Thank you, Berkley Publishing, for the gifted copy of Out of the Clear Blue Sky. {partner}

Genre: Women’s Fiction
Format: 📖🎧
Pub Date: 6.7.2022
Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆.5

Summary:

“Lillie Silva knew life as an empty nester would be hard after her only child left for college, but when her husband abruptly dumps her for another woman just as her son leaves, her world comes crashing down. Besides the fact that this announcement is a complete surprise (to say the least), what shocks Lillie most is that she isn’t heartbroken. She’s furious.

Lillie has loved her life on Cape Cod, but as a mother, wife, and nurse-midwife, she’s used to caring for other people . . . not taking care of herself. Now, alone for the first time in her life, she finds herself going a little rogue. Is it over the top to crash her ex-husband’s wedding dressed like the angel of death? Sure! Should she release a skunk into his perfect new home? Probably not! But it beats staying home and moping.

She finds an unexpected ally in her glamorous sister, with whom she’s had a tense relationship all these years. And an unexpected babysitter in, of all people, Ben Hallowell, the driver in a car accident that nearly killed Lillie twenty years ago. And then there’s Ophelia, her ex-husband’s oddly lost niece, who could really use a friend.”

Review:

“People can be ripped out of your life for all sorts of different reasons. Sometimes you’ll never see it coming.”

I always love Higgins’s books; her books are wonderfully written, and she creates memorable take-no-crap female characters. In 2020, her novel Pack Up the Moon was my favorite book of the year (if you haven’t read it, add it to your list now).

Out of the Clear Blue Sky is no exception. I alternated between reading and listening to this one as I couldn’t get enough of the story. It is the first book I’ve read told from the perspectives of the wife, Lillie, and the other woman, Melissa. And dang it if I didn’t end up liking Melissa after spending 80% of the book disliking her 😒

Everything about Lillie’s character felt so honest – I can see myself reacting as she did if my husband left me for another one after 20 years of marriage. I was rolling laughing as she described all the underhanded things she did to him.

Speaking of Brad (not Bradly, btw) – I have not encountered a more obnoxious, narcissistic moron of a human in my entire life. I can’t tell you how often I wanted to crawl into the book and smack him. I still feel my blood pressure rise when I think of everything he said to Lillie.

☀️ Perfect end-of-summer read
👏🏼 Well-developed characters
✌🏼 Dual Perspective
🙌🏼 Will have you laughing & cheering Lillie on
🤬 Brad
😬 An authentic look at the end of a marriage

I will say that I felt like Out of the Clear Blue Sky was Higgin’s heaviest read yet. She tackles adultery, infertility, graphic miscarriage/stillbirth, drug use & sexual assault.

I definitely recommend adding Out of the Clear Blue Sky to your reading list! While you’re at it, check out her other titles as well!

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BOOK INFO
Format: 496 pages, paperback
Published: June 2022
ISBN 9780593335321 (ISBN10: 0593335325)