The narration brought the story to life, making it a captivating and immersive experience. The book's pacing kept me hooked from start to finish. I highly recommend this audiobook to other readers!

I think I’m the wrong person for this book. The family drama just was ugh to me. I didn’t like this but I normally like this author so I’m sure it’s just a me thing.

Easily one of the best narratted audiobooks I've listened to, which absolutely shocked me, considering it has only one narrator. I was hooked though and the personalities of each character stood out so clearly, making the switching chapter viewpoints easy to distinguish. The story itself is unique, a standout tale of family, friends, and the aftermath of secrets. I love how the family comes otgether, how they each individually work through their grief, their own personal things, and the shared family secret. It was smart, funny, and totally excellent as an audiobook.

I really enjoyed this one. Thank you, NetGalley for sharing this with me. I'll definitely be looking forward to reading more.

*NetGalley review*

What a fun family dynamic! While there were a lot of characters to get used to, the author and narrator did a good job of differentiating their personalities so it became easy to remember who was who and where their storyline was headed. I enjoyed this one a lot more than I thought I was going to. Despite the long chapters, I was eager to see what was going to happen next with Gerry's family. It was easy to see how much love was in the family and reading this felt like a warm hug. I will definitely be checking out this author again! Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Cat Shook for letting me read this one in exchange for a honest review.

If We’re Being Honest is heartfelt, humorous, and oddly comforting for a novel about grief. If you’re a fan of stories revolving around characters thrust into unexpected circumstances with unexpected consequences, you should give this one a try. An impressive debut, I look forward to what the author does next!

This family drama was a miss for me. The plot unfolded slowly and the drama was lacking. There were too many things happening and nothing was fully completed. I expected more drama.

Round up 3.5stars. Wow, this book has so many layers, with several interwoven plot lines, and a diverse cast of characters. Overall, it is a heartwarming novel that captures the essence of messy family dynamics with humor and authentic emotion. This story is the perfect blend of wit, sincerity, and moments of profound insight, detailing the family bonds and the healing power of love.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley & Celadon Books for an advanced listener copy in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t able to get through this Audiobook. I’m pretty sure it was just bad timing on my part. I’m hoping eventually I’ll give it another try but it just didn’t hold my attention enough as an audiobook.

The Williams' family patriarch, Gerry, has suddenly died and the family gathers for his funeral. Gerry's best friend Fred is tasked with giving the eulogy, and he delivers a bombshell that no one was expecting, leaving everyone reeling from his proclamation.

This has a large cast of characters that are introduced right away, making it very difficult to remember and keep track of, especially via audio. It made it hard to get invested in each of their lives and individual stories. Reading other reviews, I see that the print book had a family tree in the beginning that would have been helpful. On audio, I couldn't go back and reference it if was there.

The writing style was very much tell vs. show. This happened, then this happened, this character felt this way... I never felt truly connected with any of them, except maybe one or two. It was also a bit confusing having different character perspectives in the same chapter and it would have flowed better if the characters were given their own chapters. It also had LONG chapters which I am not a fan of.

The big revelation at the beginning of the book at the funeral was only slightly addressed and the characters never really processed their feelings on it, which was disappointing. It just got glossed over so it felt like clickbait in a book.

The audio narration was fine, but nothing spectacular. I later found out the book is only 304 pages, yet the audio was 11 hours long. I listened at over 2x and still felt it dragged on.

There were some heartfelt and touching moments as the story progressed and explored the human relationship with grief and loss. Additionally, the characters have their own life challenges to confront, such as secrets, marriage issues, pregnancy, etc., and they all have relationships at their core.

But overall, I just didn't find this very memorable. I even searched reviews WITH spoilers to help me recall what happened at the end of the book because I just can't seem to remember it. (Didn't find any, still don't know.) With all the things I disliked that I listed, I still didn't hate it. Some of it was enjoyable and perhaps it would have been even more so reading the print book instead of audio.

This was an excellent family fiction that I truly enjoyed. I feel like that the characters were very developed and the story was easy to follow. There was a lot of family drama, but also some realistic healing and reactions to was going on. The characters that were annoying were meant to be annoying and the growth of the majority of the characters was refreshing.
I feel like Cat Shooks did her research. Where race did play a small factor in one of the relationships, it was done in such a respectful way and the way that I wish it was in a lot of books.
Things that kept it from a 5 star for me were:
a lot of religion. I know it takes place in GA, but some parts felt preachy
The "coming out" storyline. I feel very strongly that this is a personal decision and in this family, no one was "allowed" secrets. It was frustrating for me.

I was looking forward to reading this, and both read and listened to the book and audiobook formats. The book opened with so many characters in the family that I would not have been able to keep up in audio alone had I not also had the print book.

I’m sad to say this one just wasn’t for me.

*many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

Such a lovely book. I am always reluctant to read a book about grief, but this one took a lighthearted approach! I found, through audio at least, it was hard to keep track of all of the characters, so I might recomment this one as an "eyeball read" book! Either way, I enjoyed the journey.

Thank you Macmillan Audio & NetGalley for the ALC. A special thanks to Cat Shook! All opinions are my own.

I have mixed feelings on this one. There are a lot of characters and it was difficult to keep everyone straight. I did not particularly enjoy the audio. I might have enjoyed this one more if I had just read it.

I really wanted to love this one but it was very difficult on audio due to the long chapters and multiple story lines. I think there was too much trying to go on to create the illusion of chaos and it took away from the story. I can see what the author wanted to do but I had some difficulty deciding to keep going. I did finish the book but unfortunately it was a miss for me.

Thank you for an advanced audiobook,

If We’re Being Honest is a book about the Williams family…the very large Williams family. It’s told from many POVs which was hard for me to keep up with honestly.
I loved the narrator even though the story was a miss for me.

This was a debut by Cat Shook that opens with the death of the patriarch of the Williams family, and the story takes off from there. In the beginning there were a lot of characters to keep straight, especially while doing this solely via audio, however the more you get to know them the easier it becomes. This is a character driven plot that is on the slower paced side, but I liked it overall. I thought the audio was great, the narrator did a wonderful with this story.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the ALC to review.

I’m not sure how I felt about this book, or if I really understood it. Don’t get me wrong, the intro had me hooked and I love some good family drama. I enjoyed the multiple povs, however, it was difficult to follow along at times. I also liked seeing the messiness unravel and the characters come together. I would’ve preferred some more depth and distinction between the characters, but this was still a fairly good debut!

Thank you to Celadon Books and NetGalley for letting me have advance access to the book that I did not get to till now. Life happens, but I am doing my best to read and review all of my books.

I did more listening to the audiobook than I did reading the ebook. I loved all the different points of view that were in the book. I think listening to the audiobook let me get through the book faster, and sometimes that is really helpful to me because my inner monologue does not tend to include other voices or characters.

I think this might have been a debut novel, and I have to say great job!

Was not able to download in time so therefore am not able to review properly. So sorry about that but thank you for the chance.