The author does such a great job in portraying the main characters of her story in a way that makes me feel like I truly know them. They are real and raw, which makes the story all the more engaging.

Therese Ann Fowler has a way of writing that evokes emotion and It All Comes Down to This is no exception. This is a story of sisterhood and family

Sisters Beck, Claire, and Sophie, have a complicated relationship. Beck, who is the oldest, is a freelance journalist and is married to her high school sweetheart, although their marriage hasn’t been intimate for many years. Claire, the middle sister, is a pediatric cardiologist and is secretly in love with Beck’s husband, Paul (although he doesn’t know it). The youngest sister, Sophie, seems to be living a glamorous life, but she’s really struggling to survive. She’s maxed out all her credit cards in trying to keep up with her lifestyle of celebrities, travel, fashion and art and now finds herself in a financial bind.

All three sisters come together after their mother, Marti, passes away. They need to agree on how to handle the sale of their family’s summer cottage on Mount Desert Island in Maine. Many things come to light as they work through this process and not everyone agrees on the sale of the property. To complicate matters, an ex-con named CJ Reynolds shows up in town and offers to buy the cottage, but a past relationship with one of the sisters complicates things.. Nothing is as it seems and many unexpected truths are about to come out.

This was the first book I’ve read by Therese Anne Fowler. The story didn’t keep my interest as much as I’d hoped it would, but there were some parts I enjoyed. Many thanks to #netgalley and #macmillanaudio for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this book.

As Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor are among my favorite places, I was excited to read this book. I liked the premise of the plot, I liked all three of the Geller sisters and I adored CJ and Arlo. I liked how all the characters were intertwined with one another and of course I liked the ending of the book. However, my one complaint is that the book was a little long--I really didn't care about the art world enough to want a treatise on how people buy art and I kind of wish that the author had left off the "coda", but I would still recommend it--you don't even have to have visited MDI to enjoy it.

Oh, deep sigh. I'm really sorry to say that I was so disappointed by It All Comes Down to This. A Good Neighborhood is one of my favorite books, so I had such high hopes for this one, but it was a letdown. I just couldn't get invested in these characters and I didn't find their stories compelling. I'll keep reading Fowler's work because I do enjoy some parts of it, but ultimately this was a miss for me.

Beck, Claire, and Sophie find out that their mother is dying and will be going into hospice, or even palliative care. Before the girls can get to the mother's bedside, she passes away. In fact, their mother held back from telling them how seriously ill she was until it was too late. She didn't want the girls hovering about while she was dying. Her plan was for them to focus on their futures.

Each of the sisters grieve in their own way, all while navigating their own personal drama. Once they get together, there seems to be an unspoken bond between them - and that is to keep up appearances. Beck won't mention how unhappily married she is, Recently divorced Claire is a bit jaded when it comes to love and to men. Lastly, Sophie's life seems to be the most stable, and uses her social media presence to fund a rather glamorous life.

Whether seen or unseen, the sisters must push away their issues to deal with the loss of their mother, especially as they were unable to say goodbye to her. Between the three of them, they must decide what to do with the family cottage in Maine that was left to all of them. This is made especially hard as the sisters all have a strained relationship with each other. Can they get past secrets, lies and more in order to make a decision that will work for all of them?

In dramatic fashion, this story deals with emotions, both good and bad, decision making, with a smidge of romance thrown in. For further thoughts, please enjoy my YouTube video -

https://youtu.be/pRwyqB89QMU

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

I received both an advance digital reading copy and advance listening copy of It All Comes Down To This by Therese Anne Fowler from @stmartinspress and @macmillianaudio. This book came out on June 7, 2022 - available now!

Beck, Claire and Sophie are left to deal with their mother Marti's estate after her passing. Marti has left instructions that will force her daughters back together in a way they haven't been in a long time.

To start off, I was immediately surprised with the huge amount of Jewish rep in this book. I haven't seen it talked about anywhere and had I known I definitely would have picked this book up sooner. All four women (plus other secondary characters) are Jewish, and there are constant references to pieces of Jewish customs. A lot of these are not specifically pointed out, but just occur naturally, which connected me to the book and the characters. (eg there is a time where a character us covering up the mirrors in a mourners home following a death).

Unfortunately, other than that I didn't love this one. There is minimal plot throughout the novel, we get to see lots about the characters lives and learn about them. But for someone like me who thrives on thrillers and mysteries, this one left me looking for more. It almost felt like the whole book was just the introduction to a book, a long introduction.

I listened to the audiobook version, and am glad I did. I think I would have has a bit of trouble getting through parts of it were I reading traditionally and highly recommend the audio book of this one if you're going to pick it up.

I recommend this book to people who thrive on character based books, and like peering into the regular events of characters lives in their stories.

2.5 rounded to 3.

3 sisters get together after their mother dies. They are coming to terms with loss and moving forward. There are secrets and upheaval and anger and forgiveness. But in the end the important things get sorted out. I love the significance of the title.

It is hard to review a book when you are neutral - nor really liking it nor having strong feelings one way or the other. I couldn’t relate to the characters but their situations rang close to true. There was just so much running off the rails and so much that could have been solved with a little bit of honesty and by the way when did that go out of vogue? The Geller sisters each have their pluses and minuses and they deal with each other marginally until needs require they try to pull together. Sounds like most families - it’s the pulling together that is so confusing - it spins and spins and spins. The matriarch, Marti, was the most interesting and developed character (at least in my head) and I would have loved to hear her voice overlapping all the “stuff” going on.

If you are looking for a book that is part sisterly love (and I emphasize partly), a lot of messy familial relationships that lap around and intertwine and become entangled and are “wow, really”?! - this may be for you.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy.

This was an enjoyable novel but a little too predictable; none of the characters surprised me, nor did the plot. I did enjoy the "beach feel."

Sigh. I love TAF. Reading her work is like eating the most delicious dessert; It is so satisfying. I get a similar feeling with Ann Patchett’s writing so it was no surprise seeing many reviews mentioning that this has some similarities to a Patchett novel. I don’t know exactly what it is that appeals to me the most, but I know that I always enjoy the experience of reading one of her novels.

This is a quiet, introspective novel about life. The messiness of it. The joy, the love, the sadness, and the regret. It is a family story narrated by a dying woman and her three daughters. When the mother dies, each of the women are forced to come to terms with their life decisions and have to decide how much involvement, if any,they will continue to have with each other. The will states that they must sell the family vacation home on Mount Desert Island but each of the women has a different idea of what should be done with it. There are memories going back to their childhood at that place and they must come together to make a decision. We, the reader, get a look into the things that are most important to each of them. The ending is truly brilliant, as “It All Comes Down to This” message is revealed.

Don’t go in thinking it is going to be a fast-paced novel, because it is NOT. But it will make you reflect on your own choices and your hopes for the future. It’s probably not for everybody but I loved it.

It All Comes Down to This is one of those great messy family stories full of complicated characters in the kind of situations we all get ourselves into. It's set just following the death of the Geller sister's mother. In her will, she stipulates that the vacation home in Maine be sold. Each of the three sisters has an a back story and a reason to sell or not to sell. The book is about loss and life and getting what ;you need most. An added bonus, it's set in some of my favorite places NYC, coast of Maine, and Paris. It's a delightful read.

I am a fourth generation Mainer so I was delighted to find a summer cottage on Mt. Desert Island central to the story. I was taken back to my own summers on a different stretch of coastline, the sounds and smells of the rocky beaches, the miles of rustic trails just begging to be traveled.

It All Comes Down To This is a light, enjoyable family drama where no one's life is as it seems. The lies are not malicious, more of a "what you don't know won't hurt me" variety. The three Geller sisters are distinctly different, likeable but flawed characters who are consistently portrayed throughout this evenly paced story. Fowler is particularly adept at conveying both what is thought and what is said. When their mother dies leaving behind the family vacation home, the sisters face a common family conundrum, how do you decide what to do when everyone's needs are different. Add to the mix a little romance and a loveable young orphan boy and you have a story that provides a pleasant way to spend a couple of evenings.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing a complimentary drc for my enjoyment and review.

This is a book about breaking rules, duty, many secrets, and the distance we will go to protect our children and ourselves. It kept me turning the pages for sure! I really felt like the characters were relatable and were well- developed. This author will definitely be on my radar!

This novel grabbed my attention in the beginning, but by the middle it was all lost. The pace of novel slowed way down, and honestly I lost the engagement I had with the opening the chapters. I feel like I could have skipped the middle and went straight to the end and NOT missed a thing,

Overall this was just an OK read.

Thank you St. Martins Press for the complimentary copy of this novel.

After the matriarch of the family dies, three sisters must work together to get rid of their Maine camp. While all their lives are not what they seem. This was a book that had me laughing and also feeling for each sister when they faced hurdles.

It All Comes Down To This is a multiple POV spin on what happens on the matriarchal family member dies. In this tale, they all have issues that they bring to the table. Claire has pined for her sister's husband for a long period of time. Beck won't give up their mothers estate. Sophie is having money issues that she'd like to keep quiet. But of course, none of this is able to keep quiet.

Theresa Ann Fowler's latest started off with a bang and kept my interest until the thirty percent mark. By that point, I figured out how each sister would handle things and did not need to bother anymore with this long tale.

Nothing Technically Wrong, Yet SLOW. This is one of those books where there is nothing technically blatantly *wrong* about the storytelling... and yet the reader is left with the sense that this story could have been so much more engaging had it been told differently. To the level that while this book is around the 350 page mark, it almost reads as though it is a dense academic tome of twice its length - even though it very clearly is *not*. As other reviewers have noted, there are a LOT of characters to keep up with early, but that does in fact get easier probably by even the 25 - 33% mark, once we've visited each a couple of times and get a sense of where their individual arcs are. In the end, this is a solid slice of life family drama that touches on very real and very messy issues, but could have been better told in this format with several dozen fewer pages (to speed the pacing) or with this number of pages in a different format. Still, as noted, there is nothing technically wrong here and other readers may have a better time with this book. Recommended.

It All Comes Down to This by Therese Anne Fowler is a sensitive family drama about the Geller sisters: Beck, Claire and Sophie. Their mother dies leaving undivulged secrets and instructions to settle her estate between all three women. She also specifies that the family “camp” on Mount Desert Island in Maine be sold and also divided between all three. The problem is that Beck wants to keep the cottage and Claire and Sophie want it sold and monies disbursed as per their mother’s instructions. The best features of this novel are the characters. The reader is introduced to each sister’s past and present, denoting the differences between all three. The chapters generally alternate between Beck, Claire and Sophie. The cottage is at the center of the novel and each woman’s future revolves around it. This is a quiet and enjoyable book. Therese Anne Fowler has created great female characters and the book is a reminder that all families have their issues, large or small. I look forward to reading more from this author. Highly recommended. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the Advance Copy for a review of my honest opinion.

Every family has secrets, no doubt about that. After the family matriarch’s death, the Gellar sisters face deception and secrets intertwined between themselves and from their mother. Together they need to face one another and grow from this experience.

For me, this did no hit the spot. I would consider this a soft drama if anything. Things started off strong as the author built up what was supposed to be a huge secret, but was also played off to be like not a big deal? I was a bit confused.

I also was not a fan of going back and forth for so many characters. I felt like I couldn’t get into a specific story. Every character was dealing was deception, but you couldn’t feel empathetic, because there was so much drama from everyone.

I think I would have liked this more if we only had POVs from the women. I was not into CJs entire backstory. I don’t think that added much into this plot. In honesty, it could have be built to be a book itself. Also knowing more about Paul was annoying. I feel as if we could have gotten it from one conversation with Claire.