What a hot mess of a book! I couldn't decide whether it was for foodies, fans of porno, students of quantum physics and bird murmurations, wine lovers, fashionistas, dog lovers, therapists, patients, or a combination of these and more. Strangely, I did like this book and kept reading till the end despite feeling a desperate need for an editor. There are no punctuation marks when a character is speaking. There's talk of a lesbian couple living together for twenty five years but doing that for a third of a decade. (Isn't a decade ten years?)

Warning: if language or sex scenes bother you, DON'T PICK IT UP. That said, Private Means kept me interested. Are we becoming a nation of asexual couples? Is the birth rate dropping because people find masturbation less work? Hmmm. A number of questions to consider.

Alice, a non-employed scientist and Peter, a Freudian psychiatrist, live in Manhattan. They are not wealthy, but visit friends who are. They travel to second homes, drink wine, talk. Yet they are not happy together despite having no reason to be miserable. A physical altercation occurs, yet they do not split up. The ending is inconclusive. Oh yes, the lost dog turns up.

Thank you top NetGalley and the author and publisher for an early copy. (less)

I finished this book quickly and am having a difficult time deciding what the author’s intent was. Is this a characterization of a bored couple grown out of their marriage or an argument for overlooking extramarital sex? In either case, it was a failure. I found myself without any empathy for the protagonists who ranted about tedious dinner parties, excessive drinking, and extravagant lifestyles. All of the former were the bases of their lives. The glimpses into their private lives and conversations with the psychiatrist only heightened my dislike of all of them. If the author meant to create disagreeable characters , the novel was a success.

I read this and wasn't very impressed. The book tries hard, but never seems to deliver. It almost seems like two books in one, and they don't mesh. The first is about Alice and her malaise with growing older. She's pretty vapid and while she has internal dialogues about her biophysics work on murmurations, the author never seems to nail the connection between those murmuration and biophysics with Alice's life. It felt forced--a way to show the audience that LeFavour has interests outside of dissecting an unhappy marriage, but Alice is a pretty dull character. It's too bad, because the outline of the character has a lot of potential. Peter's a very stereotypical middle-aged man who does the typical of lusting after a young woman. Be creative! Have Peter lust after someone his own age instead of that of his daughter's. The review claimed this was dark, sexy, suspenseful, and funny. I found it none of the above.

This is an unusual book about a marriage in free fall. Peter Nutting (a psychotherapist - what a name) and his wife, Alice, a brilliant scientist in her own right who studies the quantum physics of starling flocks, daughters off to college, sleeping in separate bedrooms, already distant in almost every way possible, rotate upon all the permutations of anger and grief when Alice’s dog disappears. Alice has a one night stand with George, Peter lusts after a nubile young patient, somehow George becomes Peter’s patient and drops Alice like a hot potato.

Towards the end, Peter and Alice erupt into fisticuffs as their avowed hatred for each other reaches a boiling point. When the dog is fortuitously found living with a street person, Alice is beyond joyous. And then comes a very strange ending. I suspect what happens, but I can’t be sure.

I read the entire book; I think because I wanted to find out if these two thoroughly dislikable characters had any redeeming qualities. If they do, I could not find them.

This is not to say that this is a bad book. On the contrary; the machinations Peter and Alice go through, the lies they tell themselves and each other to literally justify the enormous denial in which they live, is probably not so unlike what a lot of humanity does. The writing is interesting. Alice, in particular, is an interesting, if narcissistic character. But together, she and Peter are an equation, that I think purposely on the author’s part, is not one that can be solved.

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

Thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for the opportunity to review this book.

I tried several times to read this book and could not get past the first chapter. While I enjoyed the storyline I was not a fan of all the double adjectives describing every single object. I wish I had the patience to continue reading but it is just not for me.

This is OK, not great. The writing style can be a bit dry, although the premise seems like a good one. I guess Eliz Gilbert liked this more than I did.

I really appreciate the ARC for review!!

Didn't care for the writing style. To many flowery words. Content fine, but not a fav. I

Thanks to author,publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free,it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.