The characters are everything in this novel, This book was wonderful in its discussion and development of Women's rights issue with the backdrop of World War II. The cover could really draw you to the book, but the writing will enlighten you.

I recommend this if you love Historical Fiction.

While The Trouble with You takes place in post-WWII New York City leading up to the era of McCarthyism, this novel has aspects of censorship that can also be seen in present day America. Ellen Feldman's writing is so profound and thought provoking that I found myself re reading passages just to appreciate the sentiments fully.

Fanny Fabricant was relieved to have her husband come home from war only to lose him in a sudden moment. Now she has to walk the line between being a "proper housewife and woman" and creating a living salary for herself and her young daughter. Once she finds work behind the scenes at a radio station, she realizes there is more to life than trying to snare a husband "outside the engineering school" and the world around her is certainly spiraling into a darkness she and her co-workers aren't fully ready to accept.

Ellen Feldman's take on 1950's New York City is filled with insight and curiosity. This novel is perfect for fans of historical fiction and for anyone who is questioning their current situation; wondering just how much courage it takes to make a change in their own lives. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the opportunity to read this novel.

Thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with a digital ARC of this title via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this story by Ellen Feldman. It was a little difficult to get in to, but once I got further in and more invested in the story, I enjoyed it. I did enjoy watching Fanny grow throughout the story as she had to discover herself as a widow and find her new place in life.

I have mixed feelings about Ellen Feldman's The Trouble with You. At first, I had a hard time getting into the story. The book was a bit slow to start, especially as Fanny lost her husband soon after he returned home from the war. I wish more about their relationship had been shown/discussed before he died, as I had a hard time deciding whether they really were passionately in love or if they just had a wartime romance and got married, so... it was hard for me to believe the rest of the storyline about Fanny's grief and loss journey, as well as her relationship with work, her daughter, and the subsequent romantic relationships. I had a hard time really grasping whether the initial love story was believable. Finally, Fanny was cast as an independent woman, ahead of her time. This is so relevant to conversations about women, our roles, and life today... almost too convenient. I wondered if Fanny's life and choices could be considered historically significant. It's hard to tell.

Overall, there were enjoyable elements to the story - particularly, the description of life after World War II, the plot lines about the House Un-American Activities Committee/McCarthyism, and the influence Fanny's Aunt Rose had on her. While I am glad I read this book, especially because it made me think, I came away from it with more questions than answers so it's hard to know how strongly to recommend it to others.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

"In an exuberant post WWII New York City, a young woman is forced to reinvent her life and choose between the safe and the ethical, and the men who represent each..."


WWII is my first choice in historical fiction. Strong female characters are my jam. Well, this book contains both. When Fanny Fabricant suddenly loses her doctor husband and is faced with not only grieving her husband but figuring out how to provide for her young daughter - she is at a loss. Jobs are hard to come by as men are returning from war and taking over the jobs that women did in their absence. Fanny uses her family connections to get a job as a secretary to a woman who produces radio shows. She enjoys her job and the people she meets.

There are many references to historical events of the time. The story starts out a little slow but I felt it picked up for me. The characters are interesting and the story is well woven.

The Trouble With You is about choosing. Making choices best for oneself or for those who influence decisions. Readers are swept along the bustling sidewalks of 1940’s New York City when radios were the focus for home entertainment and news. The radio series or ‘soaps’ is where Fanny finds herself working as a secretary.
Author Ellen Feldman’s narrative is filled with conflict between characters through Fanny’s personal interactions and business relationships. Feldman does an excellent job illuminating the struggle Fanny experiences in finding a personal and work life balance, connecting with modern day dilemmas. Fanny’s daily and long-term choices are influenced by her daughter, Chloe, her cousin, Mimi, and her Aunt Rose. Feldman overlaps these familial influences with world social, cultural, and political events of the 1950’s and ‘60’s. The evolving popularity of television replacing radios for entertainment and news sources and the fear of polio has a direct impact on decisions involving Chloe. The mainstream news reporting on Senator Joseph McCarthy and the undercurrent of suspicions circulating in NYC and Hollywood regarding a Blacklist of alleged Soviet spies and sympathizers by the House Un-American Activities Committee, HUAC, has immediate and lifelong impact on Fanny’s decisions when/if she chooses a husband and how she declares her independence.
Feldman creates tension and relief through dialogue, activities, and decisions with the men in Fanny’s life, Max, Ezra, and Charlie. Max is the love of Fanny’s life and is an omniscient character with great influence over Fanny’s relationships. Will Fanny make her choice based on what’s best for herself or for others? In this post World War ll novel, Fanny is “raising the future” while forging a new life.

I LOVED this book. It’s set starting in 1947 and really hits home the expectations that women had after WWII ended.

In this book the main character, Fanny Fabricant (how great is that name?), is an unexpected young widow who ends up enjoying the job she has to get in order to support her daughter, Chloe, and herself. I LOVED Fanny as we go through her growth as a woman living in a world where women had a set of expectations to stay home and cater to her family.

This book also deals heavily with the writers and actors being blacklisted in the wake of the “Red Scare”. I don’t know that I’ve read much about this part of history in a fiction book. I found this subplot to be really interesting and adds a lot to Fanny’s persona.

This also makes me want to go back and listen to some classic radio soaps.

I’m giving this a highly recommend to historical fiction fans and fans of women empowerment reads.

After World War II, Fanny Fabricant is happy to have her happy life back - her husband Max returned from war and working as a physician, her young daughter Chloe, and their new home. But things change suddenly and Fanny needs to make a new plan. She begins working as a secretary at a radio serial. As she tries to expand her career, she also encounters the blacklist. Her friendships and the blacklist change her life in ways she never expected.

I wanted to read The Trouble With You because I love historical fiction. I read a lot of novels set during World War II, and was intrigued that this novel was set in the post-WWII period. I knew very little about the blacklist, so that was also interesting.

This is my favorite read of the year! It started slowly for me, but then I became absorbed in the story of Fanny (and her daughter Chloe as well) and I stayed up late to read just another chapter more. The setting of NYC was lovely, and the author did a fine job of period details that made the time period come alive. I found the radio serial and blacklist storyline particularly interesting. I knew a little about the blacklist as it effected movie actors/writers, but had never thought about it effecting the radio medium too. I liked the details about radio production, like actors who voiced several characters, and ways that sound effects were achieved.

Fanny's story is one of personal goals and achievement in a time when women were not expected to work (especially if they were married or aspired to marriage). There is also an interesting romantic triangle that develops ... and I especially liked the unexpected man in that triangle.

I cannot recommend this novel highly enough for fans of historical fiction. It is a lovely read, beautifully written, with details that evoke nostalgia for another time and place, while at the same time spotlighting social difficulties during that same time and place. Five enthusiastic stars from me!

I ended up not finishing this novel because I wasn't interested in the story and found the writing to be lacking. I did post a "currently reading" photo.

Very interesting book hell. The author told a love story through the eyes of a woman named F a n n y. The war ended and max came home from the war they were married and they had a little girl named Chloe. Life seemed to be really going well for them. But one tragic night he fell on the closet and died. Franny had to get over this grief and start a new life. Her aunt named rosie was politically occupied in the nineteen thirties. So franny finally got a job at a radio station who did soap operas. The person who ran this place was named alice and she was very interesting and she would get scripts and put them on the air for women who are home all the time. Crane , it was very lonely and then this man who worked for alice named charles came in. He was a scriptwriter for her, but he had a very interesting background as well. They talked about the black listing in the 50s and how one of the writers and actors couldn't produce anymore because the government said they were Communist.. Charles was caught up on this and he was also fired. Her friend ava was also blocked listed and she could not work in broadway because of this. Franny fell for a doctor because when her daughter chloe got sick , they started to see each other. This was not a really good match for her. I think she really loved charles because he let her decide what to do what not to do. Charles put her up to this to write scripts under her name , but he actually wrote them. I think this was really powerful for a woman who had to make choices and in that time. The Doctor didn't really want her to work. When he wanted to marry her. Her friend Susan stay home but then she went back to work too. Her cousin name Mir was very wealthy and she lost her husband during the war. But she married a very You're a nice man named carol. She had a daughter as well and her uncle would hang out together. I like this book because it showed how women had to fight a versity. And they talked about the block listing. Her aunt rose was A political activist in the S EAM s Tr ESS Union.. The author did a really good job tying all these ends together

Quick and Dirty
-post-WWII NYC setting
-highly feminist
-reads more like litfic than histfic
-wonderful character study
-Cold War themes

What Worked
Wow! I was not expecting this book AT ALL. The Trouble with You was the most pleasant surprise. I love most historical fiction, but I’m slowly realizing that my favorite historical fictions incorporate aspects of literary fiction. This book was exactly that: highly character-driven, principled, explores the internal world of the MC, and ambling. Fanny’s story is full of beauty, pain, and perseverance. Watching her navigate her world was fascinating, with so many personal and political things competing for the reader’s attention. Fanny’s relationships with Chloe, Rose, Charlie, and Ezra all highlight the complexity of WOMANHOOD. The author’s approach/writing style was real, raw, and full of emotion. Everything from the lovely romances to the mother/daughter bonds felt authentic and relatable. What a beautiful book!

What Didn’t Work
Honestly, I can’t think of anything other than I didn’t have enough time to read it in one sitting as I wanted.

Read This If
Folks who enjoy highly character-driven stories impacted by social/political events (in this case WWII ending and Cold War beginning) will find this read hard to put down.

I was offered the opportunity to read an early copy of this novel, and I'm so glad that I said yes. What a gem! The Trouble with You is well-written and compelling. I appreciated the nod to strong women who persevered in challenging circumstances, at a time in our nation when fear permeated daily living. This poignant novel spotlights post-war America, McCarthyism, society's expectations for women, and the clever, creative business of producing radio serials. The women's relationships were especially touching. I liked how they helped each other grieve, spoke candidly when necessary, and celebrated one another's successes. I'm a huge romance fan, so of course I adored the banter and slow-burn romance as well.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the complimentary copy. All opinions shared here are my own.

The Trouble With You was a work of historical fiction that was a bit quieter than the very glitzy ones - so was the period covered the postWWII time in NYC … for Fanny the protagonist things were adjusting to a new normal, her doctor husband back from the war, luckily, no longer alone with her young daughter Chloe, moving to the suburbs from the city to live in a house instead of an apartment until everything comes to a crashing halt when Fanny‘s husband Max dies of an aneurysm. Suddenly she, who has been prepared to be a wife from early on, needs to work to support herself and her daughter and she needs to figure out how to deal with her grief. Work is not easy to come by since respectable women have been pushed out of the workplace by men returning from the war. And Fanny does consider herself a respectable woman, raised well. She finds her place as a secretary working in radio serials even advancing to writer during the McCarthy years of blacklisting and persecution of suspected communists. At this point in time Fanny is faced with hard choices especially for someone who is raising a kid. Her choice between a life of risk or safety, is also represented by her two potential relationship interests - Charlie, an unconventional playwright (blacklisted) or Ezra, another doctor willing to offer her qnd Chloe a home and a life where she doesn’t have to work.
It was so interesting to read about the McCarthy blacklisting of writers and actors, the fear it raised, the way the paranoia influenced day to day life and the strict societal norms of the time about the role of women, including whether married women should work outside the home- both my mother and my mother in law were still highly educated university trained stay at home wives even after all kids were out of the house so I guess those times aren’t so long ago ... I loved the way the author portrayed Fanny's conflicts safety vs. independence, a prized accessory or a very own route.
I recommend this book as a quieter but no less intriguing historical fiction read.
Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

The Trouble With You AUDIO by Ellen Feldman is the Story of Fanny (Florence) Fabricant who is a young, educated wife and mother until that one moment when her husband’s heart gives out and her life changes on a dime. She moves from their lovely house into an apartment in the city and is soon convinced that she must find work. Her first job is behind a cosmetics counter in a department store, where she and her supervisor quickly realize she is far too honest for a sales position. Her aunt knows a woman in broadcast radio serials (soap operas) who needs a secretary. Fanny types. It is a win-win. There she is introduced to people who she had never known existed, one named Charley Berlin, a writer. Another, Ava, an actress. Before too long they have both been black-listed as this is the post-war world of McCarthy and his hunt for Communists. Rose, her aunt and mentor, is unashamedly liberal and guides Fanny through these rough times as she fights an internal battle between what is right and what is not.

Fanny is an amazing character who growth is overshadowed only by the people she meets and allows into her life. She is resilient, open-to-change, and caring. She loves her daughter but we watch as the inevitable time arrives when the world draws Chloe away from her. She wants to remarry but the memory of Max is still too alive for her to make that move. Even when she becomes engaged, she withdraws. The only thing that she lives for is her writing. She has become a script writer for her old boss and she is good at it. Then, she faces a moral dilemma, and the reader lives through that with her. It is an engrossing listen as Fanny lives her life and determines what she wants from it. Her character is exquisite and entertaining as are those around her. The story takes us to a different time, but was it a better time?

The narrator is Kathryn Markey who does a brilliant job with Fanny, all the characters really, and their New York City accents. The accent is always there but it rises and falls until the listener is no longer aware it exists. Whether this is native to Markey or not, she does it well. There could not be a better reader for this lovely novel.

I was invited to listen to the audio version of The Trouble With You by RM Media. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #RBMedia #EllenFeldman #TheTroubleWithYou

Set in New York in the aftermath of WWII, The Trouble with You by Ellen Feldman revolves around Fanny Fabricant, a young mother, whose life is upended after her husband Max suddenly dies after returning home from the War. Grieving for her husband and with a five-year-old daughter, Chloe- who is heartbroken and misses her father dearly - to care for, she is aware that her existing funds could only support them for a limited interval of time. Fanny, a college graduate, having married a doctor, had been satisfied with life as a homemaker. She had never imagined joining the workforce to support herself. Employment opportunities for women were hard to come by. The rise in employment for women during WWII was essentially a stopgap measure to temporarily fill positions left vacant by men fighting in the war. Once the men returned, female employees were let go and expected to revert to their traditional roles of homemakers. With the help of her Aunt Rose, an independent woman ahead of her time, Fanny eventually secures a position as a secretary to a woman who produced radio serials – an experience that motivates her to discover her true potential. The narrative follows Fanny as she navigates her way through her new life as an independent woman, balancing her responsibilities on both the home and work front. She also meets new people including a scriptwriter whose reputation as a troublemaker precedes him and a doctor friend of her late husband with whom she and Chloe could have a life similar to the one she had envisioned with Max.

I loved the premise of this novel and thought it was very well-written. In the changing political and social landscape of the 1950s, Fanny’s story is one of loss, courage, resilience, self-discovery and reinvention. The author deftly weaves the gender politics of the era, the "Red Scare"and the HUAC investigations and the subsequent blacklisting of writers/actors and other entertainment industry professionals into the plot. The story is shared from the perspective of Fanny with segments from Chloe’s perspective interspersed throughout the narrative. Fanny is an interesting protagonist and I was invested in her journey. Aunt Rose was probably my favorite character in the story. The pace is relatively slower in the first half of the novel but picks up as the narrative progresses. I did feel, however, that the ending was rushed and I would have liked to know more about how Fanny and Chloe fared in the gap years. I did like how the author chose to end the story.

Overall, this was definitely an engaging read that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to fans of character-driven historical fiction with strong female protagonists.

Many thanks to St, Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Having a Marine father who survived WWII and met my mom after the war, I was heavily invested in wanting to read this story. The beginning chapters were intensely personal for me. I caught the first reference about not swimming in a pool knowing that the author was writing about polio. My mother’s cousin was 12 years old when he got polio and passed away several days later. Her brother contracted polio in 1944 when he was a junior in high school. He spent almost a year in an iron lung. This part of the novel hooked me right away. I also connected with what was expected of a woman during this time—-the clothes, not working, the serials………I was drawn in by Mimi and Fanny’s friendship. I could definitely see that Ellen Feldman did her research on the Red Scare, women’s roles in society……….Around the half-way mark, the book did slow down for me. I wanted to see more of Mimi and Fanny together along with Rose. For me the storyline with Charlie got old. This book was a 3.5 raised to 4 stars due to the first half of the book. I also loved the cover. I look forward to reading a future book by Ellen Feldman. My thanks to St. Matin’s Griffin and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

A story of love and loss and making difficult choices in order to create the life you want.

Fanny is supposed to marry and stay at home and raise children but when life throws her a curveball she has to make different choices. She finds a job working for a radio serial and finds that the work is interesting and something she is good at. But when the blacklist targets the radio serials and people she calls friends she needs to make a difficult choice. The choice is made more difficult by people in her life wanting her to stop her work. Will the blacklist ruin Fanny's life? When forced to choose she has to decide which path to follow to create the life she wants.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. I enjoyed the strong female characters set during a time when women were suppose to only keep the home. A little bit of a slow start that picks up as you get to know the characters. An enjoyable historical fiction.

Fanny Fabricant was one of the lucky women whose husband made it through the war and came home. With a new house and her young daughter Chloe, life is good. When her husband suddenly dies she must give up the house and she is lost in her sorrow. Thank goodness she has her Aunt Rose, a woman who took her skills with a needle and turned it into a successful business. She pushes Fanny to find a job. Fanny starts by typing scripts for radio serials and comes to love the people she works with. This is the 1950s, however, and Joseph McCarthy is on a witch hunt with the HUAC. Fanny sees how the writers and actors are affected when several are blacklisted. Approached by Charlie Berlin, one of the script writers, she is asked to act as a front and put her name on his scripts. It is her way of taking a stand against what is happening.

Rose encourages Fanny to open herself up to a new relationship. When she meets Chloe’s doctor there is a mutual attraction and they begin to date. She accepts his proposal, but working with Charlie she has become more than a typist. She has been contributing to the scripts and they begin to write for television. At a time when women were often pitied for having to work, Fanny discovers that she loves what she does and there is an attraction to Charlie, who encourages her. Her fiancé expects her to stop working after they marry. It would embarrass him, with people thinking that he could not afford to support her. It forces Fanny to look at what she really wants. Reading this book was often a trip down memory lane. Like Chloe, I was entertained by Howdy Doody and the shows of early television. While Ellen Feldman’s story was entertaining from the first page, those references made this an absolute joy to read. This is a love story and a lesson in history that is often emotional and filled with characters to fall in love with. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this book for my review.

A really interesting story about the difficulties of women who wanted to be independent in the 1950’s. While all the men were fighting in the war, women were working. But when the men came back, women were expected to go back to being housewives and looking after the children. Women who were married were expected not to work because their husbands were ashamed as it looked like he could not provide for them. Fanny lost her husband right after the war. She had to work to sipport her young daughter and herself. After starting as a secretary, she advanced to script writing. She did meet a nice doctor who wanted to marry her. She said yes but never seemed very enthusiastic about her decision. Also, he did not want her to work, saying it would embarrass him. Will she continue to work or won’t she? I loved the story and I loved the characters.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.