that unbelievably is a debut novel. Throughout this novel I wept several times and most of all I hoped that Emma would heal her wretched heart...

Emma escapes the big cities and settles in a small town in Upstate New York. She meets Logan and they fall deeply in love. This is not unusual but what the author does is tell this story over one evening at a dive bar. Emma is fond of drink and has drunk more since leaving Logan and she hangs with all his male friends...why ?

Over the course of the evening, a powderkeg is simmering with all the townies and drink after drink Emma reminisces about the emptiness of her past and the fulness of her life with Logan...

This book is both philosophical and emotionally intelligent. The characters are so bloody real and as the night unfolds we go deeper and deeper into Emma's psyche and her fragile and injured heart.
In the meantime a dark masculine drama plays out with all the men at the bar that evening. We know there will be collision and we hope as readers that despite the pain that it might also be redemptive...

A deeply meaningful and intimate look at the inside of a beautiful relationship where both lovers are drifting but have found a home in each other....

My little review does not do this debut justice but I do hope you consider reading and experiencing this American drama for yourself.

I really like the setting of this book, in a local bar in Upstate New York called The Final Final, where virtually all the action occurs in the course of one evening. Emma relates the story through her opinions about what is happening in the bar while she thinks about her life and what came before this evening. This is definitely a story of love and pain and how we are expected to move on. This is a character-driven story for sure and it was definitely interesting to read.

The cover art is beautiful and drew me in, but this was definitely a hard read for me. Maybe not for someone else, just didn't work for me.

DNF - Did not finish. I did not connect with the writing style or plot and will not be finishing this title. Thank you, NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy!

This book was very interesting and fast-paced, the author held my attention and the plot was very appealing. I would recommend this book to friends.

Wow, this book was wonderful. I absolutely love unique premises like this one, and books that take place over a set period of time and over a short period of time. That set up alone really worked for me. It's a book about nothing, and a book about everything. It's simple and yet discusses complex themes. This was also a tearjerker of a book and I always love a story that I want to hug by the end. 5 stars from me!

The story of a failed marriage, told thru recollections while Emma sits in the local bar, with all of Lucas's friends. It's a slow, sad, and depressing story of loss, grief, resentment, and anger.

This book was a DNF for me. I've tried to read it a couple of times and I can't get into the story. The writing is adequate from what I've read so it's a "it's not you, it's me" situation.

Review posted on blog: https://books-are-a-girls-best-friend.com/

In the span of an evening, lives and losses unfold, quietly, memories spilling forth, some beautiful, heartfelt, warm, just like a soft chenille blanket, while others are gut-wrenching, painful and destructive, like a bar glass filled with bourbon, shattering to the floor spilling liquor and bits of glass everywhere as far as the eye can see.

Reflecting on what is and what was, Emma sits on a stool at her favorite neighbor bar, The Final Final, night after night and it is there, that you know that all is not well. It is here that Emma met the love of her life: Lucas. The two met, fell in love and married. Lucas however, is not with her tonight and hasn’t been for quite some time. All she has left of their time together is their dog, Addie, who stole my heart. Instead, Emma is sitting at the bar, alone. Other regulars are there as well, and they too, have stories to tell. In the course of an evening, Emma reminisces over her past, and her trials and tribulations, her relationship with her father, her marriage to Lucas and the crux of the reason why she is at The Final Final alone.

This is of course, the last stop, but then one would expect nothing less of The Final Final.

A slow burning character driven novel detailing friendship, grief, love, loss, and most of all, forgiveness, Ordinary Hazards delves into all subjects gracefully. For anyone who has ever suffered loss, it hits home hard.

While the story meandered a tad when Emma was reminiscing, I truly enjoyed this novel and look forward to seeing what Anna Bruno comes out with next.

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books and Anna Bruno for the arc.

Published on Goodreads, Twitter and Instagram.

I’ve had this book sitting on my NetGalley shelf for almost a year and a half and decided to finally read it last week. I alternated between the eARC and the audiobook (thanks to Scribd) and I read it in less than 24 hours!

This story was all at once captivating and alluring. Ordinary Hazards by Anna Bruno may be one of the most underrated books I've read this year, and I’m shocked I didn’t see more about it when it was released last year. Hazards follows Emma, 9-months-divorced, over the course of one night at her local bar, The Final Final, told in hour increments from 5 PM to 1PM, and After Hours. There are multiple timelines at play as we follow the action in the bar that evening, and watch Emma’s relationship with Lucas grow and unravel through flashbacks. The writing in this novel was beautifully nuanced, showcasing the raw emotion and true nature of the well-developed characters.

Ordinary Hazards was filled with moments of truth, and was ultimately both a tale of caution and of quiet hope. This story will stay with me for a long time and I am so glad that I finally grabbed it from my NetGalley shelf!

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for my free electronic ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book takes place throughout one night, hour by hour. The main character, Emma, looks back at her life while sitting at a bar called The Final Final. She is unhappy and looking for meaning in her life. I imagined I would be able to relate to Emma but she is not easy to like. She dropped out of school, her marriage fell apart, her decisions as a mother, and she is sitting at a bar reliving her life. There are a lot of characters introduced in this book that don't seem to serve a purpose. Most of the book was heavy and boring for me. I was trying to relate to her and like her but I just could not. I am all for reflecting on your life's choices, but this was a journey I did not need to be on. #NetGalley #OrdinaryHazards

This wasn't a hit for me. I felt like the story wanted to be a deep dive into the thoughts of a person grappling with curve balls that life can throw but came across as a lot of words that didn't really work for me. Not the right book or the right time.

This was a dnf for me. And it isn't that it was bad, it just didn't seem to have a purpose. And it could absolutely be that I completely missed the purpose.

It is mostly dialouge about people's life. It can of reminded me of Sweet Bitter or The Glass Hotel. So, if those are books you enjoyed then you should definitely check out this book.

What an intense and moving story this book developed into! It brought up such strong emotions for me that I almost stopped reading. But I was so compelled by the characters it almost seemed I owed it to them to hear their story.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for this free book in exchange for my honest review.