Christa Comes Out of Her Shell

I just finished Christa Comes out of her shell by Abbi Waxman and here are my musings.

Christa Barnet likes her solitary life. She has her research, she has her sea snails, she has her peace. Her peace gets blown apart when her father, a man who was declared dead 25 years ago after his plane crashed, suddenly makes a reappearance. That's news enough but her father also happens to be a famous naturalist and the toy company still has his name... This is hot, hot news. The reason he comes back? The lady who finds him in the wreckage, the one he left his family for, dies. Wanting to make amends to his ex wife and their 3 daughters, Jasper makes the flawed mistakes of appearing on Oprah before seeing his family in person.

Not wanting to deal with the fallout of it all, Christa begrudgingly returns home and the highlight being she gets to see her childhood friend and the sparks are flying. The more the media digs into her story, the more cracks develop not just in his story but in the darkness from the past that Christa has buried. Christa wants nothing more than to hide back inside her shell but she is forced to face the realities of the life she has been avoiding.

The book had a rocky start for me. It felt unsure at first. Like it was trying to find its footing but I wonder if that's what the author was trying to do because Christa starts out so unsure. The writing style was different from what I usually read. Lots of descriptive language which was nice but detracted from what I really wanted to get to the crux of. I wanted more about the dad and the mystery of his missing 25 years. There was a solid story there and it felt a bit rushed. I did enjoy the relationship between Christa and Nate but sometimes it was a little cheesy and it didn't suit the overall tone of the book.

I am a big fan of family dramas and this one had it in spades. The dynamic between the sisters and the mom.... So good! Watching Christa develop in the face of everything that was happening was really quite beautiful and that should have been the focus that would have made this book a 5 star read. It was a real shame that the book didn't quite find the perfect balance but I was entertained and I might have gone down a sea snail rabbit hole.

4 stars. If you love chick lit with a little substance, this book will hit all the marks for you.

Thank you @berkleypublishing and @netgalley for my gifted copy

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