Thanks to NetGalley and Lime Street Press for the opportunity to read An Upper West Side Story by Rachel Cullen. This was fun and I really enjoyed spending time with these characters. Maybe we'll catch up with them again??

This book reminded me of an early 2000s sitcom, like Friends! The four different POVs weren't hard to follow, but some of the dialogue was cheesy but thinking about a sitcom, it makes sense. Due to its shorter length and short chapters, it's a perfect vacation or summer read. Thank you NetGalley for my copy in exchange of my review!

This was a great summer read, set in NYC in 2004, with some major Sex & The City vibes.

I posted an aesthetic on my Tik Tok account:: https://www.tiktok.com/@semperfidani/video/7263681403009666309

Note: I actually rank this a 3.5, but there is no 1/2 star options!

We follow four characters (Robin, Tory, Jessica & Zach). whose lives intersect at this Upper West Side apartment building. The four of them are brought together through a series of circumstances. They are all at a cross-road in their professional and personal lives, and we observe how they navigate that.

What I loved:

The author has a natural gift for writing and weaving these stories together, but still maintaining their independent beats.. I never felt confused despite the many characters and arcs. The professional aspects of their life was so relatable.

The pacing, dialogue and development of each character felt natural. The writing style was light and easy, and made for a perfect summer read and NYC was a great setting for this type of story. Loved the SATC vibe.

As someone who had graduated in 2001, I was immediately brought back to the era. I personally enjoyed the nostalgic references. (Aside; I miss the Motorola Razr flip phone, and flip phones in general.)

I really loved the Jessica/Zach arc. Honestly, I could have read an entire story just on them.


Critique:

There was a part of me that felt like we got a lot of build-up, but then once each character reached the climax of their plot, the march to the conclusion at times felt rushed or contrived/convenient Introducing a specific love interest for Robin felt was unnecessary; but if so, then there was more obvious options from her workplace (or even her ex-roommate) than who we got, which felt a bit out of left-field. Tory's situation was intriguing as a premise, but that resolution felt contrived, and thus, I never felt connected to her as a character because she was wasn't particularly relatable. And Jessica and Zach's conclusion felt very rushed post-California.

The other minor quibble is that, to be honest, while the characters as a whole were inter-connected via the various story beats and circumstances of where they lived, the group as a whole never felt very connected to each other (at least not so much that they would be the great friends they were portrayed at the end). Maybe, in part, instead of bringing their original friends back into the story at various times, the same effort could have gone into deepening Robin, Jessica, and Tory's relationship. The handful of "friendship" scenes we got felt stilted and awkward,

But all of my quibbles are minor, because this was a great story overall, and I would read more from this author.

***
I want to thank Lime Street Press and Rachel Cullen for permitting me to read a DRC through NetGalley. In exchange, I offer my honest opinion.

Thank you for allowing me to read and review this book!

What a lovely book!

It was a bit of an adjustment to travel back to 2004, but the amount of references to specific mobile phones made me laugh- it was exactly like that, the type of phone showed how cool you were!!

I loved spending time in New York City and the descriptions of the neighbourhoods and streets and buildings and other places of interest were great.

It was a bit hard to keep track of all the four main characters’ points of views.
Zach was easy as the only guy, but almost every chapter I had to remind myself who Jessica, Robin, and Tory were, what jobs they did, and which life story was there.

Thankfully, around half way it got easier and I was able to discern between everyone and really enjoy the flow of the story.

This one was an adorable, light hearted read. It's on the shorter side so if you're looking for a quick, light read this is a great one. I found the transitions between POVs to be a little abrupt and feel they could have been smoother. Also I wasn't able to really connect or become invested in any of the characters since the chapters were so short and switched POV so quickly. Overall I thought it was a cute read.

A quick easy read but I didn’t really feel anything. I didn’t hate it, but I don’t think I liked it either. I think out of all the characters I liked Tory the most, but I really did not like Zach. He gave me major red flags.

I would say that anyone who likes multiple POVs & 2000 vibes should give this a chance.

Super cute! I really enjoyed all of the 2004 references and callbacks, as I moved to the UWS in 2004. A really lovely story told from 4 perspectives, which I wasn’t entirely sure how it would end. Really lovely and sets itself apart from other books in its genre.

An Upper West Side Story is a perfect read for when you want something fun, quick, and easy. I couldn’t put this book down when I had the time simply for the characters. This is how Sally Rooney THINKS her characters are.
Rachel Cullen did a great job at creating characters you actually care about and their atmospheres. So excited for this book to release!

I received this book from NetGalley.

If you're looking for a feel good, quick read then this is one for you. This is one of those books where every character gets their own chapters and things are told from their point of view. I do like that in a book but the beginning did get a bit confusing because there are so many characters to get to know. Once you grasp that it's totally fine.

Overall, not one of my top books but also an enjoyable read with likeable characters that have decent storylines.

An upper west side story

This book follows 4 individuals living in New York and their struggles in work and love.
- Tory who wants to move out from her rich parents' house
Robin, who's trying to get a promotion
Jessica, who's meant to move in with her boyfriend, but it doesn't quite go to plan
-Zach who is trying to get over a painful romantic entanglement from his college days

Tory's story was my favourite. If the whole book was about her getting out of her family home and finding her independence, I would have loved it. I especially enjoyed the ending of her story and the developments in her relationship with her mother.

Unfortunately, I kept getting Robin and Jessica confused. I'm not sure why, and at one point, I thought they were the same person. Maybe I should have paid more attention to the chapter headings that tell you who the POV belongs to. Perhaps it's because they both had job and romance issues that were quite similar.

I feel like we were meant to root for zach, but honestly, I did get big stalker vibes from the situation. From the minute he met Jessica, his POV was all about her, and it made him feel quite 2 dimensional. He clearly had a lot of backstory that could have been used better.

I've given the book 2 stars because I found myself losing focus on it often, but Tory's chapters did pull me back in. It had potential, but it just wasn't for me.

I received an advance review copy of this book, and this review represents my honest opinion. Thank you to netgalley, Rachel Cullen, and the publisher for the opportunity to read the book.

It was fine? I read it fairly quickly over a couple of days but as soon as I finished, it just seemed to be something I forgot about. It was okay at the time but nothing I will remember.

Very fun, breezy read about a group of friends with shitty jobs, apartments they can't afford and lousy boyfriends. It was pretty predictable and used miscommunication as a plot device but I already knew what I was signing up for and just enjoyed it for what it was.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Told in multiple points of view, this early 2000s throwback was engaging from the first page. It was fun, light and a great summer read. It reminded me a lot of the TV show friends. Thank you to Rachel Cullen, Lime Street Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Enjoyed this read, was nice to read of friendships and and more. I like that your drawn in from the very beginning of the novel.

Set in 2004, this was the perfect nostalgic throwback. The multiple POVs kept me intrigued and entertained! It was such a cute and quick read to bring the joy back in reading. There were a few twists and turns that I was not expecting from some characters which made it even better! A definite four star read based on the grounds that it was not earth shattering but I would totally read it again!

This book was fun and am extremely light read. The characters were a bit silly & the twists & turns in the book were pretty obvious from the get go, but overall it was a cute read. I was expecting a bit more drama & flare from young New Yorkers in the early 2000s, but the more wholesome look was probably a bit more realistic than the Gossip Girl vibes I was expecting.

This a bad book that people shouldn't be reading. It is so casual about fatphobia, disordered eating, misogyny and altogether shit that shouldn't be casually thrown out in novels without any sort of commentary or challenge or critical analysis that I thought about DNFing it at least five times. My experience reading this wasn't pleasant at all, and it isn't only because the characters were shitty and I feel like the author used them as a shield to project her own shitty ideas without the backlash. Well, I saw through it.

This novel is set in 2004, which I found absolutely pointless plot-wise, but I think the author chose this year for two reasons: 1) I think she was in her mid-twenties in 2004, so she was the characters' age, which means she didn't have to do much research because she could've drawn from her own experience. That's smart, I'll hand her that. However, 2) I think that the novel is set in 2004 because the author wanted to have an excuse to write horrible characters and reproduce ideas that we now generally understand that are violent and shouldn't be accepted. I wouldn't be surprised if the author thought or said something along the lines of "If this were set in 2023, it would be cancelled." And yes, it should because I don't think any amount of editing or sensitivity reading would make this an okay novel.

Now, aside from the structural issues, this was poorly written. I don't know how many sentences I read in which the same word was used twice or more for no apparent reason other than to show that the author was in need of a thesaurus. The plot itself was all over the place; we had four main characters, three of whom were women, and although we don't get detailed descriptions of them, it's clear that they're all white, skinny and either blonde or brunette. They were interchangeable, really, and painfully unrelatable.

This story is supposed to be set in New York City, right? Well, there wasn't one character who was explicitly written as anything other than white...there wasn't even a Jewish character. (There was a character who appropriated some Yiddish terms, which was really odd to read, considering that there were Yiddish words that I grew up with that I was so used to listening that I thought they were actually in Spanish). Even Gossip Girl had more diversity than this book. There was a character who "liked women," and she was written this way basically as a way to ensure that she wasn't going to compete with her best friend for the attention of men. And even then, at one point the best friend suspects that the queer character is sleeping with her boyfriend. Talk about a feminist novel.

To wrap this up, and hopefully to provide a final argument for you to read another book, I think that the author wanted to write this as a sitcom, so think Friends in the form of a novel. It wouldn't have worked as a sitcom either, at least not for me because we were given so little about the characters and their relationships with each other that it was meant to be a forgettable piece in any format. Save your precious time and pick something else to read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this fun nostalgic look back at single life in the early 2000's. I liked the short chapters that kept the story moving and that it was told from several different viewpoints. The characters are interesting and the cultural references to that time were spot on. A great summer book to get lost in at the pool or beach.

I thought this sounded intriguing after being hooked by the gorgeous cover. Sadly, it just wasn't for me. It felt a bit too soap opera-ish. Great for lovers of chick lit but I couldn't connect with the characters or story.

this was okay, but read a little juvenile and i didn't feel connected to the characters or what happens to them at all. i can see other reader enjoying this a lot tho!

— thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the free digital ARC.