Good news! I liked I Was Told It Would Get Easier a lot more than The Bookish Life of Nina Hill. (Which was one of my more disappointing reads of 2019, despite loving Abbi Waxman's prose.)


I Was Told It Would Get Easier
by Abbi Waxman

Squashed among a bus full of strangers, mother-daughter duo Jessica and Emily Burnstein watch their carefully mapped-out college tour devolve into a series of off-roading misadventures, from the USA Today bestselling author of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

Jessica and Emily Burnstein have very different ideas of how this college tour should go.

For Emily, it’s a preview of freedom, exploring the possibility of her new and more exciting future. Not that she’s sure she even wants to go to college, but let’s ignore that for now. And maybe the other kids on the tour will like her more than the ones at school. . . . They have to, right?

For Jessica, it’s a chance to bond with the daughter she seems to have lost. They used to be so close, but then Goldfish crackers and Play-Doh were no longer enough of a draw. She isn’t even sure if Emily likes her anymore. To be honest, Jessica isn’t sure she likes herself.

Together with a dozen strangers–and two familiar enemies–Jessica and Emily travel the East Coast, meeting up with family and old friends along the way. Surprises and secrets threaten their relationship and, in the end, change it forever. 


Admittedly, I was a bit nervous to read I Was Told It Would Get Easier. The last time I'd read Abbi Waxman's work, I hyped it up in my head and ended up not really connecting with it. The writing was fantastic, but the story and I just seemed to not vibe together. This time, I definitely connected with it and found myself getting lost in her enjoyable, witty prose.

Dressed in familial themes, humorous and intelligently woven prose, Waxman's I Was Told It Would Get Easier creates the perfect balance in fiction. Told in the split POV of a mother and daughter, the main characters of I Was Told It Would Get Easier are easy to understand; their narrations standing out against one another and providing readers with the chance to slip into their minds easily.

Novels classified under women's fiction don't always connect with me, but there's something about I Was Told It Would Get Easier that captivated me from the very start. You know when you click with a story, its characters and the writing, and suddenly you've devoured it in one sitting? That's how I felt about this novel. 

There's this quality to the story that takes an equally light-hearted and realistic approach to life and storytelling. It gives readers the chance to dive into something as an escape but still feel as though they've read something that did more than provide a window to escapism. Waxman's writing is smooth, heartfelt and hilarious--it keeps the readers turning the pages without even realizing they are doing so.

I loved seeing the dynamic of this mother and daughter duo, and the differences between the two. The way that Waxman portrays their bond and the stories within I Was Told It Would Get Easier was the perfect way to spend an evening indoors. It was heartfelt, funny, lively and completely compelling.