Even though it has been a few years since I read The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, I was able to read Adult Assembly Required without missing a beat. Any background information the reader may need is peppered into the dialogue, so this novel can act as a stand alone.

It took me a couple of chapters to become attached to the story and characters. This is probably because all of the characters are able to "think" on the page; slightly different from an omniscient narrator. This structure threw me off at first but I got more used to it the further into the book I read.

The cast of characters is wonderful, and the settings- especially the 'illegal boardinghouse'- are delightful.

Struggled through this one. I felt like I was reading about a bunch of boring, grown adults rather than those younger than me. The first few chapters were on point but I was disinterested very quickly.

How did you meet the people that impact your life for good? Is it random chance or the people you’ve grown up with? Laura is a young woman whose apartment just burnt down. Now she finds herself homeless after only a week in LA. Knowing her overbearing mother would use this as proof that Laura is not ready for life away from home, Laura is grateful to be taken in by an eclectic group of boarders at a self proclaimed boarding house. This group soon becomes Laura’s friends, encouragers, and supporters, especially Bob, her bathroom mate, who just happens to be very single and handsome. As Laura works through the emotional cords of a trauma that defined her and starts to become who she is outside of its influence, the people of the life she left start to invade her new life. Can she truly discover her authentic self? Will her family and her past keep her trapped in what once was? I really enjoyed the characters of the book and the way they embraced strangers. There were predictable plot points but if they weren’t there I would have been disappointed since this is the type of book you read for all the good feels. I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book for an honest review.

I loved this book! It was great to see characters from one of Abbi Waxman's previous books. The story was interesting and engaging. I really liked the variety of characters and different points of view. This author has definitely become one of my go to authors!

I love an Abbi Waxman book! The way she tells the story makes you feel like you're right there with her characters. I already can't wait for the next book by her!

Another heartwarming, feel-good story from Abbi Waxman!! I loved that this book had a cast of recurring characters from The bookish life of Nina Hill and The garden of small beginnings!! It was so nice to see returning favorites while also getting to know Bob and Laura and their SLOW burn friends to lovers romance. Bob is gorgeous but painfully shy/awkward while Laura is fresh off a break up with her fiance, homeless after her new apartment building burns down and new to LA trying to pursue her own dreams and not follow what her family wants for her.

Laura gets taken in by a kind hearted bookstore owner and ends up roommates with Bob and a whole other group of new friends. This was an absolutely charming story about Laura learning to stand up for herself and go after what she wants in life, facing down her fears and anxieties, while also finding a happy new beginning with quiet, big-hearted Bob. I loved every second and if you haven't yet had the pleasure of an Abbi Waxman story you are missing out! Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copy!

Adult Assembly Required is heartwarming and lovely women’s fiction that follows Laura Costello who arrives in Los Angeles to restart her life away from her overprotective family and memories of past tragedy, finds an unconventional group of friends who help her overcome her trauma and navigate through the new city and new phase of life. The story is about support, found family, love, friendship, adulthood, recovering from trauma and anxiety, acceptance, and self-confidence.

Writing is fantastic, witty, touching, and fast-paced. It’s written in third person narrative that mostly focuses on Laura but we also see thoughts of every side character that makes them all equally important in story. I love the heartwarming tone that kept me smiling throughout the book. Even though this is fast-paced, I read this slower as I was enjoying every aspect and every chapter and I’m not regretting taking more time with this book.

The synopsis perfectly tells what to expect from the book. This is sequel of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and this includes characters from first book but can be easily read standalone. This is simple old-fashioned women’s fiction or romance that focuses more on friendship than romance. It’s the writing and characters that make the story most fun and fascinating.

Laura is smart and lovely with her Amazonian height that should have made her look intimidating but she is meek and bashful. I felt for her from very first chapter and it was easy to like her. I didn’t like her family for making her want to escape for grad school. I can’t imagine how she might have handled all that petty and hurtful comment and lack of understanding from her own family and that too in time when she needed support most to fight her trauma. It didn’t feel overprotective but more like selfish and low. I admired Laura for making such big decision to move to Los Angeles and taking control of her life. It was amazing to see how all the support and encouragement from her new friends changed her, made her see her worth, her amazing qualities, and get over her anxiety and truma.

All characters she meets in Los Angeles are quirky, relatable, and adorable. It’s hard not to mention them in this review. I loved many characters but Polly is my most favorite and she steal the show.

Polly is super fun. She made me laugh most. Like Laura I admired how lively, confident, blunt, brazen, and unfiltered she is. She will say whatever cross her mind and never regret it. She is liked by most people she meets and wouldn’t care if someone didn’t like her. She lived on her own sphere. I so wish I can be like her. And there is more to her which is revealed near the end.

Nina is the bookish person with whom all bookworms and nerds can relate to. I loved everything about her and like Polly she too is honest but not unfiltered. Her passion and enthusiasm for books and quizz trivia is amazing. Now I sure want to read first book, read her story, and know her even more.

Meggie is most interesting. It was great to read how she lived her old life through her tenants. She is most friendly landlady I ever read in book. She loved meeting new people and knowing their story but her own story is most touching. It was interesting to read what happened between her and her daughter that created huge rift between them and how she is going to mend it.

Bob is lovely handsome gardner. It’s the first time I read a male character who is aware of his looks but never used it for attention or advantage. Similarity between Bob and Laura’s nature is uncanny. I liked him for giving Laura time and space she needed and helped her getting over her anxirty.

Asher, Libby, Anna, Liz are also fun to read. Best part of the book is friendship, banter, and conversations between these charcters. I loved how author talked about serious topics like anxiety, trauma, recovering from alcohol addiction, showing characters’ vulnerability and struggle, keeping it light and philosophical. It is great to see how being among support group of friends makes it easy to deal with anything in life. I also enjoyed all fun facts, and informations about sports, books, science, horticulture and also Los Angeles. There are so many fun, entertaining and hilarious moments. My favorite is Laura admiting her feelings in front of Polly and Nina and their reaction to it was epic.

Romance is like part of the story. We see many scenes with characters’ feelings for each other and their hesitations but I will not say it’s a sole focus of the story and yet it was lovely to see many characters paired up with each other.

Climax is predictable. I expected unwanted person turning up at this point but everything happened after this point is really amazing. I loved this last 30% of the book. I had huge smile plastered on my face. I enjoyed Laura’s attempt of big gesture and the way Polly and Nina supported her, I just want them in my life for real. End is perfectly lovely, uplifting and feel-good.

Overall, Adult Assembly Required is enertaining, heartwarming, lovely, uplifting, bookish and nerdy fiction with theme of friendship and adulthood that all nerds and bookworms will enjoy.

I highly recommend this if you like,
Found Family vibe
Theme of friendship and adulthood
Layer of truama and anxiety
Lots of fun facts and informations
Bookish nerdy books
Many fun and entertaining moments
Witty and Heartwarming tone

The book did not fit my preferences, and as such, it was DNF'ed. This rating was given so as not to hurt the book overall rating.

I loved The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, so it was a treat for me to return to this world. There is also some overlap with characters from The Garden of Small Beginnings. I am a fan of Abbi Waxman's writing and have read all of her books. That said, this could easily be read as a standalone.

Laura has moved to the West Coast for graduate school in physical therapy. This is a step away from her family's deep roots in academia. She is really looking to connect with her own identity, so, in essence, this is a coming of age story. The side characters are amazing. There is poignancy, humor, connection, found family, friendship, and more. There are also birds and cats and gardens and trivia teams! This was a really enjoyable book.

I alternated reading a digital copy and listening to the audio. I thought the narrator did a fantastic job with the characters and the tone.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Laura Costello has left New York City and moved to Los Angeles, and is barely settled in to her new apartment when the building burns while she's out shopping.

And then it starts raining.

She takes refuge in a bookstore, and makes her first new friends. Nina the bookseller more or less adopts her, Polly decides she's the right person to fill the newly-empty room at the very eccentric rooming house she lives in. The cat that experiences her very wet clothing forgives her.

When they reach the rooming house, Maggie the owner accepts her, she gratefully accepts the room, and she meets some of her new roommates, including Impossibly Handsome Bob, who happens to have the room next to hers, and shares the bathroom with her.

Laura left New York to escape her overly protective family, the ex-fiancé who doesn't want to accept that she really means it, and to study to become a physical therapist. Oh, while recovering from a traumatic car accident that caused injuries not yet completely healed. Of course her family and the ex-fiancé can't quite accept that she's making her own decisions now.

Laura, of course, is not the only one who has some growth and recovery to go through.

Maggie has a painful and distant relationship with her daughter, and her son is just back, unexpectedly, after four years in Japan. Bob is landscaper, who has dreams of gong back to school to get degree in landscape design and make some real changes to how public land is managed, in pursuit of benefiting both the land and the people nearby. Nina is trying to make her trivia team more successful

Bob and Laura are each convinced the other only wants to be friends, even as they regularly watch baseball games together and Laura starts helping out in the house's garden. Polly and Maggie's son just back from Japan can't decide whether they're interest in each other, even as it's obvious to everyone else.

This is a story of good-hearted people trying to figure out what they want to do when they grow up. It's warm, funny, and kind.

Recommended.

I received an electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

Abbi Waxman has done it again. A collection of unique characters with little in common combine into a totally believable story. Wish I could have been there too.

Back in the world of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, Abbi Waxman’s latest novel is packed with outrageously charming and witty characters who form their own community and help each other.

Laura Costello has moved to LA to take a graduate degree in Physical Therapy but also to get away from her family, her ex-fiancé, and the trauma of a car accident that nearly crippled her. After a fire at her apartment complex she finds herself taken under the wing of Polly, assistant at Nina Hill’s bookstore, and moving into a house in Hancock Park with 5 other people. One of these is Impossibly Handsome Bob, but Laura knows she is not yet ready for a romantic relationship but just wants to be friends.

This is such an easy read, full of characters that I want to be friends with and a setting that is 11 on the rosy-tint-ometer. Of course, the characters all have issues, some quite significant, but really there’s nothing that can’t be solved by talking with each other, seeing a therapist, and owning up to your feelings. This sounds a little glib and maybe the novel is too, but I don’t think the author intended it to be a serious treatise on mental health, merely a recognition that even the most apparently high functioning people can be covering up all sorts of insecurities.

But of course that’s not why I read this book, though it was an interesting detour. No, I was here for the funny, which there is plenty of, the smart and smartly dressed characters, and the idea that possibly somewhere life could be like this. The romance is more upfront and satisfying than in The Bookish Life and it is tucked into a world that is delightfully sweet but never saccharine.

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

This was so delightfully honest!
After the mc moves from NY to LA for grad school but also to start fresh. She happens upon a bookstore with her new best friends. Ok well one interesting one helps her with an open room in the house she's living in.
A series of events that happen after was just so entertaining. There were so many side characters living in this house that she was staying in as well.
I loved the romance with her and a new guy.  But was just so appalled by the ex and the constant overstepping of the mother. I really hope I don't ever do anything like that to my children. Not every relationship works and they aren't going to tell you every detail of why you no longer want to be with them. Gaslighting is my #1 pet peeve it's so offensive that people expect others to be so gullible and idiotic. I feel like charm used badly can be it's own form.
I just really liked Bob. Impossible Handsome Bob.
Laura the mc had been in a traumatic car accident and was working through that. No one in her family understood but her very new friends were helping her with the space she needed to adjust and heal.
Everyone in the house seemed to be working on some part of themselves. Maggie the landlord/homeowner was so sweet and definitely had her hand in a lot of the setups.


Thank you berkleypub and netgalley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman was such a cute novel.

This novel is centered around Laura, an intelligent daughter of scientists who moves from the east coast to Los Angeles to attend grad school in order to become a physical therapist. Despite, extreme disapproval from her parents and ex-fiancé, Laura knows this is the best move for her. But when her apartment burns down, Laura starts to question if she really made the right decision, but soon she meets Polly, who offers to help her find a place to live (in the same house she stays at). With the help of some friends and an especially handsome roommate, Bob, Laura finds out who she really is and gains the strength to overcome her fears and anxieties.

While this book was more of a slow burn for me, I really enjoyed it and the personal growth Laura was able to experience throughout the novel. I was so glad she was able to find some really great friends who convinced her that she was doing the right thing by going for what she wanted in life rather than doing what others expected her to do. I also thought her romance with Bob was really sweet and not steamy.

Overall, I have wanted to read this author’s books for quite awhile now and I’m so glad I finally had the opportunity and look forward to reading more of her books in the future!

Abbi Waxman has a gift for creating a lovable cast of quirky characters, as seen in The Bookish Life of Nina Hill. Several characters from that novel return for Adult Assembly Required, a story about Laura Costello's new life in Los Angeles. After an accident left her traumatized and she broke up with her boyfriend, Laura is looking for a fresh start. She finds it when she enrolls in school in California and is taken in to a boarding house filled with new friends and a host of animals. It's a funny, feel-good story about Laura getting back on her feet.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. I truly enjoyed The Bookish Life of Nina Hill so I was looking forward to this one. It was fun to see bits of Nina and the bookstore in this book as well. There was no shortage of fun, quirky characters in this book, which made me smile throughout. I loved the friendships which grew throughout the story, especially the slowburn between Laura and Bob. It was extremely sweet. Polly and Maggie were two outstanding side characters.

The dialogue in this one did make the story drag for me though. It didn't flow well, the POV jumping around within a conversation made it extremely confusing. This kept the book from being a 4 star read for me.

Quirky California characters, humorous voice, a book shop, Nina Hill's world. If you liked Nina Hill, pick up this book and jump straight back into that world.

*** 3.5 Stars ***

My Highly Caffeinated Thought: A fun and heartfelt book with all the ups and downs a coming of age story a reader could want.

ADULT ASSEMBLY REQUIRED explores the story of one woman's journey to find her path through the eyes of a completely relatable cast of characters. Waxman has the wonderful ability to delight with the wittiness of her writing while still including real issues.

What continues to make me come back to Abbi Waxman’s books is her gift for bringing authentic characters to the page. Those I have met have charmed me and allowed me to see a representation of people who aren’t glossy or perfect. They have quirks. They make mistakes. And yes, they have romance sprinkled in that I wish happened in real life. From beginning to end, her books entertain me while still having those moments of depth. ADULT ASSEMBLY REQUIRED is no exception.

This book is for readers who love complex characters living in a world that may not always be perfect but has fun, humor, and heart in it. Beware…if you read this one, there is a good chance you will have all the feels and even swoon a bit. But really, isn’t that the best part?

And we're back in the world of Nina Hill!

While you don't necessarily need to have read the author's previous book to read this one, characters from The Bookish Like of Nina Hill are featured pretty heavily here.

With the Nina Hill book being a bit of a stand alone, I wasn't expecting to see a new book in this world come out, but I absolutely loved it! Seeing old beloved characters come back was fun, and I enjoyed all the new characters that were introduced.

While the romance between Laura and Bob was sweet, the main focus, similar to Nina Hill, is on their individual character development. This is definitely a character driven story and I just love the way Abbi Waxman develops her characters!

Read this book if you like:
- Character driven stories
- Witty banter
- Group of friends who feel like family
- A love letter to the Larchmont area of Los Angeles
- Sweet romance where he falls first

I DNF'd this book at 52%. Giving 2 stars because a star rating was required.

I couldn't connect with the characters or story because we jump POV's so much. What killed me is that we weren't alerted to a POV change, and sometimes it would only last for a paragraph or two before switching again.

I just really struggled with this one, which makes me sad because I loved The Bookish Life of Nina Hill. I may try this one again down the road.