Rachel Magee's It's All Relative is a charming family drama with relatable characters and a heartwarming storyline. The audiobook is well-narrated and the pacing is enjoyable. While the plot may not be groundbreaking, it offers a comforting and enjoyable listening experience. If you're looking for a feel-good story with a touch of humor, this audiobook might be for you.

Audio read. This was such a fun book! It’s a perfect palate cleanser after a heavy serious read and it is needed! The character development was just right. This will be a book I definitely recommend!

A perfect story about the imperfections of families and the way the interactions between all the members finally makes them a really cool place to be. Helena’s mother is marrying Steve, father of two daughters, Amelia being the oldest and perfect, and and a son. Helena’s and Amelia can’t be more different but are they really? During the week leading to the wedding they will realise they have in common that they think and that this is their chance at a great new family. A great story about second chances, family, friendship and so much more. The audiobook with Tanya Ebu and Thomas Nelson makes a great story an even better one.

I always liked a Midsummer nights dream, so I was really excited for this book! It's a light-hearted rom-com set around a wedding, told from multiple POVs, and I enjoyed it. Some of the characters fell a little flat (Gage, and the groom whose name I can't even remember), and some situations were a little ridiculous (the Tik Tok dishwashing fiasco, the rehearsal dinner dress fiasco, the lost pet cockatoo, etc), but this is a fun summertime book, perfect for reading poolside. The audiobook was well read, and I do love a happy ending.

This was a mild, but cute little rom-com where there are second chances, blended families, and happily ever afters. It was just a little too saccharine and bland for my taste.

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars- not something I think I would typically enjoy character wise, but was definitely a cozy summer read that got me in that summer feel!!

Super G-rated retelling of midsummer nights dream set in an idyllic beach town.

When listening to audiobooks, I like to have some light options that I can listen to with my daughter in the room and that break up all the heavy fantasy books I read. This was exactly that. I enjoyed the story overall, but unfortunately found the interactions between characters to be lacking. I just wanted so much more from them.

Do I think this was bad? No. Do I absolutely love it? Also no. I think if you want an easy listen to break things up, this could be good!

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins, and the author for an advanced copy of the audiobook!

Thank you NetGalley for the audio ARC of this for my honest review.

First sign I am not going to enjoy a book is when it takes me over a month to listen to and by the halfway point I was listening on 3x speed. This book felt way too long for a whole lot of nothing to occur.

I also did not let the characters, except Landon (kind of) and Peter. Otherwise Helena was so unbelievably immature to the point where she acted more like the 12 yr old sister than the 12 yr old sister. Even right at the start, she was really disrespectful about her soon to be new family members, giving them all childish nicknames and making fun of them. Also Amelia's POV was insanely difficult for me to listen to.

I feelclike the first half of the book there was a lot crammed in but it was all the same thing over and over.

I really wanted to like this but it unfortunately fell very flat for me.

This story is a modern retelling of Shakespeares “a midnight summer dream.” The story has a lot of potential but the characters are very similar. I listened to the audio version and it was very hard to differentiate the characters sometimes. I also thought the audio narrator’s voice was a poor choice for this book. I might have liked it so much more if it wasn’t so monotone. I thought the ending was the best part but I really struggled to finish this book and almost didn’t several times.

This modern re-telling of A Midsummer Night's Dream is predictable but still enjoyable. It is a perfect beach read for summer, with cute moments and connections. Some of the characters are a bit one dimensional but for a romcom it is almost to be expected!

I liked this book because I loved how different Helena and Amelia are. One has their life completely planned and the other one is a "Let's see what happens" mentality. There is humor in this book and a lot of family and friend drama that just made me smile. I don't remember Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night Dream, but this book was enjoyable without that fun aspect for me!

Modern re-telling of Shakespeare. A family wedding weekend full of complexities. Fun story, but at times I got bored and pushed up play speed.

Thank you #Netgalley for the ARC audio of this upcoming new release

This one was a bit unrealistic for me. There’s no way this plot would actually happen and “too good to be true”. It was long and redundant. There were some likable characters and enjoyed the multiple POVs.

I received an advanced audiobook to listen to (thanks NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction!) and it was an easy breezy listen. However, the story and its characters fell a little bit flat. There scenarios and drama felt repetitive, but the story did have heart! The summery location was a plus too.

For the audio, the narrator felt a little too stiff or robotic to me. I prefer a more casual/conversational narrator.

ah what a satisfying ending. It wasn't exactly what I thought it would be but I was pleasantly surprised by it. It had just enough romance but I would have liked just a little more about the family dynamics

I really had very high hopes for this book, but it really became hard to get through. Very predictable from the get-go and it did not get better from there. Super bland writing and no exciting or interesting moments from the beginning to the end. The only reason I finished was because I wanted to give an honest review on NetGalley, but had I checked this out from the public library, I would have DNF’d the book.

Right off the bat “It’s all relative” reminds me of “The Unhoneymooners” by Christina Lauren. I didn’t love “The Unhoneymooners” but I do love stories surrounding chaos at a wedding!
At first I thought the narrator’s voice felt too… robotic? I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but as the first few chapters progressed I really enjoyed the personality and emotion she put into her narration. Another part of her narration that I thoroughly enjoyed was her speed. I often speed audiobooks up to at least 1.5x, but “It’s All Relative” was perfect at 1x speed!

As far as substance, I really liked Helena, Emory, Gage, and Peter, where I had conflicted opinions on Amelia and Landon which ended in liking them, disliked Nora and had zero opinions on Steve. The book was good! Not great, but good. I thought the descriptive scenes were very strong, I could perfectly envision them sailing and searching in the forest for the bird. It was a little corny but who doesn’t love a corny love story every now and then! 3/5 stars

I have never read A Midsummer Night’s Dream but I requested this ARC based on the synopsis and found it to be an enjoyable read.

I’m more of a romance reader and this is definitely more women’s fiction but I enjoyed it. The tension of merging two families is always tough even if the children are mostly grown. Even as a Type-A person myself, I struggled a bit with Amelia’s character but her growth through the book made me like her in the end. Helena was more likeable in the beginning but she also had some growing to do. I had no idea how the romances that were obviously headed somewhere different would play out without things feeling extremely quick but it worked. Overall, this is a sweet story about a found family and realizing how to overcome differences with a touch of romance.

I also love when stories have romance with older characters and even though the parents’ relationship was definitely in the background, that was a sweet addition.

I received an advanced copy of this audiobook from NetGalley. The thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

Content Notes: Kisses

My first book from Net Galley yay!
(although… this book is out, but still!)

I like the premise of this book and the cover is very cute. I think it’s good for the summer and if you like lighthearted romance novels, you will enjoy this. However, the book itself was very mid. Some of the main characters were annoying at times, the story dragged, the “drama” felt unnecessary, and it reminded me of the movie “Anyone But You” that recently came out. (Which I did not like at all)
Just not my cup of tea.

I will also add that I listened to the audiobook. I do love multi-POV books but it would’ve added to the experience had there been different narrators for each of the characters. I will say, the narrator was good. I just listen to a lot of audiobooks so I would have liked a bit more variety in the narrators.

I really enjoyed this audio book by Rachel Magee. It's All Relative is about a blended family, but the "children" are all adults. As they struggle to face the realities of life and be honest with one another they truly learn what family is about. I loved the immediate twist at the beginning of the story and how it worked itself out throughout. It was a fun summer listen as its set on the beach during summer vacation. A great clean romance!