RATING: 3.5 STARS
(Review Not on Blog)

The matriarch Lily Adams is in the twilight years and is reflecting back on her life. There is her granddaughter, Amy her kindred spirit and the love of her life, who rushes to be by her side when Lily takes a turn for the worse. She worries over Amy's lack of a stable relationship or career. Stella, her only child, has never understood her mother and always takes life as it comes. She wonders if Stella will be okay and move forward in her life. Stella's ex-husband, Steve is Lily's friend Grace's son and becomes like his mother in America. As her daughter's marriage falters she cannot help but be in her son-in-law's life. Finally, there is her late husband, William whom she married because of his sheer determination to have her.

Take Me Back is novel broken into smaller stories told from five characters point of view. It spans decades giving us vignettes of Lily's life through her own stories and those most important to her. Mandel's writing invites you in their lives as if you are a friend of the family. The one drawback was the stories of Steve and William as they did not seem to add much to the story as a whole. It felt almost forced rather than flowing with the women's section. I would have liked more stories from the women and seen the men through their eyes only.

The relationships between the three women are so rich but it felt a bit like you were just getting a taste of it when it ended. Yet overall, the ending was satisfying and left you still thinking about the three generations of women that made this family vulnerable yet strong. The sign of a good novel is that it still lingers in your mind days later.

***I received an eARC from NETGALLEY***