Got an arc for this book. Thought it was a good book but wasn’t life changing or super memorable….was good but need a sequel to answer the unanswered questions!

This is a novel that treads on well-worn ground -- found family, multiple timelines -- but without any new or novel takes, IMHO. Although for a multi-generational novel it's not particularly long, I found it to be a slow one and one that just didn't hit for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (rounded up from 2.5)
My review: The reader has to pay attention in this novel. There is not a lot of dialogue and much is written in the MCs' trains of thought. So many of the sentences are long, meandering, and lack important detail. It is easy to miss things. That being said, the book definitely shows the "found family/created family" and how people can find others that support and love them and blood ties are not primary.
The book's jumps back and forth in time (again, pay attention) and that could be confusing. Gazala is very strong. She fights and blends in at the same time in order to get ahead and stay safe. Her relationship with Samir was surprising and I'm not sure I understood the need for that aspect of the book. It added salaciousness but not a lot of explanation was given to it. In the same vein, the reader has to put the pieces together to understand Alma, Anne, Honey and Bea and Lily. I appreciate the writing about the MCs' Jewish lives. Samir leading a Seder and telling stories was very timely.
I am sure there is an audience for this novel, and while I didn't dislike it, it took patience to get through it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an advance digital copy in exchange for my review.

I read a book years ago by Amy Bloom, and it really didn’t do anything for me. But when given the opportunity to read an advance copy of I’ll Be Right Here, I decided to give her another chance. This was clearly a mistake on my part, because I liked this book even less than its predecessor. I know the heart of the book is about the dynamics of an unconventional and mostly found family, which I could get behind in a different context. Here it bumps and grinds through multiple narrators, back and forth across times, through every type of consensual relationship you could have among consenting adults, and with characters randomly introduced that take you another quarter of the book to figure out their connection to the story. The book starts with Gazala as a young girl during WWII, then follows her to New York, where she has discovered a found family with the Cohen sisters, Alma and Anne. Then it gets slightly icky for me when her long lost adopted brother Samir shows up and they proceed to have an open romantic relationship for the rest of their lives. Which isn’t technically incestuous, but falls in the ew, no thank you, category for me. Anne divorces her husband Richard and shacks up with his sister Honey instead. Another character (Honey) that it took me a while to figure out and then when I did I still felt icked out by it. Not because it was two women, but because I’m not generally fond of relationships where one sibling replaces another. As the group ages the next generation starts to appear in the form of Anne and Richard’s daughter Lily and Bea (the also unidentified character that ends up being the unofficially adopted daughter of Gazala and her unofficially adopted brother/significant other Samir). A third generation also comes along in the form of Lily’s son Harry, who is the product of at least one of multiple marriages between a man and a woman that should have never gotten married but did because a woman wanted babies. Are you exhausted yet? No? How about a chapter long soliloquy by Lily of the expectations in a polyamorous relationship, which has kind of become her vibe after marrying a man for babies didn’t turn out to be rainbows and unicorns? It also feels odd that the book starts out completely centered around Gazala and her dying serves as a kind of focal point, but after the beginning of the book she turns into more of a bit character. This is a relatively short book, but there’s so much crammed in with so little regard for the reader’s ability to follow it that if I hadn’t been reading it for review I would not have bothered to finish it. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'LL BE RIGHT HERE by Amy Bloom is a very interesting and informative book.
It is also a form of an imagination captivating one.
Enjoyed reading very much.
Thanks.

I found this book to be very disjointed and hard to follow and keep the characters straight. The different relationships of the characters was also difficult to keep track of. I usually like this author but did not find this to be one of her best.

This is a haphazard kind of story about an unconventional family. The jumps in time are confusing as we get glimpse of their lives over the years. I wish the author had made Samir and Gazala's non-biological relationship more clear/fleshed out. Actually, I wish more things were, as I have a lot of questions!

This was a really quick read full of messy characters and incredibly messy lives. The chosen family being whom you want, not just blood relations, felt really well done to me - though I'll admit, some of the incest love was just not it for me, nor were all of the strange spousal swapping things...

I struggled with remembering all of the characters in this story, and found myself not caring about halfway in - I was reading for the joy, for Amy Blooms voice, for the fact that everyone was just truly being themselves - no apology. The love is what kept me turning the pages above all else - because that real love that is never-ending is not something that you often get.

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing, and Amy Bloom for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I always love books by Any Bloom and this was no exception. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher. She’s always a hit with our patrons.

I loved Amy Bloom's In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss, and I thoroughly enjoyed White Houses. I was excited to read I'll Be Right Here, but I have to say it was very difficult for me to parse through all the characters, the constant jumping from one decade to another, and the confusing and unusual amount of "different" relationships among the group that called themselves "The Greats."

I enjoyed the first third of the book, which dealt with adopted siblings Gazala (every time I read her name, I thought of the old video game, Galaga -- don't ask me why) and Samir, Algerian refugees in late WWII Paris. When the father -- who works in a bakery -- dies, Samir and Gazala hid in a closet so authorities won't take them away. Then, Samir seamlessly takes over his adopted father's job, while Gazala eventually gets a job helping the famous novelist Colette, who is bedridden but still a formidable personality. When Colette passes away, Gazala -- with the help of the Duchess of Windsor, who she met through Colette -- moves to New York City, young, penniless and what I feel was rage toward men, because of the actions of the German soldiers she encountered in Paris. But she is taken in by the parents of two sisters she befriends -- Alma and Anne, and later, Samir shows up.

As I mentioned above, the rest of the book just jumps around so much that it was hard to connect with the characters of their "interesting" life choices. I am pro-choice, pro rights for all people, but the incesteous relationship of one couple just turned me off.

I'm giving the book three stars, because the writing is wonderful -- Ms. Bloom's descriptive powers are unmatched, and I loved the earlier part of the book with Colette and her relationship with her husband and with Gazala. While I understand Ms. Bloom's decision to move the story forward with other characters and another location, I would have preferred to have more of Colette's story. I definitely will be looking up more about her.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Random House for the ARC and the opportunity to read and review this novel.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Amy Bloom and Random House Publishing for gifting me an ARC of I’ll Be Right Here. In exchange I offer my honest review.

Over the years, I have read and enjoyed many books by Amy Bloom, so I was excited to receive her newest creation, I’ll Be Right Here. Though sparse in page count, this story is jammed full of colorful characters and life stories. It took a bit of time for me to work out where and how Amy Bloom was going with this book and I’m glad I stuck with it. Told in bits and pieces, not always linear, we are introduced to a group of people, who despite their differences are completely entwined with each other for decades and generations to follow.
It’s imperative that you don’t rush through the pages, because major events are dropped in small sentences, seemingly out of nowhere, much like real life. This novel was real, raw, messy and often inconclusive. I’m not sure if I loved or hated the author’s intentional decision to tell the story in this manner. So I’m rating this book between three and four stars, because I was both frustrated and gratified.

This was a beautiful story that ties together an unconventional family , and love in all its forms. It tells the story of Gazala as she finds her way after the war up until the 21st century. There were times that I struggled to keep up with the many characters, and there were a few things that I wasn’t expecting when I sat down to read this one. However, I felt when I was finished that the love and lives that were shared were so precious and heartwarming. These four friends supported each other through so many ups and downs. I have read one other book by Bloom and it too got me right in the feels. Thanks to Amy Bloom, Random House and NetGalley for this advanced copy.

The book travels back and forth through time and location as it recounts the story of an unorthodox family created within a group of friends. The complexities of human relationships be it familial, romantic and sexual are explored as the reader is taken on an emotional journey. I found it somewhat challenging to shift with the timelines and remain focused on the relationships of the central characters as well as those that were introduced through their sexual and romantic exploits. I applaud Ms. Bloom for creating this epic story and tackling so many complex, emotional and unconventional issues.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for- Random House for the opportunity to read this early digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

I didn’t enjoy this book. The characters were not well developed. It switched from one character to another in an heartbeat. it made it difficult to care about them! I objected to the love affair of the brother and sister. It just didnt sit well with me.
I usually enjoy this author. I was very disappointed..

While I didn't love this book personally, I do see why this can and will likely be very popular. It was a really interesting read that picked up towards the end for me.

I’ll Be Right Here is a character-driven novel that explores both biological and chosen family relationships through a non-linear narrative structure.
Bloom writes with emotional warmth and subtle humor, creating complex characters who love freely and support one another unconditionally.
While I appreciated the depth of the characters and their connections, I found the constantly shifting timeline confusing, which made it harder for me to fully immerse myself in their lives.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I think this book is about family—as much, if not more, about the family you choose as the family you are genetically from. It gets a little confusing at some points with all the characters and is quite explicit with regards to romantic and sexual activities but it does seem to be a necessary part of the story.

Thank you to netgalley and random House for this ARC to read. All opinions are my own.

I'll Be Right Here is a sprawling, expanding family portrait that is more like a painting or a mosaic than a novel or a story—it's as if the painter had a huge canvas, and in no particular order, made portraits of the characters whenever and wherever they were in carefully developed swatches. There is no chronological order, and sometimes it was hard for me to remember who everybody was. But as with Amy Bloom's other books, the writing is so lush and colorful with warmth that practically radiates off the page that you just keep reading.

In all her books, Bloom writes messy characters with messy lives, and this book epitomizes that: the family here includes blood relatives as well as chosen relations, and the relationships incorporate incestuous love, spouse swapping with siblings, polyamorous and gay characters being who they are unapologetically even before it was legal. The title, although never explained, says it all: "I'll be right here," is the line E.T. The Extraterrestrial (in the movie of the same name) says to the little boy Elliot when he is leaving. I don't know if this is where Bloom got it, but to me, it feels right: all these people who make up a chosen family remain "right here" in our heads/hearts, no matter if they are here or living or dead.

I had a bizarre reaction early on. I didn't even make the connection, but suddenly I had a craving for heavy, high-thread-count cotton sheets; the longing was so strong, I actually bought some. Then I went back to the book and realized I'd been so seduced into a world of objects, including hotel sheets, that are so warm they seem animated.

I read Amy Bloom for her voice, and will continue to read anything she writes.

this was a pretty good book. I think it was a bit too heavily focused on the war, but other than that I did like the family dynamics discussed, the themes of immigration, family dysfunction, and love are discussed. Overall it was a good book!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

This was a beautifully written multi-generational epic novel that focused more on character interrelationships than on plot. I did find it a bit challenging with the timelines jumping continuously from past, present, going back and forth while following the characters lives and their relationships with one another but significantly understood how their past events influenced them in the present. It was a joy to read and sorry it had to end. I received this book as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley and have been privileged to have read this exquisite story.