I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A group of women who became friends in college continue their friendship through life's experiences--both wonderful and traumatic. One betrays the others and then has to turn to them for help.

“Lend a hand. Cheer each other on. Lower a ladder.”

Meet Elizabeth, Carmen, Martha, Sara, and Heather: all of them have their own experiences to share, paths to take.

Five old college friends who share a unique, strong bond. But one self-help book and several midlife crises later, they find that their friendship may not be so unbreakable after all.

Before anything else, I want to say that I miss my life constants—some of them I might have met during college, some during high school, and maybe some I have yet to meet in my later years. Anyway, the point is that I am beyond blessed to have supportive and reliable people around me, the ones I can turn to when I need a shoulder to lean on or a helping hand when I need a little push. I can’t help but think of how we’ll be ten or twenty years from now, and if we’ll still be each other’s “shoulder to cry on” or “helping hand.” And I guess, this is what this book is about.

Getting to read five different POVs about career, family, and friendship, I am thrown in a world that is highly-relatable. I realized that this book shares a story that, in real life, can ultimately be yours or your friends’. It strongly tells that all the wrong—scratch that, right—mistakes you have made or will make will always get you where you’re destined to be. And if you’re lucky enough, you’ll even have friends by your side cheering you on all throughout.

So if you’re feeling lost or defeated, just hold on a little tighter or reach out to a friend. Don’t rush things; you still got years ahead of you. After all, they do say life begins at forty.

A terrific look at female friendship. Loved this one!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

I have mixed feelings about this book; I enjoyed following the characters’ different lives and hearing their stories, however I also found them to be judgemental at times.

I felt that the characters were a bit flat as they seemed to be written with the same voice; there was little to differentiate them in terms of their personalities. I also found this with their husbands.

The stories did keep me interested though and I flew through the book, reading it in one day.

I didn’t think I could get into this book. I had a hard time remembering who was who. But I stuck with it. And I’m soooo glad I did. Loved this book. Such a fun read.

All The Right Mistakes is Laura Jamison’s debut novel about five 40-something upper-class women struggling with real-life issues. These women were best friends in college and made pacts to remain lifelong friends. Four of the five continue to meet and keep in contact, while the other writes a nasty self-help book describing the mistakes of her supposed friends.
I loved this book. The main characters are all endearing. The book spans approximately two years and we essentially see the characters every quarter for those two years. This style and plot pacing was well done, cutting out redundant storylines and gets the readers to see the important parts.
The most problematic part of this book was that the male characters were portrayed as one-dimensional. This wasn’t a huge issue for me because the novel was more about the women than the men, but male readers may not enjoy this as much. Additionally, the issues these women have are more specific towards wealthy or upper-class women and would seem outright unrealistic to those with lower incomes.
I would recommend this book to women over the age of 30. Young adult readers may not relate to this book as much, as these women are more settled in their careers and families (even though life changes are occurring). I give this book 4/5 stars.
Of note, this is the second ARC I’ve received from She Writes Press and I have enjoyed both. I plan on looking into more of their books.
Thank you to NetGalley and She Writes Press for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This one was tough for me to review. The first 30% of the novel, I was a little bored. The 4 main women- Carmen, Elizabeth, Martha, and Sara, all blended together to me and I kept forgetting who was who. Nothing really happened at first. They had a 5th best friend from college, Heather, that they try to stay in touch with, but she’s very busy. The part that made me struggle with how to rate the book was when Martha’s daughter Lucy dies from SIDS. She was sad, there was a funeral, and then that was it for her. The grieving didn’t seem realistic to me. And then when she adopts a new baby, she says her family is going from 4 to 5 overnight. She already was a family of 5 with her daughter Lucy. Why wouldn’t she include her daughter in the count? I don’t know I just struggled with the way that death was handled and never really talked about in Martha’s chapters.

So totally awesome. Five completely women. One who writes a wildly successful advice book pointing out all of her friends shortcomings. The other four reflect on their lives. On their choices, their mistakes and wonder if their friend had a point. They all struggle to find their path to where they belong. Will they or won't they? Read it and find out for yourself. Just a really good book. A must read. Happy reading!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for GoodReads and NetGalley

I liked this book, but I didn't love it. I didn't have any major quibbles with the plot, characters or writing style. It just didn't resonate with me or make me want to recommend it to my friends and family when we talk about what to read next.

This was a solid book about five college friends but I guess I just didn't love how all of their problems were solved with making more money. I didn't love how some of the characters' children weren't even named until 3/4 through the book. I did like having the book set mostly in Milwaukee which is a part of the country that doesn't show up a lot in chick/uplit. I would read another book by this author.

*I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher and I am required to disclose that in my review in compliance with federal law.*

I was excited about this book, as it told the story of friendship of 5 women around my age. However, I was not the target audience as a single, professional women without children. I could see a lot of the mom guilt I hear from my mom friends in it so it might be something more geared towards moms in the late thirties, rather than all women. I would have appreciated a single, childless friend, as we do exist at that age, but I digress. This book has a lot of privilege and petty moments in the friendship, it was nice to see how each women dealt with the choices she made. The premise is 5 college friends are about to turn 40. One writes a book detailing the mistakes they have all made and the friends are not impressed to have their lives used for profit. I would recommend it for moms and married women who love staying in touch with their college friends.

This is a story about friendship, about following your own path, and about life carrying on as usual after hitting the big scary age milestones. It follows the five women through the year that they turn 40, and shows that they are all struggling with a different aspect of their lives: job, money, fertility issues, marital problems, loss. Each of the women (with the exception of maybe Heather who seems both slightly too perfect and too cold-hearted to be true) feel like a real person who is facing real problems, and not just the simple little problems that often happen in stories just to drive the plot along, or to offer some character development. I am not in the same stage of life as these characters are, but they were well-written and I was able to connect and empathise with them easily.

The story is told from each of the characters points of view at times, which was honestly a little bit confusing at first due to there being so many characters (I’m used to just switching between 2 or 3 characters) and it took me quite some time to fully figure out who was who, and what their deal was. But I really like reading stories that are told in this way as it helps you to understand each character and their way of thinking a little bit more, which helps to build that emotional connection with them, so whilst there was a little bit of extra concentration required at times, this certainly paid off in the end when I genuinely cared about each of the woman getting some sort of a happy resolution.

This is a story aimed at people in their 30s and 40s, and while this is not me, so I can confidently say that people out of this age range can enjoy it too. All the Right Mistakes teaches us that we are all on our own paths, succeeding in our own time and our own way, and so don’t be disheartened when it seems that other people are shining brighter than you right now. 3/5 Stars from me.

I really enjoyed this book. I like how the situations were relatable, as I was reading I felt like I was watching real-life play out before my eyes. I also really liked the characters, they too seemed realistic.
I would recommend others read this story.

Imagine that one of your best friends wrote a book, detailing what she perceives to be your worst mistakes and criticising your life choices. That's the event at the centre of this novel.

Carmen, Elizabeth, Martha, Sara and Heather have been friends for 20 years when Heather betrays their confidence and releases her judgement and criticism of their life choices out into the world. Despite the fact that these are women who are successful and have achieved so much since their college graduation, it is still not enough.

This book will speak to any woman who has been faced with judgement by people in their lives. We all know these women and in most instances we have a been, or will be, these women. The book covers joy, grief, and struggles women face throughout their lives and the attempts and difficulties to overcome them.

At points in this book, I felt myself a bit disconnected from the characters and wondered if a first person perspective would have really made me connect with the emotions of the different characters. However, I really enjoyed the depiction of the different marriages and relationships the women had, showing that no two relationships are the same.

My one wish for this book would be that it had presented a woman without children. The focus very much falls on the "have it all" idea and how best to balance career with motherhood but I feel it would have been an interesting addition for a member of that particular circle to have been navigating the world when there is still backlash against those who choose to stay childless.

This was an interesting read that made me think about my own goals and relationships with friends.

All the Right Mistakes describes a twenty year friendship between five women - Heather, Elizabeth, Sarah, Martha and Carmen. Their 40th birthdays are approaching and the 20th anniversary of their graduation from Dartmouth, where they met. However, this is in no way a simple story. This complicated tale deals with career plateaus, marriage, unemployment, children, marriages and much more. It also deals with the difficult choices women make almost daily and the fact that their harshest critics are sometimes other women.

Heather is the global COO of FLASH, a company she started and has shepherded to world wide success. Carmen is a stay-at-home mother who runs the P.T.A. and volunteer work with the skills and precision of a general. Martha, pregnant with her third child, is a doctor who is now staying home with her two young sons after a cross country move. Elizabeth and Sara are both lawyers although Sara’s home life is more chaotic. While all (except Heather) have occasional doubts about how they handle life’s myriad problems, they are reasonably happy until Heather’s new advice book is published. Illustrating the mistakes that women make that hold them back from success are the lessons that can be learned from “E”, “S”, “M”, and “C”. 0f course, this causes major problems in their friendship. Will the damage be permanent?

All the Right Mistakes is so much more than I thought it was going to be. I love stories of women who manage to stay friends for a long time so I was really looking forward to reading this book. It’s hard to believe that this is Laura Jamison’s first novel. She is an incredibly talented writer and she has tackled difficult issues here. This is a book that will keep you thinking,

Thank you to NetGalley, She Writes Press and Laura Jamison for this ARC.

What a wonderful debut from Laura Jamison! This was a well written and fun read that had me completely immersed in the character's lives - so much so that I quickly finished it in one sitting! I loved that each of the women were so relatable and faced the kind of life decisions and setbacks that any of my friends (or even myself!) could possibly face in the future and I thought the story was a great representation of how true friendships can really overcome anything. I think the way the story tackled important topics such as working parents, marriage and friendship was also really well done and in a way that I can see many readers connecting with. I can't wait to see what Laura writes next!

A big thank you to Netgalley and She Writes Press for this advanced digital copy to read and review!

A very good book. It kept my attention from start to finish. You will get lost in the pages and not want it to end.

Five close college friends are now turning 40 and their lives have changed so much since they first met. Elizabeth and Sara are now successful lawyers. Martha a mother is ready to go back to work being a doctor. Carmen, the only stay at home mom and Heather, the famous and most successful of them all. Heather releases a new bestselling book about her four friend’s biggest life mistakes and with the release of this book the tension between long standing friends comes to the surface.
Can college friendships really last forever?
In the end everyone realizes all of their mistakes were actually the right ones because they are here and altogether.

i cant say i loved this but maybe im a little young. i felt there was a lot of overreaching and a ton of long drawn out parts that werent entirely necessary. Its decent for a debut book/

This book hit me different as I have expected it to. Myself, being in a similar age as all of the female characters I had the feeling in the beginning of "oh ok, again a reminder to do this or that". However, it turned out to be a mix of this and the opposite, which I am thankful for.
All the Right Mistakes, shows you the life of 4 of 5 long time friends, who grow up together and find themselves being kind of stuck and facing problems they never wanted to face. Learning that picture-perfect life and future is starting to break. If that wasn't enough, they get betrayed by the fifth member of the group.
It is quite interesting to observe how life can change in a blink of an eye.

This book tells the story of friendship, life and marriage so well. It doesn’t make it all look pretty or easy. It was such a good book. I did have a hard time keeping the characters apart at the very beginning but once I got to know them that solved itself. I thought the overall story was great.

When I started this book, it had a 4.61 rating on Goodreads with 50 reviews total. I was skeptical at the beginning because I was slightly (overly) annoyed at all the characters, especially the crappy husbands (Mark and Scott). I'm so glad I pushed my doubts aside and kept reading, but this book has that "IT" factor; it kept me interested and made me feel things all the way through.

To give All the Right Mistakes a catchy phrase, I'd say "Girl Power" about sums it up. These women had some really shitty things happen to them, but I was SO pumped up by the end, I was sad to see these characters go.


Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.