This book bounced around far too much to make it an enjoyable read. I am all about a non-linear time line but this story was so hard to follow that I am still not entirely certain I understand what happened.

The story had a pretty good hook, but just didn’t work for me. I started it multiple times, but never could make it beyond 25%. The characters were unlikeable or, at best, stupid. Our main character kept complaining about her friends (or acquaintances) who lived such entitled lives. Somehow it doesn’t occur to her that just because she wants to have a novel published, that it’s gonna happen!
She’s quit her good paying job, thinking it won’t take long to write a novel if that’s all she has to do, and just waits for inspiration, I guess. She’s out of money, but won’t consider another job. Her father is a creative writing professor (and a well publisher author) at Columbia University, but she won’t engage his help.
And then there’s her boyfriend of 15 years (maybe more) who would marry her in an instant, but she can’t see him as anything other than a dear friend.
Just a bit over the top for me.
I appreciate this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Honestly, this will probably appeal to the younger set, just not us Old Folks.

I’m a sucker for a good cover, and this is a great one!

Short Synopsis:
Isabelle is the daughter of world-famous author Ward Manning. She has constantly lived in his shadow. She’s now 35 and struggling to become a published author herself. All she wants is to make her daddy proud.

My Thoughts:
Family, character-driven plots are a hard genre to write. And though I didn’t care for any of the characters or really felt like the plot moved, I was immersed in the story. It was a quick read and one I needed to know how it ended.

There’s a certain famous author from the 1920s *cough Fitzgerald cough* I’m almost positive this book is based off of.

There’s one scene involving a dirty old man and porn, that was completely unnecessary and I’m very confused why this made it into this book.

Read if You Like:
📖 Family Drama
📖 Books about Books
📖 Zelda Fitzgerald
📖 Slow-burn Mysteries

A story told from multiple points of view, we get to know the family of the famous author Ward Manning. In the present, his daughter Isabelle struggles to finally have her first book published—it can't be anything, or it would damn her career, but when nothing seems to satisfy her agent, it's like her career is over before it could start. However, Ward is also having trouble not only writing a new book, but also simply living now his wife has died and his daughter is living her own life. We've also got Brian, who has been in love with Isabelle for many years, and Claire, Isabelle's mother, who has helped Ward in the beginning of his career, but gave up everything so she could have Isabelle. Lastly, we see excerpts of a draft, but who is the writer?

A 3+ and a solid first novel piece.

I find it hard to evaluate this book. Despite being Abramson's first novel, she's a good writer, you know she was in control of everything, the kind of style you can trust the author knows what they are doing. Despite having to express the views of four characters, plus the character of the book in the story, she managed to make them all different and yet related, as they bond with each other.

However, I felt that the story dragged. It didn't lack plot twists, it didn't lack action, but the excitement wasn't there. Sometimes, I felt I could like this or that character, or even hate any of them, but in the end I couldn't. They're not hateful, but they didn't invoke any passions in me. I can't blame on lack of depth, they were round and complex. Still...

Because it's a book that trusted heavily on the characters' deepening and development, the plot wasn't a big novelty to compensate the absence of catharsis for me. The story reveals itself slowly, but with a few words of it, I would have been able to predict it.

Do notice those are my only complaints. It's a solid, well-written book that takes us through the history of the Manning family. And even if I couldn't love any of the characters, I did worry about where they'd go, how they'd end. I'm guessing writers will especially identify with the drama the family lives.


Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Clever, incisively rendered plot and characters. I loved the [unlikely] twists and turns and ultimate redemption. Thought provoking questions about escaping/surviving the emotional landmines of childhood.Just right elements of romance and secrecy! No one writer's journey is alike - and the ones Abramson offers here are fascinating!

This book was just OK for me. It didn't wow me. I found myself skimming some parts. The ending worked and is what bumped this up-to 3 stars for me. Overall not a bad book, but not a great one either.

Such a great book! Loved the plot and everything. I look forward to more by this author! Kept me from putting it down!

* I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this book. All thoughts are my own.

A Likely Story is a novel about a messy family, and all of their messy choices throughout their lives. Ward is neither a good husband nor a good father, and the only thing that matters to him is his fame from writing his novels. Isabelle is a 35 year old failed author (though she has a couple short stories published in a magazine) and recently lost her mother. Claire had been taking care of Isabelle really by herself, with no help from her husband. After Claire dies, Isabelle and Ward make very selfish decisions and we see how they play out throughout this novel.

Ward and Isabelle are really unlikeable characters, and it’s to the point where you don’t even want to root for them to do well. Their friends seem to deserve much better than what they’re offered. Thankfully Isabelle kind of figures that out.

Not really a book I would recommend.

DNF @ 40%.

Couldn’t connect or care about the characters, didn’t like the writing style or tone of the writing, didn’t really know what the plot was going to be about. I felt like there was a lot of additional text and huge paragraphs that didn’t add much to the story and I felt myself skipping over them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Engaging and thoughtfully written novel. Had some slow places but loved the unraveling of the story. This was one of those books where changing timelines and perspectives was done delicately and smoothly so as not to disrupt the story. I loved all the characters, how developed they were, and the melding of the characters and impact to their individual journeys. Enjoyed and highly recommend!

Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. I really wanted to love this story, but the MC and supporting MC were so unlikeable, it left a bad taste in my mouth that carried the tone for the entire book. There is also so much stereotyping and misplaced political themes throughout the book that it really distracted from how great the story could have been.

Overall, not a winner for me.

This book felt promising to me, but unfortunately, I just couldn’t get into it. For most of the book I really disliked two of the main characters. They were both entitled, self righteous, egotistical people, and I felt like nothing was actually happening in the plot. I was bored.

I did enjoy the book within a book aspect, but wished I had more of the secondary story. This book just left me wanting more as it had the potential to be really good.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

3.5⭐

Isabelle Manning’s dream is to be a successful writer just like her father, renowned and award-winning author Ward Manning. Unfortunately, Isabelle, who is about to turn thirty-five, is yet to publish her first novel. Isabelle idolizes her father, who for the most part is self-absorbed and egotistical and unable to accept the current dip in his literary career and waning of the fame and recognition he once enjoyed. Isabelle was raised for the most part by her loving mother Claire, who was also a supportive wife to Ward, who prioritized his literary career and ambition over his family.

Isabelle is struggling and it looks like her current manuscript is heading toward rejection. After her mother’s demise while sorting through her belongings Isabelle makes a shocking discovery- something left for her by her late mother, that triggers a sequence of events that compels Isabelle to question everything she knew about her family, and in turn her own life and motivations and how far she would go to fulfill her ambitions.

Leigh McMullan Abramson’s A Likely Story is a well-written novel. As far as the plot goes, I can’t say that the author ventures into unexplored territory, but the strength of this novel lies in the characterizations. Ward, Isabelle, Claire and Brian – each of them is flawed and thereby realistic. Mind you, not all of them are likable. The author is unflinching in her depiction of Ward and Isabelle at their worst- their drive, motivations, their greed, selfishness and ambition. Comparatively, Brian and Claire are more likable though I did question Claire’s actions more than once. While I did like Brian and admired his loyalty to his friend Isabelle, I did deem some of his actions a tad immature, but again nobody is perfect. Shared from multiple perspectives, the narrative jumps back and forth between past and present, including segments from an unnamed manuscript. Not only does this give us a window into Claire and Ward’s marriage and allows us to know more about Claire. I do enjoy the story-within-a-story format and in this case, I believe it serves its purpose and works well in propelling the narrative forward. I wasn’t quite satisfied with the ending only because a few of the characters didn’t quite redeem themselves in my eyes despite what the author wants us to believe, but overall, there is a lot to like about this novel and I did find it to be an engaging read.

Many thanks to Leigh McMullan Abramson, Atria Books and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This book is due to be released on March 13, 2023.

Books about books are always one of my go-to tropes. In A Likely Story, we follow the daughter of a successful author who seeks not only to achieve that level of success for herself in her writing career but also to impress her father (oof, relatable). Do be aware that the first 30% of the book is dedicated to introducing the cast of characters, and while I found myself beginning to feel impatient, that time spent adds weight to the reveal of the family secret shortly after. It also benefited from the third-person perspective that felt more like a stream of consciousness. Overall, I really enjoyed reading about the not-so-glamorous life of a prolific author and especially found the exploration of plagiarism compelling.

Thanks to Atria Books for providing access to the ARC via NetGalley!

* Publish date is 3/14/23. Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Thoughts From a Page for the advanced e-copy of this book*

I LOVED this book within a book by debut author Leigh Abramson! Ward has just lost his wife, Claire, and is facing writers block after an award winning literary career. He also finds himself not knowing how to relate to his daughter, Isabelle, who is also grieving and trying to launch her literary career. There are flashbacks with Claire so that we can fill in some gaps from earlier in the lives of Ward and of Isabelle. We also meet Brian, a friend and classmate of Isabelle's from college. All of these tales are interspersed with chapters from Isabelle's latest book in unexpected and surprising ways.

I highly recommend this book! 4.5 stars.

I normally do not particularly enjoy the book-within-the-book gimmick, and I remain unconverted, but I did find the plot compelling, once I got past the first few chapters. I’m unlikely to recommend this book, though, because the writing is overwrought, with some tenuous metaphors.

I do appreciate the opportunity to read an advance copy, thanks to NetGalley and Atria.

I received a temporary digital advanced copy of A Likely Story by Leigh McMullan from NetGalley, Atria Books and the author in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Isabelle Manning has been struggling to publish a novel, unlike her father Ward Manning, a renowned author and professor. After her mother passes, an opportunity presents itself that could change Isabelle's lackluster writing career. Will she take it?

Simply put, this was a difficult read. It is hard to read a book when you don't like one of the main characters, but when you cannot find a redeeming quality about two of the main characters, UGH. A Likely Story was a book-within-a-book format, which I always love; however, the second book's installments were so far between one another, I usually had to stop reading to remember who the characters were and what was going on. I was going to give this two stars, but bumped it up to three as many of the characters gained desperately needed self-awareness within the last fifteen pages of the book, which I greatly appreciated.

I’m a big reader, and so books about writers and authors are always right up my alley. Throw in some family drama and there is a book I’m excited to read. I enjoyed this debut novel, even if the middle did get a bit murky for me. While reading the first part I couldn’t put it down - but I feel like I needed to see more about Claire and Isabelle’s relationship during some of the flashbacks in order to truly understand what Claire was trying to tell Isabelle - I’m glad that Ward eventually was honest with Isabelle - both in what he did to her and what Claire did for him. I will be thinking about this one for awhile.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley.
It's about an author, his daughter who is a struggling writer and his wife/her mother who helps them both. I think the best part of the story is seeing how hard it is to be a good parent. We help our kids too much or we don't help them enough. A story that kept my interest throughout. The only thing that threw me a bit sometimes is the book interwoven within the other book.

Who wrote the manuscript? Ward, the famous father? Claire, the long-suffering mother? Or was it Isabelle, who grew up to be a writer? I wasn't sure if I was supposed to know who wrote these excerpts sprinkled throughout the book.

I decided to just read the book. Although I eventually thought I'd figured it out, I was never quite sure.

I can't imagine being the child of a famous writer or being married to one, but I don't think it mattered. The author, Leigh McMullan Abramson, did a masterful job of portraying Ward's and Claire's relationship, especially Ward's dismissive and belittling way of treating her. When Isabelle came along, Ward sequestered himself in his office, leaving Claire to parent alone.

The secrets make "A Likely Story" intriguing. I read much of it in one sitting because I just had to know who wrote the mysterious manuscript and what happened to it.

This is Abramson's first novel. I'm looking forward to her next one.