The premise of this book drew my attention, but after trying a couple of times to get into the story, this was sadly a DNF. I think the topic may have been a little too heavy for me at this time, so I do hope to get back to it again in the future.

I will say that this book has a lot of great characters and many potential talking points, so I feel this book would be a great book club selection.

Thank you to Nell Freudenberger, Knopf and NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of the book for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Team for this Advanced Digital Readers Copy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

This book is kind of gruesome - definitely a gritty covid book featuring a doctor in NYC in the thick of lockdown with a pregnant wife who’s remote teaching from home and a misbehaving daughter. I didn’t care for the daughter, Pia, and I didn’t understand what she had going on back where her mom lived… her angsty-teenagedness was well portrayed, but she just annoyed me. It took me a while to get through this book as covid is really not a fun topic to delve I to just yet - for me at least, but it’s well-written and interesting overall.

I loved this and it was close to a 5-star rating until the very end, which felt flat. I wanted more because I liked Pia, Kate, Athyna and thought we were building up to something which just... was not there. Still a great read.

This is well-written, but it also feels anticlimactic. Athyna, who is the most interesting character, isn't featured enough--and her inclusion feels out of place, for the most part. I would have happily read a book about her. The other characters make more sense together and are fine; I just expected the story to go somewhere more impactful.

Freudenberger's writing is just perfection. Her use of words completely sucked me in and even though this story takes on A LOT, the author pulls it off. I loved the sense of place we got in Tahiti and the claustrophobia of Covid was visceral. I was taken on a journey I didn't epect but ultimately enjoyed.

Thanks to Knopf for the copy to review.

The Limits follows four women, connected to one another on various levels by blood, marriage, friendship and circumstance. These women must navigate teenage rebellion, family struggles, remote teaching all in addition to the Covid-19 pandemic.

While engaging enough to keep me reading until the end, I don’t feel like this story had quite enough meat to it for me to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some aspects were entertaining but perhaps not quite unique enough to set it apart from all the other ‘pandemic novels’ on the shelves right now.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my review copy!

The author's ability to transport me back to quarantine times of 2020 was both frightening and somehow a good reminder of how far we've come in four years. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and their experiences during those challenging days, and the author did a great job of weaving the different stories together. Overall, I really enjoyed "The Limits", although I did find the ending felt a touch rushed.

The Limits was a really interesting and engaging read. I appreciated the character exploration and would read more from Freudenberger.

What happens to teenagers when their highly successful professional parents divorce? Pia is fifteen. Her mother is a marine biologist and lives in Tahiti studying coral and the effects of climate change on it. Her father is a professor in New York. After they divorced, she has lived with both of them at times as well as a year in Paris with her mother's sister. Now with Covid and lockdown, she needs to make a decision for the coming school year.

Pia decides to return to New York and live with her father. But she doesn't know that her new stepmother, Kate, is now pregnant. Her mother had encouraged Pia to go to New York because she is uneasy about Pia's friendship, perhaps crush, on a Tahitian diver who works at the institute. Now Pia will be spending most of her time with a woman she doesn't know, whose existence and pregnancy brings home daily the fact that Pia's family has irrevocably split.

Kate, in addition to being pregnant, is teaching online. Pia meets one of Kate's students and forms a friendship with her. The girls start meeting and roaming the city. They go to the island where Pia's father shares a cottage with his brothers. Pia meets a boy who she thinks she might sleep with. She also continues her relationship by phone with Tio, the diver on Tahiti her mother hoped to separate her from. Eventually, everything comes to a head and Pia needs rescuing from her situation.

Nell Fruedenberger has written several other novels which have been published to acclaim. She tends to specialize in family relationships and especially the perils of teen relationships. Pia is loved by both of her parents but their separation leaves her feeling that she is on her own and that is a fairly common feeling among teens of divorce. While highly successful adults tend to their pressing careers and job responsibilities, children can be left alone to try to make their own decisions without the adult skills to do so. Blended families now make up forty percent of existing families and sometimes the children fall through the cracks. This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.

This was the perfect book club read! I highly recommend to all. The cover is also beautiful which is always a bonus!

This book is very readable, and I found myself having a hard time putting it down...but it also has a lot in it-motherhood, parenting, teenagers, science, all set during the Covid pandemic. By the end, I was ready for it to be wrapped up. The author created very real characters, though none of them were very likable (except Athyna-she was my favorite). We are following several women during the course of a year-Nathalie, a scientist studying coral in Tahiti, her spoiled daughter Pia, who is leaving Tahiti to go live in NYC with her doctor father, her new stepmom, Kate, who is newly pregnant, and Athyna, one of Kate's high school students. While I enjoyed it, I don't think it will stay with me.

In "The Limits," Nell Freudenberger delves into the complexities of race and privilege amidst the backdrop of Covid-19. Set in post-lockdown New York City, the novel introduces Pia, a teenager uprooted from her island home to live with her father and his new wife, Kate. The dynamic between Pia and Kate starts off rocky, reflecting the broader tensions of blending families during uncertain times.

Central to the narrative is Pia's evolving friendship with Athyna, a Black high school student balancing remote learning and caretaking responsibilities. Their connection offers Freudenberger a canvas to explore how race and class shape their experiences of the pandemic, from Staten Island to the Hamptons. Freudenberger's skill in depicting these contrasting worlds adds depth to the story, resonating with readers through its sharp social insights and vivid character portrayals.

Fans of Freudenberger's writing will appreciate her trademark blend of intimate storytelling and societal critique as she navigates themes of identity, family dynamics, and the impact of global crises with a nuanced touch. This is a compelling read that skillfully navigates the intersections of privilege and adversity, leaving readers reflecting on the intricacies of human connection and resilience in challenging times.

Get ready for some drama surrounding my favorite topic, and yours, the Covid years. I applaud how Nell Freudenberger captured the emotions and uncertainty of the years surrounding the Covid pandemic. It still seems to be a surreal experience in light of all that happened. This particular story took place in two very different parts of the world: NYC & Mo'Orea island in French Polynesia. It follows the lives of 4 people all bound together by familial obligation. The overarching protagonist, 15-year-old Pia, is the glue that binds - as she is shuttled between her mother, a scientist in Mo'Orea and her father, a doctor, and his young wife in NYC.

The novel takes readers back to that most trying time in our very recent history. Ms. Freudenberger excelled in bringing me right back to the feelings, emotions, and struggles of Covid. There were so many things I had forgotten, things that were so unknown and absolutely terrifying at the time. It was a good reminder of what we've overcome.

I especially appreciated the historical information of nuclear testing in and around the islands, which I knew little about. But you all know I'm a sucker for a good history lesson!

I will admit that some of the technical descriptions of the research went over my head, and I could've done without so much French dialogue that wasn't always fully translated. I didn't like how casually teen sex was approached, if I'm honest, and Pia's infatuation with a much older man was uncomfy for me. I also didn't love the May/December marriage - it was evident Pia's father wasn't fully over his first wife.

However, this story tackles a lot aside from Covid, including broken families, poverty, politics, and environmental degradation as it pertains to mining of coral reefs. I feel as though the author handled each topic with care and respect.

Many thanks to partners, Alfred A. Knopf and NetGalley for this gifted review copy.

For more of my reviews, please check out my blog at www.mamasgottaread.blogspot.com or follow me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/mamasgottaread!

I was really excited about this one, but it ended up falling flat for me. The plot and settings had so much potential, but the novel dragged, in part because I could not find an emotional connection to the characters. This is one of those books that I felt was trying so hard to make a point that it seemed forced.

The Limits is a character driven story that will take you right back to the way we all felt in 2020 and the beginning of COVID. Fifteen year old Pia splits her time between her parents - her mom is working on coral reefs in a small island near Tahiti and her dad is a doctor in New York City. Pia has just relocated to NYC and is living with her dad and stepmom who are expecting a baby.

I appreciated the different perspectives through the story but when it ended found myself floundering a little. I think I wanted a little more plot - I’m good with character driven but wanted something more there.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook to review.

I could not for the life of me remember what the title of this book was the entire time I was reading it (and even when I went to put this post together), and I think that sums up a lot of the issues with this book. There were a lot of interesting threads and characters, but the execution ultimately fell a little flat.

I didn’t feel very strongly about any character – other than Pia’s father Stephen, who managed to become so hateable at the end despite the fact he spent the entire book literally saving lives. I did root for Pia’s new friend Athyna, and would have preferred that her story be explored further.

The Limits mainly follows Pia, a teen who’s French biologist mom Natalie lives in Tahiti where she does her research, and her American cardiologist dad Stephen in NYC. The pandemic hits and Natalie contacts Stephen to have Pia move to him for more consistent schooling; which Pia has requested. But when she arrives, Stephen discovers the move was not only not Pia’s idea, but that Pia wanted to stay in Tahiti. In this setting we follow each family member, as well as Stephen’s new wife, as they try to navigate this difficult situation. This read like an intimate family story set in a context we can all understand after living through the pandemic ourselves, made claustrophobic in places by those circumstances. It focuses on both family dynamics and communication or the lack thereof. I thought it was quite good.

"The Limits" by Nell Freudenberger is a wonderful, reflective novel about personal struggles of three great characters, their relationships, making their marks, and intentions. Taking place during covid, in various places in the world, this nuclear family fights to do the right thing, with many wrong turns along the way. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the review copy, all opinions are my own.

Freudenberger's signature style comes through in her follow-up to "Lost and Wanted." The author deftly handles separate narratives before revealing how different stories are entwined, something I really appreciate about her work. Didn't land with the same impact as "Lost and Wanted" for me, but still enjoyed reading it.