Ellie is a successful attorney, with a handsome husband who is also attorney. For all intents and purposes, Ellie is blessed. However, her good luck comes to an end when her husband, Ian is tragically killed in a car accident. It is this tragedy that is a catalyst for major exploration and change in Ellie’s life. Ellie discovers that Ian has not been faithful, and has been courting a mistress for quite awhile. Ellie is rocked to her core and decides on a whim to use the life insurance money to embark on an expensive trip with her best friend, Mabel. What I liked about the novel was the descriptions of the locations. It really made me envision each of the destinations. What I didn’t care for, was the pace of the novel. I felt it was slow moving and the character development was lacking across all of the characters. While I felt content with Ellie’s character description and development, I would have liked to have learned even more about Mabel, Robbie, and Fauna. I liked the theme of the novel, of growth, introspection, and reflection, but I found it to be slow to action and difficult to stay engaged with it. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Ellie Huang's husband has unexpectedly died and she doesn't know what to do. After discovering he had some secrets he was keeping from her, she decides to treat herself and her best friend, Mable, to three weeks at a 5 star resort on the French Riviera (with her husband's insurance money).

Even though she's thousands of miles away from her problems, Ellie realizes she still has to face many of her own shortcomings head-on. They meet mysterious couple Fauna and Robbie. Connections are made, secrets are told, and friends are betrayed.

This book has beautiful writing and tells a really moving story that many people will connect with. It reminded me a bit of the book Hot Milk, but I liked You Can't Stay Here Forever much more.

Lin builds a luxurious setting in France, and dives deep into questions many children of immigrant parents of the Asian diaspora ask themselves. She explores the themes of friendship, mother/daughter relationships, and feeling inadequate with oneself in a really moving way.

You Can’t Stay Here Forever by Katherine Lin

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley for review. My opinions are my own.

3/5 stars

I just finished this book and I’m confused. Like… should I read it again? Will it make more sense?

The plot itself is pretty straightforward. Ellie’s husband, Ian, dies in a car accident. Soon after, she discovers he’s been having an affair. She uses the life insurance money to take a trip to the French Riviera with her best friend, Mable.

The confusing parts are the interpersonal relationships between Ellie and Mable, Ellie and her mom, and Ellie and Mable and a couple they meet at their resort. There is so much dialogue and it is hard to keep it all straight.

I really wasn’t sure what to make of this book when I started reading, but I found myself really enjoying it. At first, I’d assumed this book would be about an affair and its ramifications. However, “You Can’t Stay Here Forever” is really a bildungsroman— an Asian woman’s journey to find herself, after the death of her unfaithful husband. And the novel explores interpersonal relationship far beyond just husband and wife.

Overall, this book is definitely slower paced.
I wasn’t furiously turning pages wondering what would happen next. But I liked having this story as a palate cleanser for some of my other, more intense, reads. It was something I could keep going back to in between other stories.

3/5 ⭐️

Feel like you’re falling into a scene of White Lotus as you encounter Ellie, a young widow, whose husband just died in a car crash, and she’s learned he was having an affair. She relies heavily on her best friend Mable to make sense of the world.

An attorney working at a prestigious firm, Ellie does just enough to get by but isn’t aiming for the partner track. She lashes out at her mother when she comes to San Francisco to help. Even pushes back at Mable for being the center of attention. If Ellie were coloring in a coloring book, she’d stay within the lines. Always has. With her husband dead and the knowledge that he was cheating, it releases something in her that she doesn’t have to follow the rules. On a whim, she cashes in a life insurance policy and takes Mable with her for an extended trip to the ultra-chic Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes where they become fascinated with fellow guests Robbie and Fauna. During this trip, in a setting unlike any place either of the young women has been, Ellie is at a crossroads. Perhaps they both are. Who will they become, where will they go.

Lin takes us on a journey not only to a place so lush it’s almost like a fantasy but also to the struggle of an Asian American woman coming of age, coming to terms with where her life has landed, and which fork in the road to take. A mesmerizing story with a fresh perspective, beautifully written, sprinkled with wry humor. And a writer to watch.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper for a chance to read this engaging and satisfying ARC in exchange for my honest review. I highly recommend it.

I read this book twice and I'm both intrigued and baffled by it. By that I mean I followed the plot, but I don't know that I found it entirely believable - in particular, the core dynamic between Ellie and Mable was fascinating, but it felt like the two of them devolved into passive-aggression (then aggression-aggression) without enough backstory or evidence to justify. Yes, female friendships are complex, and I can understand that long-simmering tensions between the two of them would come to a head in this specific environment, under these highly unusual circumstances, but I just ... didn't totally buy it.

I think that was the common thread for me throughout this book - I was fascinated by the interpersonal relationships, but I didn't fully understand or believe the dynamics that drove most of them (with the exception of Ellie and Robbie - that connection felt fully realized and incredibly powerful to me, and I loved their interactions, especially their discussions about Asian and partnered to someone white).

Now, human behavior doesn't always make sense, especially when you're reeling from loss, so to some degree this confusion was appropriate - but I was *so* baffled I assumed I'd overlooked something obvious. Given that, I felt compelled to reread it, but the second read didn't fill in those gaps. That said, I enjoyed the experience of reading this book, and that's in large part thanks to the writing. I've seen other reviewers compare the author to Sally Rooney, and I think that's accurate. I feel exactly the same about Rooney's books, in that the whole never seems to add up to more than the sum of its parts. (I know I'm in the minority here!)

Thanks to Harper and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The book.had a chicks lot vibe which is not a genre a tend to like. I found the pacing to.be slow and the ending was disappointing.

Ellie Huang is a smart, successful lawyer who has always worked hard and done what she's supposed to (even if it's not what she really wants). She's married to Ian, a law school classmate, and they're early in their professional lives. As the book opens, Ellie's on the way to have drinks with Mable, her close college friend, when she receives a call telling her that Ian is dead. As if that wasn't enough of a shock, it doesn't take long for the other shoe to drop and Ellie learns some hard truths about her life.
Much of the book is set at an exclusive hotel on the French Riviera, where Ellie and Mable decamp for an extended vacation. There were serious White Lotus vibes for me, both in the setting and with the people they meet at the hotel and develop a sort of friendship with. You Can't Stay Here Forever tackles a number of interesting and difficult topics: infidelity, mother/daughter relationships and girlfriends, among others. In some respects, it's a belated coming of age novel and there are often difficult moments as Ellie tries to move through her life and figure out what she wants for her future. I enjoyed the glimpses into life in San Francisco, as well as working in a law firm, both of which seem to have come from Ms. Lin's real life.
It's an impressive debut novel and I look forward to reading her next book! Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the opportunity to read You Can't Stay Here Forever in exchange for an honest review.

You Can't Stay Here Forever by Katherine Lin is a wonderfully written thought-provoking debut.
I haven’t had a book captivated my attention like this one did from the beginning in some time.
I loved the way the author portrayed these characters as so very flawed, but also there’s so much pain in their lives that it made my heart hurt.
I raced through this, wanting to find out what would happen to the characters, who I genuinely cared for by the end.

A captivating, complicated, and emotionally honest story.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Harper for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

You Can't Stay Here Forever tells the story of Ellie Huang, who suddenly becomes a widow after her husband is killed in a car accident. She decides to spend the proceeds of his life insurance policy on a trip to an expensive resort on the French Riviera with an old friend, Mable.

The author did a great job of setting the scene, especially in the luxurious French resort. The story of Ellie's internal journey and self-examination was also well done. But this book didn't really work for me, because I didn't find any of the characters to be likeable. As this seems to be a common thread these days in books and film, this may just be my problem. I didn't really care what happened to Ellie or the people around her.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review!

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.

Thus was a fun well written debut. The characters were well thought out and story arc was perfect. Thank your to NetGalley and the publisher. Looking forward to more from this author

Wow, what an incredibly nuanced, deft debut novel from Katherine Lin. I finished You Can't Stay Here Forever a few hours ago and haven't stop thinking about it. Lin really left no stone unturned here, and it's obvious how much care and precision went into the crafting of every single character in this book. Ellie Huang is a deliciously complicated protagonist, and I loved every bit of her journey.

Additionally, this book has both commercial fiction elements as well as literary fiction ones, so if you're looking to dip your toes into something a little more character-driven that still has several juicy plot points up its sleeve, I whole-heartedly recommend You Can't Stay Here Forever.

I'm excited about Katherine Lin's literary future, and I hope this is just the beginning.

When Ellie learns of her husband’s death her entire world is turned upside down. This lovely novel takes the reader through a few weeks of tumult after Ellie becomes a widow and learns that her husband was cheating.

I fell in love with, eager to please, good girl Ellie, faced with some disconcerting truths, and her best friend Mable trying to figure out how to move forward. Luckily for the reader, they decide to take a few weeks away from ordinary daily life and visit one of the world’s most luxurious resorts (it’s for real….Hotel Du Cap in Antibes). It is there that both Mable and Ellie become fascinated by a couple staying there. The couple, Robbie and Fauna, become the catalyst for change and growth for the young women.

This was a very satisfying book. It is extremely well written. I visualized the scenes and the characters, thinking how well this will translate into a cinematic genre. I loved having an Asian protagonist struggling with her identity in this post-racial world.

Thank you Netgalley for this satisfying and fascinating novel.

I saw the plot as many-layered, addressing topics such as the complexity of female friendships, a mother-daughter relationship, and living life to suit the expectations of others. These topics are explored when Ellie and Mable meet others at the resort and learn from exchanging views, tring to resolve conflicts, and observing social interactions.

Underlying the problem of the sudden death of her husband and finding out about his two-year afffair with another woman, is the layer of race and race consciousness. Ellie and the reader wonder how much or even if her being Asian affected her marriage to a Caucasian.

I also liked that Ellie has an affair during her trip, even if it' was for only one night.

A lot of important topics are subtly covered in this novel.