Heartfelt, witty and charming this book deals with the topic of grief. When there mother passed away suddenly, three siblings are left to pick up the pieces. It will make you laugh and cry at the same time.

Family Baggage by Aussie author Ilsa Evans was such a wonderful read which had me on an emotional roller coaster. There were many laugh out loud moments, but there were many heartfelt moments too.
An enjoyable read that I have no hesitation in recommending to anyone who is looking for their next book to read.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my digital copy to read and review

Family Baggage by Ilsa Evans is a heartfelt story that explores family relationships, unfolding over a period of a week in early 2020.

Upon their mother’s sudden death, the task of disseminating and disposing of Enid’s belongings is left to her daughters, Kathryn, Georgette and Annie, whom she privately thought of as The Sorter, The Settler and The Sook. Gathering at their childhood home Kat, the eldest of the three, is prepared with an agenda and colour coded stickers, plus a sensible plan for the immediate care of their brother Harry, who is unable to live independently. The youngest, Annie, immediately resents her sister taking charge and seems overly concerned about getting her share, while George just wants to get through the week without breaking down completely.

There’s plenty of emotion in Family Baggage, fuelled largely by raw grief. Fond reminiscences give way to reignited resentments, Annie in particular seems determined to find fault with her sisters, annoying Kat, and bewildering George. Evans deftly captures the complicated relationship between the women, who may be in their fifties, but tend to interact with each other as if they are still children, a regression anyone with a sibling will likely relate to.

George’s discovery of her mother’s journal introduces an element of mystery to the novel. The entries eventually expose facets of Enid’s life that shocks her daughters, who react in different ways, triggering more conflict. Learning her mother’s secrets leads George in particular to reflect on her own life, and the choices she has made as a woman, a wife, and a mother. This prompted me to ponder the narrow view I have of my own mother, and that my children, now young adults, probably have of me.

Well timed humour is used to good effect, cutting through the tension that often permeates the novel. I also delighted in the oblique references to Evans’ Majic series (which was a favourite of mine).

A moving and thought-provoking novel, Family Baggage is an engaging read.

When their beloved mother Enid dies, sisters Kat, George and Annie are left to deal with their grief, their younger brother Harry and their mother's house and all her belongings. When George finds a diary belonging to her mother, it's just one of many bombshells that happens in the first few weeks. Secret diaries, infidelity, sibling feuds and the relationships between mothers and children are just a few of the things the sisters face. But will it bring them together or tear them apart?
A great read.

3.5 stars

When their mother passes, sisters George, Kat and Annie give themselves a week to sort through and pack up their mother's things. When cleaning they discover a secret diary containing a family mystery. The diary reveals what their mother thought of each of them and a whole life they didn't know about. Their division of their Mother's items also causes friction. The characters are well developed, unlikeable on some occasions, and their brother's personality is unique and entertaining. The book has some funny moments and is a realistic reflection on what many families would go through at a time of losing their Mother. A good book for those who love a family drama.
Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins Australia for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is an incredibly enjoyable novel to read. It doesn’t have any great new insights into family relationships, but it depicts them with warmth and humor. It’s not all positive by any means, but it’s highly readable.

Middle aged sisters George, Kat and Annie are coping with the aftermath of their mother’s death. Given her age, it wasn’t entirely unexpected; but then again, nor did anyone plan on it happening so soon. Especially their mother, who clearly hasn’t sanitised her house in preparation for their going through her things.

As a result, the sisters find an old diary, an old letter, and accidentally expose family secrets. On the one hand, this gives them a stunning new insight into their mother. On the other hand, it’s just stunning.

As well as the emotional impact of the death and clean out, the sisters find that dividing up their mother’s possessions causes their never-quite-subsided sibling rivalry to flare up big time. The “help” offered by their own kids – often prickly and full of rivalry themselves – doesn’t do a lot to move things along. And what, exactly, are they to do with their disabled brother?

Anyone who’s ever been part of a family will recognise some parts of these interactions. Irrational arguments, resentments that are never quite resolved, fond memories sparked at unexpected moments, and the inability to completely see each other as adults rather than children… it’s all very familiar. Evans’ draws the complex relationships with considerable empathy for all the characters, even the one who’s being particularly annoying at any given moment (who this is changes regularly).

There’s also a wry humor here. Sometimes it shows in the dialog, sometimes in the amount of thought someone gives to their clothes. I found the writing style really enjoyable. Wry asides, the humor, and the perceptiveness, together with straightforward prose made for a novel where it was a pleasure simply to read it.

Evans’ pulls you into the various relationships quite quickly. Most readers are going to feel that they’ve got some stake in what happens very quickly – perhaps you’ll have a favorite sister, perhaps a recurring squabble resonates with your own experience, perhaps you’ll care deeply about a particular decision… It’s a very involving story.

There is a lot of good stuff here: strong characters, a great writing style, an interesting story, an empathetic approach, and a subtle exploration of complex issues. However, the over riding impression for me was of a novel that was just great to read. I lost myself in it, I looked forward to picking it up again, and I was a little sorry when it ended.

I just plain enjoyed reading it, and recommend it to everyone on that basis.

The book opens with the death of Enid Tapscott and her last thoughts are that she wishes she’d had time to dispose of “things”.

The story then switches to her four middle-aged and grief stricken children, Kat, George(ette) Annie and their disabled brother Harry. Deciding what to do with Harry is also on the agenda along with sorting through their mother’s stuff and disposing of the house. There are four grandchildren in the mix as well. This is not as easy as the girls thinks because personalities, grievances and family dynamics get in the way. And of course, find that which their mother wished she had disposed of.

Kat, the organiser, decides that they spend a week packing up the house and divide those items they wish to keep. She decides on a sticker system - each person is assigned their own colour and place their sticker on anything they wish to claim. And of course there are arguments as more than one character hone in on “treasures”.

I want say right up that I did not like Annie at all, wanted to slap her so many times as she constantly felt everyone was picking on her - so full of a “poor bugger me” attitude. I found George to be incredibly selfish, focusing on her own almost imaginary “mountain out of a molehill” problems and ignoring those of her husband and children, so I did not sympathise with her in the slightest. I loved Harry, who lived in his own world, he broke up the tension between his sisters, his “fact” announcements were often humorous and it seemed that he had memorised most of Wikipedia. Kate was more like me, bossy, wanting to stop deep and meaningful discussions and just get things done, so I related to her the most, which may have the reason I why disliked her warring sisters.

Being able to like, or dislike a character is really the mark of a good writer to produce those feelings. And Ilsa Evans is a very good writer. In fact all of the siblings felt very, very real.

So the scene is set for the discovery of the diary. And the revelation that there was a lot more to their mother than they ever imagined. The sister’s know how to push each others buttons, and each of them have problems in their lives which encroach on their actions.

overall this story is a page turner as research is done to work out their mother’s secrets. As the investigation goes on it is played against a background of an array of emotions, as the baggage that this family each carry gets unpacked resulting in tantrums, revelations, reconnections and estrangement. But nature has a way of foiling the best laid plans and the epilogue has the last laugh.

A wonderful story, with plenty of lighthearted moments to break up the drama. But this is a normal rather than a dysfunctional family - there is a lot of truth in the saying you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family. The loss of a family member doesn’t necessarily draw the rest of the family together, in fact so many times you hear about families imploding after the funeral. Ilsa Evans had her family go on a journey of discovery, a period of growth, a change of direction for some of them. But like them or love them this family will stay with you long after you reach the end. The back ground story of George plays a huge role in the unfolding of the story. Do yourself a favour and get your hands on a copy of FAMILY BAGGAGE.

In Family Baggage, Ilsa Evans is back with her wry humour and fabulous imagery. Here we see a family going through the grief that loss of a parent always brings while discovering that their mother was not quite the woman they thought she was. Enid’s secrets are revealed through her diary, which is filled with quirky little notes, and through sometimes hilarious discoveries made as they pack up her house. The story is told largely through the eyes of George, Enid’s middle daughter, whose own secrets are revealed at the same time, forcing her to take a hard look at herself, her marriage and what she wants out of life. The story is set in early 2020 in Melbourne’s north western suburbs with the horrific 2020 east coast bushfires providing a backdrop. I loved the characters, all of whom were fabulous, though autistic Harry was a favourite with his completely irrelevent pieces of information. There’s so much to this book, but I think most of all its a great entertainer. I went through the full range of emotions as I read and was disappointed when I got to the end.

Ilsa Evans cleverly writes with a warmth and depth that lays bare human emotions, both good and bad!
This book is superbly written and insightful and will long stay with me!
Grieving siblings are faced with sorting through their mother’s belongings. The differing opinions and expectations leave George, Kat and Annie and brother Harry, forced to face who their mother really was! The storyline has an honesty, humour, secrets and rawness. The characters are relatable with heartwarming and thought provoking moments to ponder!
I highly recommend this fabulous novel!

Many thanks to the publisher, NetGalley and the wonderful Ilsa Evans for the opportunity to read and review this book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

An interesting tale of a dysfunctional family trying but failing to deal with the death of their mother and grandmother. The three daughters, Kat, George and Annie are all aged around 50 but frequently act as though they are 15. This was amusing but occasionally also irritating.

I much preferred their brother, Harry, who functions in his own world and brings some light heartedness into the constant moroseness of the sisters. Then there are the grandchildren who are quite likeable and more adult than their parents. Apart from Tom whose agenda I never really understood.

The best part of the whole book was Enid's (the dying mother) thoughts in the hospital. She regrets not having time to organise things in anticipation of her family going through her belongings. Like burning her diary and disposing of her vibrator. Hilarious, and a message to us all! What do you have to hide?

As I said, an interesting tale and a very readable one despite most of the characters being unlikeable and slightly irrational. A bit like a TV drama it was unrealistic but entertaining. Four stars.

Isa Evans writes about families extremely well. The whole mixed bag of frustrations, sadness, happiness, irritations, love and humour are all on display. Every family has a dysfunctional element and as readers we can all recognise it as we read and get some very good belly laughs and wry chuckles as we see our own families mirrored in her stories of real, everyday situations.

I have thoroughly enjoyed all her books over the years and this is no exception. An easy recommend for anyone looking for an easy to read, heart warming, contemporary women's fiction story.

The death of their mother hit the siblings hard and the week they gave themselves - after the funeral was over - to clear out the house seemed never-ending. George, the middle sister, Kat, the eldest and Annie, the youngest. Harry was their only brother and he tended to keep to himself as much as he could. George was the one who found their mother's diary and she decided to read it first before showing it to her siblings. Some of the words shocked George, but there were more shocks to come.

Annie, Kat and George began finding themselves at odds with each other. The little niggles, the disagreements - was it all down to grief, or was there something deeper involved? George's two adult children were like chalk and cheese, while Annie's only child, Tom, now lived with his father on the Gold Coast. And Kat had no children. But it was Harry's daughter, Tegan who was a delight. Would George's secret stay that way, or was everything about to hit the fan?

Family Baggage by Aussie author Ilsa Evans was an absolute delight to read. I was chuckling to myself quite often as I sped through the pages. The family dynamics are so real, it was fascinating. Set in and around Melbourne, Victoria, I have no hesitation in recommending this contemporary novel highly.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

I struggled with this book and in all honesty don’t know why. I kept on picking it up and putting it down and didn’t engage with it at all. I love dysfunction family dynamics, not so much this one.
I struggled on and finished because I chose to review it, I wondered how it would end and I thought it might click for me.
But in fairness, I do have a lot going on in my personal life atm, so maybe this is not the book for me at this time.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

This one was so hard to put down, MS Evans pulled me into this one from the start, I felt so many emotions reading it, happy, sad, and angry and there were so many smiles along the way, Enid Tapscott is dying and she really wished she was more prepared for this as there are a few things that she really needed to do before she left this world and her children, Kat, (Kathryn) George (Georgette) Annie and Harry now they will have to sort through her possessions and the girls will have to sort out what is going to happen to Harry.

These middle aged woman have a lot of work to do and when a secret diary is found and read by George this opens up a can of worms that is going to be needed, to be worked out. In this diary their mother had dubbed Kat Bossy, George the settler and Annie the sook and it does not go down very well with them, but needs must and possessions need to be sorted out and split between them and the four grandchildren, this starts rumblings of what they each want and the emotions are running high fueled by demands from the grandchildren and personal issues especially with George that is putting more pressure on her.

This diary also shows what their mother had been going through while they were all younger this opens up discussions between them which causes lots of tension, soon life is not so easy and the pressure is on George, the settler is doing her best to keep things calm, Kat the bossy one is pushing to get everything done with her lists and Annie the sook is complaining, will the sisters come out on the other side as friends, will they sort their brother out and will the grandchildren all remain as close as they were?

This is a fabulous story that bought back memories of doing the same thing when we lost our mum although there was nowhere near the tension that these siblings shared, I loved Kat and George although I will be honest and say I was not too fond of Annie, MS Evans has bought all of the characters to life on the pages, it made them all think about their lives and for George it pushed her to do something that she has always wanted to do. I loved the epilogue it was so well done.

This is a book that I would highly recommend, I hope I have gotten the review right, thank you MS Evens for a keeper this one is going to stay with me for a long time to come.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy to read and review.

Family Baggage is another marvellous story by Ilsa Evans. Absolutely loved reading this book. It was heart warming as well as sad and confronting. For me this book had the WOW factor as I couldn’t put it down - drawn into the family and all its tensions and dramas as well as heart felt moments.

The Publisher’s. Blurb is an excellent introduction:

Things you might be surprised to find when cleaning out your deceased mother's house:a
secret diary
a family mystery
a new lease on life.
Grief-stricken middle-aged sisters George, Kat and Annie give themselves a week to pack up their childhood home and divide their mother's belongings. Beloved items are contested: an Eames chair, a collection of war medals, a learn-to-read book. The sisters - bossy Kat, mediator George and petulant Annie - are hampered by sibling rivalry, the prickly demands of their own offspring, the needs of their disabled younger brother and, in George's case, the after-effects of a spot of adultery.
The discovery of a decades' old diary divides the women further: not only do they learn what their mother really thought of them, they learn that she had a life entirely of her own. They are not the family they thought they were - and their mother was so much more than she seemed. This revelation might be the key to George's freedom ...

The intricacies of families is certainly brought out as is the question as to whether children ever really grow up even when they themselves are parents.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from Harlequin Australia via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#FamilyBaggage #Netgalley

This is a novel about lose and grieving, dealing with the aftermath of a parents death and dealing with family as well.

It is an interesting book and one most people can in some way relate to. It deals with all the intricacies of family and family problems. The characters were good, although annoying at times, the story was well written with each family member having their say.

I can't say it was a favourite read of mine but it was interesting and at times entertaining. There were ups and downs and it flowed along these lines.

A good read but not enthralling or overly exciting.

Family Baggage is a stand-alone novel by Australian author, Ilsa Evans. Unexpectedly on her deathbed, Enid Tapscott wishes she’d had time to dispose of certain items. Too late now. Still grieving, their mother just buried, Kat(hryn), George(tte) and Annie meet at their childhood home to begin the sad task of sorting through Enid’s things. Deciding on their younger brother, Harry’s fate is also on the agenda.

Kat, whom Enid silently dubbed The Sorter, has already devised a scheme of coloured tabs that will give everyone a chance to say what they want, that will fairly divide up Enid’s possessions between her four children and her four grandchildren; Annie (The Sook), would prefer everyone just have a civilised discussion about it; George (The Settler) tends to agree with Kat, which of course means that Annie feels ganged-up on, again!

Gathering Enid’s eight grieving descendants together to participate in a scheme with which they don’t all agree is bound to cause a little friction. Maybe the airing of grievances on social media is even to be predicted, although the maturity that usually comes with those in their sixth decade is conspicuously absent in some. That turns out to be the least of their problems.

If some of what they uncover certainly surprises them, it does remind them that Enid was not just a wife and mother, but also a woman. But it’s the diary that George stumbles upon that holds the most jaw-dropping revelation. Stunned, but also intrigued, the sisters follow up. Privately, George is taken aback to find that she has more in common with her mother than she ever thought.

There are aspects of this story that will resonate with many readers of that vintage when we are losing our parents. Evans gives the reader a thoroughly believable plot and populates her tale with characters we’ve all met (or perhaps are) who display amongst their virtues some very human flaws. This cast knows how to push each other’s buttons, to amusing (and sometimes, jaw-dropping) effect.

While there’s a bit of intrigue, some tension, and quite a lot of emotion (which results in a generous sprinkling of expletives), there’s also plenty of humour (especially the almost-non-sequiturs drawn from Harry’s eidetic memory for all things Wikipedia) and a realistic but nonetheless very satisfying conclusion. Funny, moving and thought-provoking, this is another hugely entertaining read from Ilsa Evans.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and HQ Fiction.

Family Baggage is a story with a strong focus on family dynamics. It's set in the aftermath of Edith's death, mother to Kat, George, Annie and Harry. The siblings are tasked with clearing out their mother's house, and the oldest sibling Kat has set a deadline of a week to get this done. As the week goes on and the sisters grief deepens, arguments and disagreements are rife. A diary is found in which a family secret is divulged, and this caused more arguments. I enjoyed the focus on the relationships between the sisters, and their brother Harry. I loved the interesting 'unrelated' facts Harry would pop out with all the time. I also enjoyed reading about the relationships between Annie and her son, and George and her two children, and how these all interplayed together impacting on the relationships of Kat, George and Annie. George was also in the mist of martial issues, which impacted her relationships with everyone. Well worth the read.