How to Climb the Eiffel Tower

Intriguing story with realistic characters. I would recommend this book

For the first few chapters I wasn't sure a book with cancer and abuse would be my first choice summer read. But Lara's evolution from a victim to a strong woman, Caring about others was inspiring. Lonely and damaged, Lara pursued success at work at the expense of friends and a real life. The Eiffel Tower was a goal on an indoor bike, not real. As Lara goes through an awakening, the reader is absorbed with her story. Great read.

When I first read the blurb for this book I had my reservations about it. I am a cancer survivor as well and I was really hoping that this book would not fluff up the experience. It doesn't and on top of that, it is just a genuinely well written and entertaining book. I later read the author bio and saw that the author is a cancer survivor as well, so I really felt like although this was fiction, she wrote it from a place of personal knowledge and that made it even better.

The things that the main character goes through in this story are written with sincerity and realistic qualities that make you feel close to her and her situation. She struggles to understand why the things that have occurred in her life have happened and comes to new understanding about herself throughout the course of the story.

This book will make you laugh, make you cry in places but also make you realise that no matter what adversity there is in life, there is a way to overcome it. The strong female characters in this book do not come off as abrasive or intentionally feminist. They represent real women with real lives.

I was impressed by the pace and flow of this novel as well as the way the author chose to end her story. If you enjoy women's fiction and like books that border the line between fiction and reality, this would be a good one to choose.

Recommended.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

A special thank you to Light Messages Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

HOW TO CLIMB THE EIFFEL TOWER by Elizabeth Hein, is edgy, funny, and empowering as one strong woman tries to hide from her abusive past on her own, until a tragedy happens, and gains the courage to love and embrace life in an entirely new way.

Set in a small town of fictional Magnuson, the Piedmont area of NC, near Durham. Magnuson’s largest employers are the Ellery Medical Center and the financial services companies. Lara works as an analyst at one of the mineral investment firms.

Lara is a funny, smart and a complex young woman. She is independent and lives an isolated life, with no friends, guarding herself and her heart. She is a loner and demands a world of safety, haunted by her horrible abusive childhood. She has no family and buries herself in work, and her obsession with fitness at the gym, keeping a steady routine. She works in a cube at her office, is under-valued, with her boss taking all the credit for her work. (The work stuff is hilarious with her sarcasm and names for her co-workers. And the scene at the gym was a riot! )

Lara Blaine believes, that she can hide, from her past by clinging to a rigid routine of work and exercise. She endures her self-imposed isolation until a cancer diagnosis cracks her hard exterior. Lara’s journey through cancer treatment should be the worst year of her life. Instead, it is the year that she learns how to live. She befriends Jane, (in her sixties), another cancer patient who teaches her how to be powerful even in the face of death. (Loved their relationship).

Accepting help from the people around her, allows Lara to confront the past and discover that she is not alone in the world. With the support of her new friends, Lara gains the courage to love and embrace life. Like climbing the Eiffel Tower, the year Lara meets Jane is tough, painful, and totally worth it all.

The relationship between Jane and Lara is priceless. Her newfound friendship with Vanessa (HR), and Sebastian, she meets at the race, and the dog— totally amazing! Lara’s goal in life is to have personal power. She wants to feel loved and learn how to love; however, she never knew how previously.

Climbing the Eiffel Tower begins with a setting on the gym equipment; however, later Jane shows Lara how she needs to climb the real Eiffel Tower in Paris and learn to live life and all it has to offer, by leaving the past behind and not allow it to control her.

What a great book! A moving novel of healing, redemption, raw emotion, overcoming adversity, with realistic lovable and flawed characters. I loved the strong women in this book—so impressed, as quite the page-turner and hard to put down. Elizabeth Hein has just made it to my favorite author list. She writes razor sharp, and do not think I have ever laughed so hard!

Fans of Jennifer Weiner, Sarah Pekkanen, and Amy Hatvany will devour HOW TO CLIMB THE EIFFEL TOWER. This book is for every woman, young or old. Whether you have an illness, cancer, a survivor, or are perfectly healthy, this book is for you – one of friendship, cancer, loss and love.

After reading HOW TO CLIMB THE EIFFEL TOWER, was so blown away, later spent some time reading about the author. I strongly urge you to get to know this special woman. After reading more, this makes me treasure the book even more. She sounds like someone you would want to be BFF with, to tell it like it is; keeping you in stitches laughing.

Hats off to Elizabeth, for being a cancer survivor, mother, and talented writer and for giving this special gift to her readers with this incredible, and inspiring novel.

On a Personal Note: My mom received the diagnosis of colon cancer and secondary liver cancer the first of this year. She has been in and out of the hospital with other complications and is currently undergoing chemo. She is doing really well, and goes to the gym six days a week. She is an inspiration; however, this book helped me realize you do not always have to talk about the illness as sometimes you just want to have fun, escape for the afternoon, and do small things which make you happy. She so enjoys going to the Y and visiting with all her friends.

As Jane says, “Make sure you leave plenty of time to eat croissants, and drink lots of wine too, live the whole experience, not just the hard parts.”

Well Done, Very Deserving of a 5 Star+, and looking forward to reading more from this new-found talented author! PS Loved the cover and the titles of all the chapters – another special touch.

About the Author Elizabeth Hein is a mother, author, and cancer survivor. She grew up in Massachusetts and now lives in Durham, North Carolina. She writes women's fiction with a bit of a sharp edge. She is fascinated by how friendship and human connection can help a person through the most difficult moments in their lives. When not writing, she is trying to raise two young women and a husband.

This book is about a young, single woman who is diagnosed with cervical cancer. It's a novel, but feels like it could be a memoir.
I loved this book! As a breast cancer survivor myself, at first I wasn’t so sure about this book as it seemed a tad “weird.” But it is a novel and it’s about cervical cancer, which is totally different. And it’s about someone who is all alone at first, with no one to confide in and to tell about her diagnosis, and to take with her to her doctor’s visits. I felt so sorry for Lara going through this all alone, until she starts opening up to people and finds out that people do want to be her friend and help her. Her back story with her mother and step-father is horrible, and that explains why she is how she is. Lara turns out to be such a wonderful, caring person herself. I almost cried after her problems with radiation and she finally admitted to the nurse and doctor what her symptoms were so she could be helped. It was just so sad how she bore everything on her own, how she lived in her bare apartment, how she ate alone every night at the Chinese restaurant, how she went to the gym alone, how she worked alone at work taking no credit for doing all the work, how she fearfully locked herself in her apartment every night (triple locks, looking over her shoulder all the time), how she didn’t care how she looked, etc. etc. etc. But once she started opening up, making friends, etc., she “blossomed” and created a new life for herself, got a backbone, and just grew into this lovely person. Lara’s HR person turned into a good friend, her previous non-supportive co-workers (the two guys) eventually joined her new team and became valuable co-workers, the Chinese restaurant people became close friends and “healers,” her step-father, instead of being this scary monster, was really just a pathetic person, and Jane and her son became really good, close friends. I loved Jane and what a good friend she turned out to be. They were kindred spirits! I am so sad that Jane is terminal and won’t be around much longer. But she is the person who drew Lara out of her shell and shopped with her, and helped her grow so much. If Lara was real, I would so want to be her friend (and Jane’s too). She was brilliant, likeable, caring, and just a person I’d want to know! I hope she will be a long-time survivor.

**I received this book for free for Net Galley in exchange for an unbiased review.”