Sadie is unable to attend her best friend Alice's opening night performance. She entrusts her mother Celine to attend in her stead. This decision sets in motion an affair that challenges the friendship and family.

I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand I was very curious to see where this book would go. I could see so many ways the affair would catastrophically come out into the open. I could definitely see a discussion on how society (or the characters) perceived this affair when it was between two women instead of including an older male. I thought the characters were well realized with interesting personalities. While I was satisfied with the understanding of why everyone acted the way they did, I felt there was so much room for exploration in terms of other topics. And while I appreciate what the author was trying to achieve, the last chapter's narrator/tone change just didn't work for me. I still liked this as an exploration of a gender reversal in an icky setting.

Alice Sadie Celine is probably one of my favorite books of the year. It’s certainly not perfect, but it’s engrossing and so fascinating to see the three perspectives of these intertwined ladies. I constantly changed who I was rooting for, but ultimately one character stood out far and beyond for me. It doesn’t get as hot as I was anticipating, but you get the gist.

Alice is Sadie’s best friend and Sadie is Celine’s daughter. Dreamer Alice and brash Celine start having an affair that neither one of them expected, and the buildup is to how Sadie will react. Sadie is not known for going with the flow and has her own intimacy problems on top of an incredibly complicated relationship with her mom. The book ends with an abrupt shift, and I had to go back and reread a few pages once a reveal was made. But it works.

This is essentially boiled down to one month of Alice, Sadie, and Celine’s lives with a lot of reflection on the past and insight into the future. It works. I’m so glad I decided to read about these flawed and fascinating women. Normally, I don’t always follow celebrity book endorsements, but the way Chloe Sevigny was going on about it, I decided to look it up. So thank you very much to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

DNF @ 39%

I tried. Believe me when I say I gave this one my BEST shot. I actually put it down for over a week, hoping after I cleansed my palate with a couple of VERY different reads, this one would suddenly be the captivating literary experience I'd been hoping for, with an 'offbeat' May-September romance that would somehow jump from "icky" to "intriguing" (Even if it was STILL a little bit icky...I mean, when your best friend gets romantically involved with your mom...it's hard to completely avoid the ick.)

But after page after page of blathering, quasi-feminist prose, where the author was consistently TELLING and not showing me anything, I not only lost focus, but interest. The so-called sordid instance between mom Celine and daughter Sadie's friend Alice not only was a TINY portion of the plot so far but was hardly mentioned, explored, or described after its initial mention. Other early reviews sort of confirm that this is not the focal point of the book at all, and to be honest, it almost feels like the 'scandal' was set up as a selling point for the plot more than anything else.

I think the actual tipping point occurred when I stopped at one point and realized just HOW OFTEN the author uses these character's names in the book. I felt like all I was doing was reading Alice, Sadie, and Celine over and over, sort of like "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." So I decided to pull up the counter on my Kindle just for reference...and I kid you not, one of these name actually appears ONE THOUSAND times throughout the text. For a book that clocks in at just under 300 pages, this just seems excessive to me...not to mention distracting, and in this case, it kept me distracted enough to dissociate from this book entirely.

If you have the patience to wait for the other shoe to drop, can put preconceived notions and expectations aside, and just REALLY enjoy reading about female characters whose names end in "E"....this might be the book for you.

But even though my name is Catherine...it just wasn't for me.

*Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC*

Alice Sadie Celine is a story about three women: Alice, 23-year-old aspiring actress and best friend of Sadie, 23-year-old perfectionist virgin and daughter of Celine, 47-year-old professor of gender studies and proud lesbian.

The book description will tell you that this is the story about a love affair between a mother and her adult daughter’s best friend. It is, but at its core, it’s a character study of three very different people linked together for better or worse. The first 65% of the book was intriguing. The prose is beautiful and the characters are fleshed out and unique. I felt there were some loose ends, although they may have been unintentional. For example, I suspected early on that Sadie may be on the spectrum. This is never addressed and seems to disappear once Sadie gets laid. I find it hard to believe all her quirks were the result of repressed sexual urges, but ok. The end of the book is…bizarre and the last chapter introduces a handful of new characters in what felt to me like an unnecessary story arc.

Life is messy. This book is a story about that. Thank you to Simon & Schuster for a finished physical copy in exchange for my honest review.

The premise to this novel sounded right up my alley, but the writing was too flat for me and the characters were bland.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me. I struggled to get into it and to like any of the characters. I wasn't very invested in them, and thus it all fell a bit flat for me.

There was a lot to enjoy with this one. But also, enough to gripe about. I loved the multiple POV and storyline. This was basically written for me... in theory. But I think the pacing was a bit off. I think we got to the good stuff too soon and then it sort of flatlined. Then you get to that last chapter and it's like someone just added the last nail to the "who cares" sign. Bummer. Yet, I would still potentially try this author again? LOL

2.5 rounded to 3

This book was a literary breath of fresh air. I loved the characters in all their imperfections and issues. I loved that not one character was someone you could completely root for - in that the author made them and their relationships so complex and full of depth that I found myself seeing things from each of their sides and just going with the flow of the discoveries they each made about themselves along the way. Strange, inward, and just really a good read.

On the surface, the subject matter of this book is a little disturbing. And I was apprehensive about how it would be handled, but I trusted the recommendation I got, so I stuck with it. Overall, I think this is a book about self-discovery and self-acceptance.
Two of the three main characters, Alice and Sadie, are in their early twenties, and are wrestling with their identities. Their internal struggles are well-written, if not entirely relatable. The girls are unique and have distinct goals, aspirations, and flaws that make them feel well-rounded and whole.
The third character, Celine, is Sadie’s mother. Her character was a mix of a manic pixie dream girl and a raging 90s feminist, which seemed to be the point. Her main focus is just herself, and the topic of narcissism and her childhood are lightly explored.
I wish this book dug in a little deeper. I liked the ending and the way everything was handled, but wished there was a little more substance, especially between Sadie and Alice. For a book that was character-driven, there was almost no time spent with both of them. It seemed like I never got to experience their friendship, and was simply told about how close they were, and that didn’t get me to fully buy in.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy!

Thank you to NetGalley, author Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, and Simon & Schuster for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This was an interesting read. I'm not really into age-gap relationships, but I was intrigued by the premise of it being queer and between the older woman and her daughter's best friend. I really enjoyed Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner, which is essentially the same premise, so I went into this open-minded. However, I think my expectations were just a bit off because this didn't quite land for me. Blakley-Cartwright definitely can write interesting characters that have complex aspects to them, but I think my biggest issue with the book is that the characters are a bit one-sided. Yes, it is a deep one-side, but we as readers kind of only get a shallow view of each of them in relation to the others. There were times that Sadie seemed irrelevant to the story, but then times that Alice did as well. I think there was almost a bit too much going on with it being a contemporary lit fic take on this type of story versus focusing mainly on the relationships of them women. There is also an extremely bizarre time jump/perspective shift for the last main chapter of the book that confused me greatly for a bit. I didn't think this was necessary or the best way to wrap up the story at all, and I wish it would have been a bit clearly marked at the beginning of heading into that chapter. Overall, this wasn't a bad read, and I think that Blakley-Cartwright can write an interesting story, but this was personally a miss for me.

3.5 stars. A compelling novel about the relationships between three women. Celine is Sadie's mom. Sadie and Alice are best friends. And one summer, Alice and Celine have an affair. A meditation on women's relationships, ambition, and feminism, it is an interesting read.

"It’s opening night, but Alice’s performance in the local Bay Area production of The Winter’s Tale is far from glamorous. She doesn’t have dreams of stardom, but the basement theater in a wildfire-choked town isn’t exactly what she envisioned for her career back home in Los Angeles. To make matters worse, her best friend Sadie is not even coming.

Pragmatic, serious Sadie and flighty, creative Alice have been best friends since high school—really one another’s only friends—but now that they are through with college (which they attended together) and living on opposite ends of California, Alice would at least expect her friend’s support. Sadie, determined not to cancel her plans with her boyfriend, ends up enlisting the help of her mother, Celine.

A professor of women’s and gender studies at UC Berkeley, Celine’s landmark treatise on sex and identity made her notorious, but she’s struggling to write her new book in a post-second-wave feminist world. So, when Sadie begs her to attend Alice’s play, she relents, if only to escape writer’s block. But in a turn of perplexing events, Celine becomes entranced by Alice’s performance and realizes that her daughter’s once lanky, slightly annoying best friend is now an irresistible young woman."

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

This book is absolutely awful- poorly written, one dimensional characters and a non-existent storyline make this a hard pass!

I was so interested in this book after reading the synopsis, especially because I’ve wanted to intentionally seek out more LGBTQ+ stories, and I thought that this would be a great start!

Unfortunately, this book was a letdown for me. Even knowing there would be a huge age gap and unforgivable deceit with this love affair, I couldn’t help but feel icky and uncomfortable with how a mother and her daughter’s best friend could enter into a romantic relationship. And their explanations really didn’t leave me feeling any better about it.

Celine took her feminist ideals to the extreme and was depicted as a stereotypical man-hater, which I think did this larger discussion a disservice. I wanted to actually learn something and see more nuanced approaches to gender, sexuality and identity, but that was challenging with Celine’s narcissistic and single-minded approach to life. Alice was just along for the people-pleasing ride, and I needed her to grow a backbone. And while I felt for Sadie more than anyone, she wasn’t all the likable either, unfortunately.

With about one third left in the book, I started to get a glimpse of the conversations around motherhood and self-awakening for all the characters in their own ways. I wish this would’ve been explored on a deeper level because there were some important points there. But they became muddled in the mess for me, and then the last chapter lost me entirely with a POV shift and neatly tied up conclusion that felt wholly unrealistic to me.

I will admit, I am newer to literary fiction, so maybe this one was over my head. It has many four and five star reviews on Goodreads. But I had such a tough time with the writing style, age gap romance and unlikeable characters that I just couldn’t overcome it. Despite that, I am happy that I stepped outside of my literary comfort zone, and am looking forward to finding other LGBTQ+ stories to read in the future!

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was such an interesting book. I loved the dynamics between the three women. They're all so different, but they all influence each other. Sadie and Celine's relationship was the most intriguing for me considering how different they are. I've also always been interested in mother-daughter relationships in literature, and this did not disappoint. Alice's relationship with both women was so fun to read.

My favorite part is the epilogue. It's fun to see where the characters end up after the end of the novel. I was a little shocked at the ending, but it was so well done.

I recommend this book to everyone looking for a novel with messy relationships and an emphasis on queerness.

Thank you for the arc.

I was really excited to read this. The plot line sounded really intriguing. However, I found I did not enjoy this. It fell flat for me. Celine's character I disliked and found her a bit creepy. Another thing I just didn't understand the friendship dynamic between Alice and Sadie. The timelines threw me off and things almost felt rushed at points.

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. I was thoroughly intrigued by the concept and hoped for a thorough exploration of these complicated and shifting relationships. And I was initially intrigued. However, the story didn't hold my attention as thoroughly as I hoped. The complexity of the relationships was there, but it was also a bit cringeworthy at times. I ended up not finishing it, which is pretty unusual for me.

This review will be posted on November 28, 2023 to: https://instagram.com/amandas.bookshelf

Thank you @SimonBooks #SimonBooksBuddy for the free book via @netgalley! This is the second novel I've read this year with the most unconventional ménage à trois. Up front, I appreciated how well-written this novel was and, most of all, how fully conceived the titular characters were. (However, I was absolutely annoyed by all of them to varying degrees, Celine most of all.) The scrutiny of motherhood and the impact of being mothered by someone who doesn't understand you was the real winner of the novel. For me, the novel also missed the much hyped "sexy" mark. I felt the romantic relationship was honest and real, but also robust with pathos and felt doomed from the start. For as beloved a trope as sleeping with your bestie's parent is, what I took away from this novel was how problematic the situation is and how much like a betrayal the relationship feels. #AliceSadieCeline Rating: somewhere between 😐 / meh, it was ok AND 🙂 / liked it

A tough call to mark this with three stars. It's the story of three women- Alice and Sadie who are and have been friends since childhood and Sadie's mother Celine who finds herself attracted to and in a relationship with Alice. May-December yes but it's a little uncomfortable when the older partner has known the younger one as the pal of a child. It's worth noting that Celine is 44, which I suppose makes it a little less creepy but she's portrayed and viewed as ancient (44 is not as old or decrepit as these characters seem to believe). Celine, a professor of gender politics (I'm simplifying) has stifled Sadie's exploration of her own and now she's planning her first time with her boyfriend. Alice is also conflicted as she's been involved with men in the past. This is about finding yourself, motherhood, friendship. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. I can't put my finger on why it didn't engage me as I'd hoped but I'll bet others will enjoy it.

This novel had me very invested until about 85%. I was loving it, but then there was a major shift on the last chapter that I even checked the title of the book on my Kindle to make sure I was reading the same story!

The ending felt very flat compared to the rest of the story. Also, Celine was too annoying in some parts and on those instances I felt like skipping (I didn’t!) to end my suffering.

Would I read this author again? Absolutely.

This book reads like a tv show- There isn’t really a plot, or a reason to continue reading the book unless you just enjoy reading about interesting things that happen in characters lives. I personally like to read about a regular schmegular life with a few crazy slices, so this book was enjoyable for me. I loved the ending of this book and if the ending was the beginning and the book was built from there on, I probably would have rated it much higher. I would highly recommend this book for people who enjoyed Cleopatra and Frankenstein, basically anyone who enjoys literary fiction with no plot just vibes and following along some random peoples very interesting lives.