A Likely Story is Leigh Abramson’s debut novel, a story of family secrets. The main characters, Isabelle Manning and Ward Manning, her father, narrate most chapters, with a few chapters told by Claire (Isabelle’s mother/Ward’s wife) or Brian (Isabelle’s friend). In the book, Isabelle wants to be a best-selling author like her father. She doesn’t realize, however, what he did to become such an author. At the end of some chapters, Leigh added a second story, a manuscript by an initially unnamed writer; this book within a book, for me, was the best part of A Likely Story. Unfortunately, the rest of the novel was not a hit, and I had difficulty finishing it. I found Ward and Isabelle very unlikeable and wanted more chapters from Ward’s wife, Claire’s, perspective. Additionally, there were a few scenes that I felt added nothing and would prefer not to have read.
That being said, if you enjoy novels about secrets in a family’s history and unlikeable characters, try this one. Despite how little I enjoyed this book, I look forward to seeing what Leigh Abramson writes next.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

A Likely Story is an interesting look at the inner lives of a successful literary novelist, Ward Manning, and his family. Ward portrays himself as a self-made success. He is driven solely by his ego throughout the entire story. His wife Claire is like his brain trust—she is the driving force that got Ward’s career started, and her sacrifices are what have allowed him to maintain his ridiculously large ego throughout his adult life. Their daughter Isabelle worships Ward but loves Claire. She wants nothing more than to write and be successful in the eyes of her father.

This book is told from many different perspectives. Throughout the book, we see the POV of Claire, Ward, Isabelle, Brian (Isabelle’s unlikely best friend), and we get snippets of a book manuscript. There are several timelines at play as well. I felt this head-hopping and time-hopping was a little convoluted and distracting. Each chapter begins with the POV character’s name and the year, but I found myself taking a few paragraphs to reorient with each change.

I would consider Isabelle the protagonist of this book, though she is not a terribly sympathetic character. She is the only character in the book who completes a convincing character arc, though I found myself questioning her motives all the way through to the end. Isabelle was raised an only child, a rich kid with a famous father and a philanthropist mother. She seems incapable of maintaining any relationships except for with her doting best friend Brian.

Isabelle’s father, Ward, is so egotistical he feels like a caricature at times. He doesn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities.

Isabelle’s mother, Claire, was probably my favorite character in this book. She is smart, generous, insightful, and caring…yet somehow ends up in a lifelong relationship with Ward. I found it hard to understand her motivation for beginning a relationship with him and then maintaining it.

And then we have Brian, Isabelle’s best friend. Their relationship didn’t make any sense to me. It’s almost like she became his friend so she could keep him like a pet, and he worshipped her. When he decides to cut off contact with Isabelle, I thought, “finally!” But by the end, he’s back.

Overall, I thought the premise of this book was very interesting. I think it would benefit from greater focus (limiting how many points of view we see). I also think the relationships within the novel could be more believable.

The daughter of a famous author, Isabelle is struggling to get her own first novel published. When she decides to go to her dad's to stay a while, she stumbles across a family secret that shakes her foundation to the core.

I wanted to like this book a lot, but I found the characters, especially Isabelle, to be annoying. I also thought the plot was a little obvious to the point where I didn't want to keep going at points.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Likely Story is about the Manning family, held together by matriarch Claire whose death is the beginning of the novel. While I am a sucker for many things that this book utilizes (NYC, multiple perspectives and nonlinear time jumps), it just didn’t hit completely right for me. Claire, the martyr mother/wife gives up everything for her husband and daughter – and neither of them are particularly likable characters. Ward Manning is a narcissistic famous novelist while his daughter Isabelle, just wants to follow in his famous footsteps. There are two foils to the Manning family: Glenda, Isabelle’s godmother, she is brash, rich and honest; and Brian, Isabelle’s platonic/non-platonic (depending on the day) love from college; steadfast loyal and good.

It is not until Claire’s death that that family truths begin the seep out and Isabelle’s pedestal for Ward begins to falter.

There was some wonderful writing and the second half was far better than the first. By the end I wanted to keep reading to see what would happen next, but the first half was a harder read for me.

This was a 3.5 star for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advance e-copy of this book.

Thanks to Atria for the complimentary copy of this ebook!

I think this has to be one of the cutest book covers I've ever seen. I definitely judge books by their cover and judging by this one hoped to love this story so much.

I loved the idea of a story within a story and when done well, that can be a unique way to break things up and keep readers engaged.

Ultimately I really struggled to connect with the characters, especially Ward. The whole beginning with him was just super odd and turned me off to him right away.

I wish this author great success!

I must admit that A Likely Story by Leigh McMullan Abramson started off a little rocky for me, but then ended up knocking my socks off! I absolutely love when that happens. This family drama was a tad slow off the start, and took some time for the author to set up the plot, and introduce the characters. And my gosh, a few of the characters were truly awful! Ugh! (I’m looking at you, Ward!) Unlikable characters can sometimes be tricky for me. They can either make or break the story. In this case, Ward made it. No doubt about it, he definitely made things more interesting, and provided oodles of entertainment. Ward is the father in this story, and he’s a total asshole. Sorry for the foul language, but he is. I’m calling a spade a spade. He’s probably one of the most selfish and vile characters I’ve ever read about. There’s a quote in the novel about him that made me roar with laughter, and nod my head in agreement. His wife, Claire gets extremely frustrated with him, and says:

“𝒀𝒐𝒖, 𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒅, 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆.”

Ha! Truer words have never been spoken. She was spot on. I wanted to give her a high-five! I’m still laughing about this comment! So, just be aware that Ward will likely grate on your nerves, too. But honestly, it’s what makes this story so great and memorable.

WHAT I LOVED:
- Family drama on steroids!
- Complicated father/daughter relationship
- A story within a story
- Writer life & the publishing world
- Lots of mystery, surprises, and fun twists
- The mom, Claire ♥️

A Likely Story comes out next week - March 14th. If you’re a family drama junkie like myself, you’re gonna want to read this one. A very strong debut, indeed! I give it 4.5/5 stars!

To say I love this book would be a huge understatement. I stayed up late reading it and ignored all household responsibilities to finish it.

Isabelle and Ward were two very difficult characters to love. So caught up in their own ego and abilities as writers, they often stomped on those who loved and supported them. I found a lot of my father in Ward. Someone so very good at his craft that, at the end of the day, it’s where all his energy went. All his creativity and thought. I see a lot of myself in Isabelle. Wanting, more than anything, to have a father proud of me. Turns out, as our fathers get older, and we grow as daughters, those words come from their lips and we’ve realized they’re as warm as we’d hoped but also that they were too late.

Claire evokes warmth and softness. She is the woman who puts aside what it is she wants to support her husband and child. She gave up so much for both of them - only to have them realize after her death just how much was lost to their dreams and desires. She is the kind of woman I can admire and respect and be wholly fearful of becoming.

I found myself excited to learn what was going to happen in the story within this story and wasn’t at all bothered by this concept. Nor did the flip flopping time line or many points of view.

Abramson did a fantastic job crafting this story - and the story within a story. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

I knew I’d enjoy A Likely Story by Leigh McMullan Abramson from the first page where she quotes one of my favorites lines from the Fleetwood Mac song, Landslide: “I’ve been afraid of changing ‘cause I’ve built my life around you.”

This novel is a case study in flawed families full of secrets, betrayals, and simmering rage. I really enjoyed the glimpses into a writer’s life in the book, the angst, the lack of confidence, the constant inner turmoil. As an aspiring author myself, I related to Isabelle and her quest to get published, especially when she says that she felt writing was like being on a submarine, working towards a day long in the future where she would have something to show for all of her time underwater.

I also felt for Clarie, Isabelle’s recently deceased mother. Her flashbacks were some of my favorite moments in the book, especially when she said that “time was a different medium for her husband.” Her story was one that I think most mothers identify with, one where you smooth out your child’s path and protect them from seeing the flaws in people they love. One where your overarching goal is to raise a happy, healthy child and everything else, including your career, falls to the wayside. The book made me realize, however, that by being the enabler Claire really kept Isabelle from blossoming into who she should become.

And Ward. What can be said about Ward? He was a deeply flawed and selfish character, but I loved how the author told his backstory and made you understand why he did what he did. He was still the wounded little boy underneath all of his braggadocio.

I thought this was a great debut and one that kept me turning the pages quickly. I was captivated from the first scene and loved the genuine issues and deep character studies that made you interested in the Manning family. I’m excited to read the author’s next book!

This is a book within a book. A trope that usually works for me. In the end, this didn't. It's not a bad book. The writing was good enough that I will read other things by this author. I would have liked to see the characters more fleshed out.

Isabelle, the only child of an iconic American author finds herself in the middle of family secrets as she grieves her recently deceased mother and her own stalled writing career.

This book is probably more like a 3.5 overall. It started off really slow for me and took awhile (halfway -ish) to really capture my attention. In the end, I did really enjoy it.

The two main characters are very unlikeable which contributed to my lack of interest. Eventually, you do get to know their motivations, what makes them tick and there is an understanding at the end that is really lovely.

I did Really enjoy the ending and thought it wrapped up beautifully. I typically love alternating view points / timelines but I’m not sure it really worked here. I don’t Think it served the book well or drove the plot more so than one narrator would have.

I also didn’t love the book within the book. It was distracting and threw me off. In the end, I understand the parallels but I’m not sure we needed to end almost every chapter with excerpts.

Overall, I think this is a lovely debut by Abramson and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Thank you to Net Galley and Atria for the ARC in exchange for my honeys review

I found this story to be a bit more complex than needed. We jump back and forth from the late 70’s to 2018, alternating between 4 characters, Claire, her successful author husband, Ward, her equally ambitious but less successful author daughter, Isabelle, and the man who loves her daughter unrequitedly and settles as the best friend, Brian. It’s broken up into 3 parts, but the reason for it wasn’t clear to me. Also within the chapters is a novel written by one of the characters. (Said novel is praised and successful after being published, but I just found it meh.)

Complexity aside, the actual story did land for me. Sure it was full of first world problems, unlikeable characters, and unclear motivations, but the execution was there. Isabelle and Ward were well developed jerks and Claire and Brian were your basic wet rags solely there to prop up the narcissists. Good story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Likely Story by Leigh Abramson

If you like to read about rich people behaving badly, then this might be the book for you. It’s about an aspiring author who is the daughter of a very famous author. So famous that he has made a lot of money from his writing. But of course, there are secrets to be discovered as to how he became so popular, and why his daughter is still struggling to get her first novel published in her 30s.

There are a lot of first world problems in this book which can be a little eye rolling, but it also deals with family dynamics and secrets. There is a book within a book where you aren’t sure who the author is and that was interesting to discover.

Overall if you don’t mind dislikeable main characters and you do enjoy interesting family dynamics then this book could be for you.

This was a good story within a story, I found it very pleasant but a little slow. I wish the characters were more likable or vile but they fell in a kind of bland middle ground.

A Likely Story was a fitting title for this book. Ward is a best selling author who spends his life basking in the adoration of his fans. His mild mannered wife Claire comes across earnest and loving. Their only child Isabelle wants to follow in her father’s footsteps of becoming a writer.
This character driven story is told from multiple POVs. We read about Ward and Claire’s early days of marriage and parenthood in the 90s. We also follow Isabelle and Ward in the present day. There is also a “story in the story” of a book that someone wrote.
The multiple POVs were hard to follow. I wasn’t a fan of any of the characters, which made it difficult to feel any sympathy for them.
I did enjoy the way the story unraveled giving small pieces of information. The ending was a surprise but I liked it. Overall a promising start for this author.
Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for this ARC.

This was a great “book within a book” story. It seemed slow at the beginning and the end seemed rushed but I think it had to be that way to get the characters where they needed to be at the end. I had to suspend my disbelief on how quickly and likely some of the things at the end could happen. Overall it was a great book!

While I am typically a fan of NYC based stories, this one fell flat for me. The characters were all unlikable, which made this character-driven story slow moving. Still, I enjoyed the different POVs. Ultimately this was just ok…

This story is about the Manning family who live in NYC, but also have a home in Sag Harbor on Long Island. Ward(dad) is a celebrated author. Claire(mom) is Ward’s wife who has taken on the role of “social hostess” for Ward, and daughter Isabelle wants nothing more than to be a famous author like her dad.
This book had me turning the pages quickly to find out who these complex characters were. As I progressed through the different timelines, the pieces of this family’s secrets start to fit together.
I thoroughly enjoyed what Leigh Abramson has brought to us in this compelling story, and I will highly recommend it.

Isabelle Manning, a struggling writer, has strived all her life to achieve fame to receive recognition and praise from her famous father, Ward, who is an acclaimed but aging author. As the only child of Ward and Claire, Isabelle is devastated upon the death of her mother who was the glue that held the family together. Directed to find something hidden by Claire and meant only for Isabelle, Isabelle discovers that her family has many secrets and how much her mother sacrificed for Isabelle and Ward to have the life they lived. The question becomes then, how much will you sacrifice to attain your dreams or to help others attain theirs? Intriguing in this book is the story within a story as the reader is given privy to an unpublished novel that when read closely, may offer clues to the storyline of the book. The author gives insight as the story digresses to give background information and is told from multiple POV’s. The characters are well defined, hard to admire, selfish, and not very likeable, which I believe is intentional by the author. No altruism here. Perhaps Isabelle is redeemable, but you’ll have to read this to see if that is so. Worth the read, I found that it was fast-paced and I read it straight from the beginning to the end.

Many thanks to #netgalley #alikelystory #leighmcmullanabraham #atriabooks for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book takes the readers on a wild ride with a book within the book and there are so many secrets that the main character, Isabelle starts to understand only as an adult about her own parents. The characters are deeply flawed and they are clearly not as what they seem as they constantly hide everything! Isablle is trying to achieve the same success as her father but when she loses her mother, secrets start to unravel with a cryptic message from her mother. The clue then leads her to find out more than what she could handle and the truth about her family and relationships! It's a family drama with secrets galore!

The debut author, Leigh McMullan Abramson, writes about the struggles of an aspiring author! I'm so glad to see that Abramson's book is published and here for us to read. The cover perfectly encapsulates what this book is about. Within it you'll find a book within the book, how writing books is such a huge part of this families life, and how writing can ruin a family as well.

Secrets are kept. Within those secrets, wild success is achieved. It's not until Isabelle is a full fledged adult and her mother unexpectedly dies that the secrets within the family start to trickle out. And you dear reader, get to go along for the ride of this deep family secret that just makes your blood boil and anger flame! With alternating POV's and time periods the structure of this book sets you up to slowly unravel what is true and to see deeply into each of the characters.

I felt that the book had a good amount of focus on both the plot and characters studies. I almost want to go back and thumb through the first 50 pages to see what I missed as I was first reading the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advance e-copy of this book.