This book had a lot of promise, but it fell short on the execution. The characters were good - Elise, Gilda, Sophie, and Sheba were all decently developed and interesting. The idea of the story - Gilda is deported in a way that she can't let her children know where she has gone - is a good one. Elise and Sophie, at 23 and 18, have to fend for themselves for the summer (or longer?) The story just never goes anywhere. The ending was very anticlimactic and unsatisfying. There were many threads that were dangled but not cleaned up. It just felt underdeveloped and almost unfinished.

At its core, Wait follows Elise's journey to find her place after news from her sister that their mother disappeared, causing Elise to make her first return trip to their home on Nantucket since leaving the island for college. Elise and her sister, Sophie, soon find out their mother was deported to Brazil, the country she has not returned to since before Elise and Sophie were born. The girls get jobs to try and keep things afloat in their mother's absence, but in only a matter of weeks, their remote landlord evicts them, forcing the sisters to find a new place to live. Fortunately for the girls but perhaps unfortunately for the reader, Elise's best friend from college, Sheba, swoops in, offering her newly inherited mansion as a safe place to land.

Wait was written well, but the story quickly became muddled as it lost focus on its most interesting components. We were only given sporadic updates on Elise and Sophie's mother, and there was little exploration into the developing friendship between Sophie and Sheba. There were also kernels dropped of interesting dynamics in each of the aforementioned characters'. lives that weren't explored beyond a passing note. Even for Elise, an intelligent girl stuck somewhere between her childhood and adulthood, we were left with a journey that felt like more of a float than an exploration.

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This is a coming of age novel where Elise is a college student who needs to rush home to Nantucket as her mother has been deported and her high school sister, Sophia, is on her own. Years ago, their mother didn't renew her visa as she went into labor and missed her appointment; and she never took care of it after that. Their lives are in the balance as they don't have much money and get evicted from their apartment. Elise's white friend, Sheba, has a family house that was just inherited and invites Elise to live there during the summer. Sheba parents are a lesbian couple, well-to-do, have a house in the mainland, and live a completely different life from Elise and her sister. What seems to be a generous gesture comes with many costs and also brings light to the differences of haves/have nots, the people that work on the island, many of whom are immigrants, and the frustrating position of being American/having the American dream and how it is so unfair to those who work so hard and try to live that dream. The storytelling was fine but it didn't draw me in...I felt there was something missing. Yet, I appreciated the awareness it brought of those who are invisible in vacation towns such as Nantucket and the complexities of our system related to immigration and belonging.

DNF at 26%.

I unfortunately wasn't excited or looking forward to reading this book whenever I wasn't engaging with it. And even when I was engaging with it, I found myself getting confused often as to which sister was which.

I think the story is important, and I've seen other reviewers say that it's a beautiful coming-of-age story that delves into family, friendship, and the immigration system in the US. This just didn't keep me hooked, and I have so many other books I'm desperately looking forward to reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for advanced reader access. This title published May 21, 2024.

I was expecting a sweet Nantucket read, but this was not it. While the book has a decent story of two young sisters living in a rental on island, who work hard and play hard. Their mother has been deported and they move into the guest house of one of the sister's college bestie after facing eviction. Once both sisters move into the guest house, the story takes an odd turn.
Just was not for me.
Thank you for ARC,

3.5 ⭐️

I gravitated towards this book due to the synopsis. And the book delivers somewhat, but it was not what I was expecting.

What was I expecting? Maybe something I had not read before. This just felt like the author stuck to something that works and didn’t really push any boundaries.

Elise and Sophie’s mother was deported back to Brazil the day before Elise graduated from college and Sophie is about to graduate from high school. They need to survive by themselves on Nantucket. This book is written in a point of view that is not quite first person and I could not really get into it. I would give it 2.5 stars.

There may have been more to this book than I got out of it, but I somehow missed it if there was. It's a story dealing with deportation and the effects on the family of that person. It seemed like that part was almost glossed over to me. Way more time in the story was spent on the relationship of the daughters of the deported woman with the super rich college friend of Elise.

I didn't see the purpose of the book. If it was supposed to show the hardships of having a parent or parents deported, then the author shouldn't have had them rescued by the Play-Doh princess, who let them live in her mansion for free. And somehow, I feel like the process of getting back in this country after being deported is a lot harder than just making sure that you get social security numbers right. It seemed like the book could have used a little better development. I also hope that before this was published,
they went back and put quotation marks where characters were speaking. I've read many, many advance copies of books, but never any without those quotation marks.

Thanks to Penguin Random House and NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

"Wait" delves into the intricate layers of family, identity, and the harsh realities faced by undocumented immigrants in the United States. Through the lens of protagonist Elise, who is American, we are drawn into a world where the promise of a bright future is overshadowed by the cruel hand of fate and the unforgiving nature of bureaucracy.

The story begins with Elise about to graduate from the University of North Carolina, but her mother and younger sister never show up. Afraid of what could have happened to them, Elise travels back to her childhood home in Nantucket to find that her mother, Gilda, has been deported back to Brazil by ICE, leaving her behind as well as her seventeen-year-old sister Sophie. This sudden separation forces Elise to confront the harsh realities of her mother’s undocumented status and the fragility of the life they have built in Nantucket.

Through flashback sequences, we are introduced to Gilda's journey as an undocumented immigrant and single mother abandoned by her husband, living in the shadows of American society for over twenty years. Despite her contributions to her community and her unwavering determination to provide for her daughters, she is ultimately torn away from them by a system that values paperwork over humanity. As Elise and Sophie grapple with the devastating impact of their mother's absence, they learn that friends and neighbors who they thought they had known for years, cannot be trusted.

Issues of class and entitlement are also important themes in this book, as both Elise and Sophie learn self-sufficiency due to the fact that they can only depend on themselves.

Through its compelling narrative and compelling characters, "Wait" sheds light on the often-overlooked struggles of undocumented immigrants and challenges readers to confront their preconceived notions of belonging and identity.

(This review has been posted on UnderratedReads)

The night before Elsie's graduation she receives a call from her younger sister Sophie because their mother is missing.  Elsie leaves school and returns to their home in Nantucket (where Elsie has not been in 4 years) to discover that their mom, who has been illegally in the US for their entire childhood, has been deported back to Brazil.  Now homeless (because the neighbors who the girls trusted for years have let the landlord know), the two sisters move into Sheba's (Elsie's wealthy college friend) guesthouse.  Now living with Sheba, Elsie's two worlds collide - the new life she created while she was away at college and her life as a "townie" from before.  Elsie is trying to figure out who she is and who she wants to become.
This was a wonderful novel about family, immigration, friendship and the imbalance of wealth.  I loved the relationship between the sisters - so close as children but since Elsie had chosen to stay away during college, the two sisters now need to reacclimate themselves with each other.  I thought the author did a nice job of creating the dynamic between the three women, it was tense but continually interesting.  This is not a plot driven novel but it still kept my attention throughout and that is definitely due to the writing and the characters themselves.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House/One World for the ARC to review

Burnham’s coming of age novel, Wait, tells the story of two sisters working together when their mother disappears. Elise, the oldest, is one day away from college graduation when she gets a call that her mother has disappeared. After four years away, she returns to her home on Nantucket to help her younger sister, Sophie. The sisters are forced to pull their lives together without their mother.

Elise’s two worlds collide as her best friend from college, a wealthy heiress to a toy company, arrives on Nantucket to live in the family mansion she’s inherited. Elise and Sophie are evicted from their home and move in with Elise for the summer. The two sisters struggle to balance a sense of abandonment with the new found freedom of being on their own.

This moving tale of sisterhood addresses themes of class, immigration and wealth. The author captures the poignant story and struggle faced by the sisters juxtaposed against the backdrop of Nantucket’s wealthy summer playground. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced reader’s copy.

Elise grew up on Nantucket Island, an ideal setting, but in a dysfunctional family. Her father left the family early on and her Brazilian mother struggled to provide for the family. She went away to college and did not return home for 4 years. The night before graduation, her younger sister calls to say their mother disappeared. Where has she gone? Against her will?
Elise and her younger sister work to pay the rent and survive. When they are evicted, they move into the guest house of her college friend, Sheba. Will their friendship survive when there is such disparity between being poor and super rich? Will the girls every find their mother?
This is a story of survival, friendship and struggles in life. I thoroughly enjoyed this story.

Thanks to NetGalley for this eARC.

I’m a fan of It Is Wood, It Is Stone, so when I learned Gabriella Burnham was going to release this book, I was excited! This was another great read. Highly recommend it.

Elise is at a party the night before her college graduation when she gets a call from her younger sister. Sophie and their mom were supposed to be there the next day to see her graduate., but Sophie said their mom was missing. Elise leaves UNC, skips her graduation and goes home. They search everywhere, call around, even check the hospital, and finally give up and report her missing to the police. A few days later, their mom calls - she was deported back to Brazil. ICE knew that she would be at the ferry because she had posted about Elise's graduation on social media and they had been monitoring it apparently. The remainder of the book is about their mom trying to cut through all of the red tape in order to get back in the U.S., and Elise & Sophie trying to make it on their own, with no parents, and no help.

This book started out making me mad with the deportation situation. I know that goes on and this is a very timely book for this reason, but reading about families being ripped apart, neighbors turning other neighbors in, the lengths ICE goes to, just sickens me. I felt sympathy for the girls, but it did feel like I was basically reading about one party after another, so after a while it felt kind of redundant. Overall the book was ok. Not great, but something that could definitely spark some discussion.

This is a story of two sisters who go back to their childhood home, Nantucket Island, after their mother disappears. Life is different today, and Gabriella Burnham, takes us on a journey of seeing a different side of Nantucket Island. I am much older than the sisters, and as I read the book, I could see that times have changed, and I learned a lot from how they have to navigate the path life has them on.
I received an ARC from One World through NetGalley.

Wait by Gabriella Burnham was truly an amazing story.
I had so much fun devouring it.
The writing was truly captivating, with amazing characters that sucked you into the story and holds you captive.

Thank You NetGalley and Publisher for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

The premise of the story is what attracted me to the book and that’s where the attraction ended.

Elise is just about to graduate college when she finds out her mother has been deported to Brazil. She returns home to Nantucket to take care of her younger sister, Sophie.

The book absolutely fell flat. What could have been a captivating story turned out to be utterly mundane.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Elsie should be celebrating her college graduation not receiving a call that changes the course of her summer and life. Her mother has been deported back to Brazil and she has to go back home to Nantucket to help her sister. Nothing can prepare Elsie for what is to come because everything is falling a part. How will they get her mother back? What will happen to her sister? Will Elsie be able to carry this hardship? Who can she lean on for support?

This is a story about a mother and her daughters trying to figure out how to reunite. Living in two different places, yet fighting to not lose their connection. The novel is in present day, but the reader gets glimpses of Elsie and her family’s past. I felt like “Wait” had indie movie coming of age vibes. Following a young woman trying her best when given a heartbreaking situation. It’s a slow burn story that leaves you with some unanswered questions, yet that will have you thinking about them days after finishing this novel.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing for this eARC.

Intriguing premise but so confusingly and poorly written that it was almost impossible to fully engage in the story. I do not recommend.

This was my first time reading a book by Gabriella Burnham and it was stunning. I picked this book up one weekend day and finished it the same day. The characters are well developed and it’s a beautiful book about who really belongs to a place, class, family, and the bonds that stretch across generations and countries. Thanks to One World publishers and Net Galley for this glorious ARC.