Abbi Waxman wins again with her signature combination of quirky characters, romance, and family drama.

Christa is a scientist working on her PhD, studying snails on a remote island in Violetta. She is enjoys her work, casual companions, and has kept her mother and two sisters at arms length for years. However, her solitary life comes to an abrupt halt when she is summoned home by her mother with incredible news: Her father, Jasper, a celebrated scientist and tv celebrity has been discovered alive after his plane crashed twenty five years ago and he was presumed dead.

Christa suddenly has to face her disconnected family, see the father she doesn’t remember, and confront a dark past she has tried to keep hidden for far too long.

Christa Comes Out of Her Shell is a unique book that explores darker themes-that definitely deserve trigger warnings-while also balancing a lighter rom-com element with the newly discovered romance that Christa finds with longtime family friend Nate.

I have mixed feelings about it due to some unresolved plot lines, particularly with Christa's relationship with her father.

However, I am definitely still thinking about the novel and processing all of it, so may come back later with further thoughts.

This story was a wonderful combination of humorous and heart-warming. Christa Liddle has hidden herself away on an island in the Indian Ocean studying ocean snails. She grew up in the spotlight as the daughter of a TV presenter/naturalist who disappeared in Alaska when Christa was a toddler.

Christa's mother kept the legend alive and furthered her husband's work by setting up a foundation to support conservation efforts which is what led to Christa's fame since she was brought along to publicity events and TV shows mainly to be cute and hold cute animals. In her teens she went a little wild drinking and using drugs until a traumatic event at one of her mother's benefits. Sent off to boarding school. Christa feel in love with zoology.

But now her life in isolation comes to an abrupt end. The father who disappeared twenty-five years earlier has reappeared from the depths of Alaska. Christa, her two older sisters, and her mother have to deal with all the changes this makes in her life. For Christa, it brings out her fears that her youthful excesses will be brought up again.

It also means a reunion with Nate who was a childhood friend of her older sisters and the object of Christa's crush. He was the one who saved her from more harm at the benefit. She doesn't know quite what to make of him now that she is seeing him through adult eyes. But they seem to be falling in love.

This was an excellent story. I laughed out loud more than one time as I was reading and I felt deeply for the confusion Christa feels about the reappearance of her missing father.

I got about 35% of the way through this and decided it wasn’t for me. I was super intrigued by the premise, but wanted the story to move quicker.

Synopsis in a sentence (or two):
Christa enjoys her “sciencey” life of solitude on a remote island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. When Christa’s Dad, a famous naturalist, reappears twenty years after his suspected death, she must return to her family in Los Angeles to find answers.

Characters:
I appreciated the way the Liddle family dealt with adversity through sarcasm. Admittedly, I’m an introvert and an over-thinker with a bit of a sarcastic side. Naturally, it’s fun to see characters with somewhat similar mindsets. The MC, Christa, has a fun, anti-social inner monologue. While I didn’t feel like I got to know the romantic interest, Will, I relished the awkwardness presented in all of their romantic encounters. I also loved Christa’s strong viewpoint as a woman in science. She never waned from her love of nature despite her character changing in so many other ways.

Pacing/Storyline:
Two significant storylines caught my attention in this one. One was the evolution of Christa, the main character. The other was that of a father who disappeared for twenty years and reappeared as if nothing had happened. I liked both storylines. That said, I found myself clamoring for more of the missing dad storyline because I found it so unique. The family banter and family dynamics had me moving through this book at a quick clip, eager to see how everything unraveled. My only wish was that the story had focused more on Christa’s situation with her Dad than on Christa’s romance.

Read this if you love:
📚Ashley Poston, Sophie Cousens, Elle Cosimano
📚women in science MC’s
📚family drama romance

Rating: 4.0

Disclosure:
Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for the Digital Review Copy of Christa Comes Out of Her Shell. All opinions are my own.

I genuinely do not know how to rate this book. I neither loved it nor hated it, but I think I disliked it just a tiny tad more than I liked it! I think I disliked the fact that a certain character (and thankfully was not a main character) had not-so-nice things to say about people of a certain age, which I am one of!

Authors, please don't insult what could possibly be a large part of your audience. Those of us of a certain age like to read books like this too, you know!

I expected something that I did not get; I got more romance than I expected, less comedy than I expected, and more characters that I disliked. I didn't even feel all that much for the Liddle family.

However, the story was, for the most part, an interesting and clever one and had an intriguing little twist at the end.

*Arc was supplied by the publisher Penguin Group/Berkley Books, the author, and NetGalley.

This author is normally hit or miss for me, and unfortunately this one was a miss. I liked Christa, but I just wasn't invested in the story line as it was a bit too farfetched. I still love this author though and will read her future books.

I love this author! Her voice is so quirky and her books are always such a nice combination of humorous women's fiction and romance. The plot of this one is so original and I loved the family aspect of it. The romance was swoony, and if I'm not mistaken, it was the first one with open-door steam. I was not complaining! With so many twists and turns that I didn't see coming, I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend this book.

When I tell you I was willing to shove people out of the way to get my hands on an early copy of Abbi Waxman’s latest release – I’m probably not exaggerating much. That’s why it sucks so bad that I didn’t really love it.

I thought this was going to be a “maybe you can go home again” sort of story with an obvious addition of an unrequited love who now gets to be “quited” (I know that’s not a word). And the storyline of an “Amelia Earheart” or “D.B. Cooper” sort of long-thought dead dad returning from the wild had my attention. Sadly, nothing much even happened with the dad stuff until nearly 70% and I didn’t know I was signing up for a porny so that wasn’t really my idea of a great time either.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I still HIGHLY recommend Nina Hill or The Garden of Small Beginnings or Other People’s Houses or I Was Told It Would Get Easier. They all just made my chick lit loving heart go cluck cluck cluck.

2.5 Stars

A story about celebrity, self-discovery, and being true to oneself, Christa Comes Out of Her Shell is weighed down by its overly-quirky narrative stylings. Ultimately, though, it’s a decent story about figuring out who you are and how much of you belongs to the world.

Christabel – Christa - Liddle has settled into a life of science. She works on a remote island in the middle of the ocean as a marine biologist studying sea snails, far from the hassles of humanity, and her exhausting family.

Her father– Jasper Liddle, naturalist and host of Liddle’s Great Big World – disappeared when his plane crashed in the Canadian wilderness and he was never found. Christa is the baby in the family, and each of her sisters -- middle child, Eleanor, a conservationist, and eldest, Annabelle, a musician – have coped with his going in different ways. For Christa, the solution was a party phase and then exile after becoming online tabloid fodder. Denny, their mom, emerged from a supporting role on Jasper’s shows to keep the show going and handle his legacy. Is it any wonder that her youngest wants to disappear into ocean sciences?

Everything changes when Jasper, still alive, emerges from the woods after decades. The Liddle family reunites to deal with the dilemma and to meet with their father, forcing Christa to cope with the Hollywood world she abandoned and this strange new father who ‘died’ when she was a toddler. Christa has a prickly but loving relationship with her family, and she has no idea how to deal with the press. The only thing keeping Christa sane is the continued support of her long-term crush, the family’s driver, Nate. Can Christa figure out her place in the family’s dynamic, discover if she really wants to be in the public eye, and navigate a romance with Nate?

Well, yes, but there are bumps along the way. Christa Comes out of Her Shell combines character study with steady-going romance and a family dramedy that works fairly well apart for a few bumps that keep it from a higher grade.

As I said, Christa is quirky, sometimes too much so, but has enough meat on her bones to make her interesting. Her mother is amusing though sometimes insufferable, her sisters decent. But Nate feels too perfect, too good to be true, willing to sacrifice himself at every turn and always reliably there for Christa with little life of his own to speak of.

Jasper, meanwhile, is an enigma – perhaps too much of one for the book’s own good. As for what really happened during his years of absence, I’ll leave the twists related to that to the reader to find out for themselves, but I found it predictable, and I wanted a little more of him spending time with Christa. I couldn’t really buy the choice he made, which the novel thankfully does not romanticize.

Christa Comes out of Her Shell is, ultimately, a perfectly okay book, but its flaws mean it never reaches real greatness.

NOTE: there is a scene in which Christa is roofied and saved from a sexual assault.

Rating: 4.5 stars

When her father is discovered alive after 25 years, Christa is forced to return home and confront her past.

Christa Comes Out of Her Shell was another delightful story from Waxman. I have grown to expect engaging and quirky characters and amusing and snappy dialog from her. While this was very much in the vein of Waxman's previous books, I felt as though the romance was a bigger part of the main character's story. I cannot say I was disappointed at all because I adored Nate and found him to be a perfect match for Christa. I not only liked each of them, but I loved them together and for each other.

At one point, Christa talked about how she had known Nate her whole life, but he was older than her, so she didn't really *know* him back then, and she definitely didn't know him now. But she wanted to, and Nate wanted to know grown up Christa as well. The things he said, let me tell you, he had me swooning. Nate seemed like the perfect person to be there when Christa came out of her shell since he was also there when she hit rock bottom in her teens. This was a sad event which Christa struggled with for many years.

There sure was a good dose of romance in this tale, but it made sense, since this was Christa's return from a self-imposed seclusion and her attempt to reclaim her life from those who used her, those who hurt her, those who exploited her, and those who let her down. I was glad she had Nate by her side as she took back parts of her life, slowly revealed pieces of herself, and opened her heart up to people again.

The dad part of this story was wild, and where it went was even more wild. Buckle up for that part. It was interesting the way it all affected Christa's life, and I liked the way she chose to tackle it. I also found her family to be rather wonderful. I do understand that their relationship was strained due to Christa's teen antics, but time and personal growth gave everyone in Christa's family a different perspective, and it was a positive one. It was wonderful seeing them bond and their love and affection for each shine through.

This is a story that could have easily slipped into heavy territory, but Waxman kept it packed with humor and some very over the top shenanigans which gave the story an overall light and fun feel. I had a fantastic time with Christa and her family as they processed their past and embraced their future. There were great things on the horizon for them all, and I was glad to be part of this entertaining and heartwarming journey.

Abbi Waxman was one of the first romance authors I read five years ago and her comforting writing style and storytelling really solidified my love for the genre. This book simply added a reason to why I love her and her books so much. Christa’s story of finding love and herself while handling the demise of her father’s legacy was really wonderful to read.

Love Abbi Waxman! This was such a fun and quirky romcom/family drama.

Meet the Liddles. A family made famous ala Steve Irwin style with a conservationist showman dad whose show and subsequent merch/toys are beloved by the masses.

And then the patriarch Jasper goes missing. His plane crashes in Alaska and he was gone in an instant. No body found. All the Liddles had to move on - except the littlest Liddle Christabel was thrust into the spotlight and when it was too much, she fled.

Now, 25 years later Christa receives the call no one ever expects while she is living and researching sea snails on the remotest of remote islands. Her father has been found and he’s alive and going on Oprah?! Where has he been this whole time? What does this mean for the whole family? And most importantly, is Christa going to lose it again?

Christa lives on a remote island, doing her research with snails. When her father, who was presumed dead decades ago, resurfaces, her world is turned upside down.
Funny, a little far-fetched but somehow still believable.

Fun, fast Spring Break or early Beach Read: Christa is a lovely quirky geek, and her relationships with her family and family friend Nate hit all the right spots. Plus you'll learn something about marine animals (among other creatures).

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

I have really enjoyed several of the authors books, her style is funny and charming and she always writes memorable characters with plenty of quirks and this was no exception. Everything about this one was unique, maybe to the point of some silliness but I didn’t even care because it was so much fun. A believable plot? No, not exactly. But believable characters and authentic reactions and family dynamics? I think so. I would say this is mostly a complicated family drama steeped in humor that doesn’t take itself seriously whatsoever with a side of romance. While all the quirky characters won me over at first meeting I was most charmed by Christa herself. She’s funny, a mess, introverted, nerdy, intelligent, interesting and self deprecating. As the sole narrator of the story she was wildly entertaining and the author did a great job of showing character growth with her by the end. Overall this one was a delight and I think it would make for a perfect vacation read.

I love Abbi Waxman's writing. Her depth of character is amazing. I felt as if I knew the Liddles personally. I love the use of Christa's addressing the reader directly as if this was a "breaking the fourth wall" moment.

Christa Barnet, PhD zoologist is also Christabel Liddle, youngest of 3 daughters who’s deceased father, Jasper Liddle had been a TV naturalist who traveled the world filming documentaries and becoming a global superstar (a la David Attenborough) until the plane he was flying crashes in Alaska and he was never heard from again. In the wake of his death, Christa’s mother carried on her late husband’s work,…filming documentaries in the far reaches of the world to shine a light on the plight of wild animals and the ecology and bringing sweet little Christa with her. Young Christa and her Mother appeared on TV with live animals, in documentaries and creating the Liddle Foundation to build animal sanctuaries and ecological protection areas all over the world… as a symbol of Jasper’s enduring celebrity. Twenty-five years later, Christa is happily doing post-doc work with sea snails on a remote island in the Indian Ocean, has exchanged her famous last name for her Mother’s maiden name and doing pretty much everything she can to outrun anything to do with Liddle celebrity. That all comes to an abrupt end when she gets a call from her Mom…Jasper is alive, has wandered out of the Alaskan wilderness and about the appear on Oprah. Wait what?!?!?! Christa must drop everything, take many flights to get back to LA and deal with the wild crush of the crazy media hounding her family. Thus begins the ordeal of dealing with her 2 older sisters, TV trucks blocking the street in front of her childhood home, conspiracy theories surrounding Jasper’s disappearance, a powerful and deeply creepy agent and…the most fun…reconnecting with her preteen crush. Crazy and endearing family dynamics, fame and the easily manipulated public, and learning that it’s okay to veer from what you thought was your life’s direction to find something better.

You'll find Waxman's offbeat characters and humor that always makes me guffaw gracing her newest novel--charming, touching and so worth reading. MC Christa is an introverted marine life researcher, pulled home when her father shows up unexpectedly after a quarter-century. I dare you to put down the compelling tale 'til you reach the end. Highly recommended!

DNF at 25%. I just could not find myself caring about this story or this character so I'm going to set it aside for now. The set up of the story is intriguing but in the first quarter of the book, there just wasn't enough plot or character development that kept me engaged. Christa is a nature scientist working on a remote island when she finds out her father who has long been presumed dead, is actually alive. Her father/family has strong Steve Irwin/Crocodile Hunter vibes. There were some hints of a romance brewing with her long time family friend, but again nothing significant or intriguing enough in the first 25% to make me keep going.

I was gifted an early copy of this book. All opinions are my own.