Jessica, a single mother who works hard as a lawyer, trying to provide for her teenage daughter Emily is excited to get away for a week to tour some East coast colleges. Although the pair live together, lately they have grown apart, with Emily feeling as though her mother spends more time working than with her own daughter. Emily is excited to explore the next phase in her life and the new opportunities this will open up for her however Jessica is keen for some much overdue mother daughter bonding. Over the course of their tour, the pair share secrets and open up about things in their lives they have kept hidden out of fear. The pair also runs into some outlandish parent child combos, as well as some unwelcome faces, adding some humor into an otherwise emotional journey.
Told from dual perspectives, I Was Told This Gets Easier, is a heart warming emotional journey about the perils of parenting and the challenges that come with being a teenager. The dual narrative allowed readers to really get inside the mind of the main characters. Although I am neither a single mom or a teenager, I was somehow able to relate to both, a testament to Abbi Waxman's ability to craft strong, relatable protagonists. Her quick witted humor shines through, allowing her to expertly cover some heavy hot button topics such as social media, metoo movement, work life balance, and college pressures, without losing the overall light hearted feel of the novel. I highly recommend this book to single mothers, high school seniors, and any other readers who are neither of those yet are in the market for a smartly written mother daughter story with hidden depth and plenty of humor.

What a fun, emotional read! Joining this mother-daughter duo on their college tour was a perfect escape. I enjoyed how the story was told from Jessica and Emily’s points of view and both characters were relatable. This book touched on some serious social and cultural issues (social media, pressure to get into college, college debt, work/life balance, etc.) without it seeming heavy handed. Parts of it reminded me of a non-fiction parenting book I really enjoyed - “How to Raise an Adult.” Other parts were much lighter - Emily herself references “The Gilmore Girls” in the book and the mother-daughter banter here is definitely similar. All in all, an entertaining read, especially for those of us who are living with teenagers. Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Books for the digital ARC.

When Jessica and her teenage daughter Emily embark on a college tour, neither are particularly enthusiastic. Emily is relieved to escape drama at school but is so over adults grilling her about her future. Jessica hopes that her daughter will stop snapping at her every 5 seconds and that she still will still have her high power lawyer job when they return to LA. Told in alternating view points, this is a relatable story about the challenges of “adulting” and hoping to do right by the people you love.

Abbi Waxman’s voice is funny, engaging, and thoughtful. I enjoyed this adventure and characters quite a lot, and I immediately had the urge to text my mom after reading. I wish there had been a bit more; the tidied up ending was satisfyingly heartwarming but a bit abrupt, and I would have loved to spend more time with the Burnsteins and the fabulous cast of ensemble characters. I look forward to whatever Waxman has in store for us next.

Mothering a teen as a single mother with a busy career is not easy. Being a teenager and trying to navigate friends, high school, family, and selecting a college is not easy. Jessica and Emily are struggling with the normal mother daughter things when they go on a trip to look at colleges. Stuck together they have to confront their relationship and what is going on in their own life's. A story of strong women, mother's and daughters, and creating a path that is true to you.

Wonderfully entertaining. A mother and daughter on a college tour. Emily is happy to be away from school for a week, hoping that the bombshell that has hit the school will blow over by the time she gets back. Jessica is equally happy to excape her sexist boss for a while. Everyone who's been a teenager or parented a teenager (or both) will be able to relate.

Abbi Waxman does a great job of showing the perspective of a teen and her mother as they navigate the challenging process of deciding on college. The novel follows Jessica and Emily as they go on a week long college tour and struggle with their relationship. A good mother-daughter journey that is realistic and balanced.

4.5 stars. Parenting is so freaking hard. And I’m pretty certain this book represents my future life, circa 2027, when my daughter becomes a teenager and parenting life becomes exponentially more challenging. 😭⁣
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I Was Told It Would Get Easier, the latest book by Abbi Waxman, author of one of my 2019 faves The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, was such a fun story about a middle age mom and her moody, hormonal teen daughter, as they travel cross country for a college tour trip together. Alternating between mother and daughter, this book shed light on how the parent-child relationship evolves over time, and despite miscues and disagreements, their love for each other always triumphed. ⁣⁣
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#partner Thank you @netgalley and @berkleypub for the advance egalley of this book. It hits books stores and libraries June 16th!⁣⁣

I wish there were more stars to give this book! It was brilliant. As a parent of a fifteen year old girl, I loved how accurate the conversations were, it was like my whole life being portrayed into a novel. Yes as parents we do stress about everything and get obsessed with college and our children's future. I brace myself outside the door of my daughters room every day and have perfected a tone less, unemotional voice that bugs the heck out of her. Abbi Waxman has nailed the voice of both characters perfectly and then thrown in some great humor.
The plot is definitely the secondary point of this novel, the relationship between mother and daughter being the main concern. As such the plot got a little farcical towards the end and the story ended abruptly with lots of things left which I suppose makes it more realistic.
Every parent of tennagers should read this book, they will feel better about their parenting skills and if you can get your teenager to read it too, maybe they will lay off on the disdain and anger they feel for us and actually realize we are doing the best we can. I am now off to hug my daughter, tell her she is incredible and really listen to what she wants. Thanks Abbi!
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, this is completely my honest opinion.

Thank you Netgalley & Berkley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Jessica, a single mom, and her daughter Emily travel to the East Coast on a college admissions tour. Their typical mother-daughter relationship is challenged by misread emotional cues and Emily's fear that she doesn't live up to Jessica's expectations. Jessica is also fighting sexism at her high-pressure law firm, while Emily is keeping a secret from everyone about the AP stastics exam. Plus, there's a cute boy on the trip who thinks Emily is beautiful and smart just the way she is.

I really loved this book! I think that a lot of moms would enjoy this book. I loved the characters growth. I think mother daughter relationships can be really tricky to navigate through different ages and the author did a great job at capturing those challenges.

A truly honest look at growing up and how confusing it can be. Parenting is just as confusing and difficult. Jennifer and Emily are mother and teenage daughter on an east coast tour of colleges with a group of other parent and teen pairs. It was very funny, touching and poignant. They both come to terms with each other and with life.
I enjoyed it all.

This is a great story about the evolution of a relationship between a single mother (who is a partner in her law firm) and her daughter (who is approaching her senior year in high school). They take a week to go on a tour of upper end, hard-to-get-into colleges. While it's made clear how difficult it can be to get into many of these elite colleges, it also becomes apparent that it's often the parents who are really pushing for the kids to get in... while the students often don't even know if the WANT to go to college, much less what they'll study or where they want to go.

As a mother of three children, two of whom are fairly recently out of high school, I can relate pretty well to this story. It is told from both the mother's perspective and her daughter's perspective. I really appreciated both sides of the story and the way both women were often waiting for the other to make a move or say something, or they were each holding something back in deference to the other.

What I especially loved was how real this story was. I mean, it felt as though I were the one telling it. I completely *got* where the Mom was coming from--I loved how she tried to balance being the "cool mom" with not being over the top and yet still knowing her role as a parent. I also *got* where the daughter was coming from, simply because I've seen/heard the same phrases come out of my own daughters' mouths. It's still completely unbelievable to me that I'm "OLD" when I can so clearly remember going to college and doing fun things.

This is definitely a great read for people as "OLD" as me or even those approaching my age or this stage of life. It's a relief to know other moms out there are struggling with the same things I am!

I received an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley. Jessica, a single mom, and her daughter Emily travel to the East Coast on a college admissions tour. Their typical mother-daughter relationship is challenged by misread emotional cues and Emily's fear that she doesn't live up to Jessica's expectations. Jessica is also fighting sexism at her high-pressure law firm, while Emily is keeping a secret from everyone about the AP stastics exam. Plus, there's a cute boy on the trip who thinks Emily is beautiful and smart just the way she is.

I'm a new fan of author Abbi Waxman's, after reading The Garden of Small Beginnings. Her protagonists are quick-witted and smart, and Waxman doesn't dumb down the jokes by explaining why they're funny.

In I Was Told It Would Get Easier, Waxman manages to make a predictable story about the choices we make in pursuit of happiness a charming, light-hearted read. A great book for the beach (or social distancing).

I received an e-book from Berkley Romance in exchange for a honest review.

I fully need to admit this up front... I do not think this author is a good fit for me. I wanted to love this book but the writing style just didn't grab my attention. Maybe her other work has more potential for me? I have it downloaded on my Kindle and will attempt it in the near future.

I Was Told It Would Get Easier shares the story of a mother and daughter who have grown apart and attempt to use a college visit to help bring them back together. Do they? I won't spoil it but will say, it's a bit of a painful experience.

What I do think hurts this book the must is how overdone some of the themes are: a hormonal teenager and a workaholic mother. That's been written about. I also didn't love how the book played into the recent college admissions scandal.

This was a cute story, but highly forgettable. It was disappointing, to say the least after reading her other title, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

I received an Egalley from Berkley Romance in exchange for a honest review.

After reading The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, I was so excited to read Abbi's next book. Like super excited. Nina Hill was so romantic, funny, uplifting, and the perfect feel good novel and after the whole mess the world has gone through, I thought I Was Told It Would Get Easier would be the same realm.

It kind of was? But it fell flat due to an overdone story line. A mother and daughter who grew apart because one is in the process of becoming an adult and a workaholic mother who can't understand the teenage hormones. I thought the main downfall of this book for me was definitely the outdated teenage stereotypes. I mean, I snap pictures of my food and my walks but I don't post 100% the time like our daughter. I'm addicted to my phone but I don't use it all the time especially when someone is in front of me, talking to me. The whole 'i don't know what to do with my life' is relatable but so overdone by the time the book was ending and she still was crying on about being passionless and not good enough. And the whole epiphany of them finding that they're not so different was a let down. It didn't hit the right spot for me.

With that being said, this book is definitely not targeted to an age group like mine. I don't have a daughter who i'm prepping to go to university. I don't feel like I'm missing out on my teenager's life. It's just not the book for me but it could be for you if you're in a similar situation.

Also, can we also talk about this book played HEAVILY on the college admissions scandal that swept up america in a storm in 2019?

Abbi Waxman nails it again! Her new book is entertaining, fast-paced and very funny. Even better, it gets you thinking about an issue that so many families face -- intense academic pressure, made worse by social media and ultra-competitive parents. Told in alternating viewpoints by mother and daughter, this book takes place during the span of a one-week college tour. This would be perfect for an inter-generational book club.

I Was Told It Would Get Easier is another entertaining read by Abbi Waxman! I loved the mother daughter duo in this one and I know so many readers are going to relate to this story on a deep level!

** Full review to come on release!!!!

This was a fun, easy, and light read with just the tiniest bit of suspense throughout. The story alternates between the point of view of Jessica (the mom) and Emily (the daughter) as we follow them on a tour of colleges on the East Coast. I really liked that writing style for this book in particular; it really lets you get into the heads of the characters and see their individual perceptions of interactions between them. Seeing those perceptions that fueled their arguments was just interesting to me.
The witty and snarky verbal exchanges between characters made me laugh.
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If you’ve liked Abbi Waxman’s other books, I think you’ll like this one. If you haven’t read any of her books, what are you waiting for?!

Any parent who is sending a child off into the world should read this book. The author describes the adult and teenager point of view so well. We as adults wanting the best for our children try to do the right thing, but often times our efforts are rejected by teens and we can't understand why. It is also an avenue into the "elite" and their struggles with finding the right school and helping their child any way they can to achieve a status that will make them look good in front of their peers.

Jessica Burnstein, at 45 is a successful partner in an LA law firm in spite of the challenges of being the single mom of 16-year-old Emily. The two are embarking on a seven-day trip to visit colleges organized by Excelsior Educational Excursions, or E3, a college admissions consulting company. As Jessica explains, “One of the selling points of E3 is that they take care of everything on the tour; you just have to pay a ridiculous sum of money.”

They are both leaving behind situations that have each of them on edge. Jessica has threatened to quit her job if her boss John doesn’t promote her mentee, Valentina. John is opposed for largely sexist reasons, and Jessica is outraged over it.

Emily did something at school that has her upset, but she won’t share what is going on with her mom (or the readers).

The narration alternates between Jessica and Emily, and both are amusing and interesting in different ways. Jessica is stressed out over the whole competition to get into college situation, which, as she notes, “is part political campaign, part American Ninja Warrior competition.” Emily, who is adorable, witty, delightful, albeit still a snarky teenager, is much more attuned to her mother than her mother knows.

This passage by Waxman shows in a nutshell who Emily is, after she and her mom find out a schoolmate, Alice Ackerman, and her mother Dani are also on the E3 tour. Alice and Emily were friends when Alice first transferred to her school, and Emily explains why they aren’t friends anymore:

“. . . after a few golden weeks of total focus, she shut down on me like an eclipse, and for the last two years she’s left me alone, out here in the penumbra (see, I did pay attention in Physics). But that’s what she’s like. She spins at the center of the high school universe and her gravity pulls people in, but she spins so fast that most of them get flung back into the outer rings. (Dude, I am killing this out space metaphor; Mr. Libicki would be stoked.)”

Although Jessica hopes the trip will be about “reconnection and bonding” in addition to finding a suitable school, Emily actually has absolutely no interest in going to college. She feels that doing her best is never enough for her mom, who seems oblivious to what Emily would like for her own life instead of what Jessica would like for Emily’s life.

As for Jessica, she laments that the “golden years” of Emily’s childhood passed around the time Emily turned thirteen. “She woke up a teenager, and all the skills I’d learned were useless, and all the time I’d fought to have with her was spent waiting for her to come home from hanging out with friends she’d much rather talk to than me.”

Furthermore, Jessica bemoans, “Somewhere she has a list of my buttons, I swear. There’s probably an app for it.”

But the two have a great deal of love and respect for one another, and as the trip progresses, they do in fact get to know each other better, and “reconnect and bond” just as Jessica had hoped. Along the way, there’s a great deal of Waxman’s trademark humor and snappy dialogue to keep us engaged.

Evaluation: Both mothers and daughters will be able to relate to the two points of view presented in this very pleasant, entertaining story. There are plenty of side plots to spice up the action of a college tour trip, and rewarding growth on the part of the protagonists.