Joy and Annie are friends and roommates whose thirtysomething existences aren’t exactly what they’d imagined for themselves. Struggling to make ends meet, they decide to rent their extra bedroom to Theo, who charms Joy with his salt-and-pepper hair and adoration of their one-eyed cat. When Annie goes to live with her boyfriend, Theo and Joy settle into a comfortable domesticity. Then Theo brings home Celine, the girlfriend he’s never mentioned and who is possibly the most stunning woman Joy has ever seen. Joy resolves to do whatever it takes to nurture the bond she and Theo have forged. Anything Celine might deny him, Joy will grant. Distracted by her need to please Theo, Joy fails to see that Celine’s beauty doesn’t protect her from her own insecurities. Celine is so haunted by an event in her past that she can’t access the confidence she yearns to exude. Annie is worried about Joy’s senseless devotion to Theo, but she has her own troubles. Eager to please her commitment-phobic boyfriend, she can’t stop parsing his texts and pretending to be the easy-going, cool girl he wants. At work, where she leans into her natural assertiveness, Annie is a star. But then an anonymous letter lands on her desk accusing her esteemed and supportive boss of sexual misconduct, and Annie is forced to decide who and what she’s willing to stand up for. Perceptive, mordantly funny, and full of heart, How to Fall Out of Love Madly tells the story of three women who believe in equality yet inexplicably tolerate terrible behavior from men, equating being desired with worth. As Joy, Annie, and Celine grapple with the ways their lives have been subverted by the forces of gender, money, power, and the need for intimacy, they realize their futures will be determined by how hard they’ll fight to reclaim control. How to Fall Out of Love Madly by Jana Casale – eBook Details

B&N: So the book starts with Joy and Annie, and they’re looking for a new roommate. So they put out an ad. And they eventually decide on Theo, there’s instant connection on Joy’s end with Theo, but you know, they all get along really well. And they have this this great roommate dynamic. And I feel like from the perspectives we did any enjoy to begin with. And then we meet Celine. And at first I was like, Wait, why does Celine get a storyline? I was so upset. Long-term partners also often go through major life changes together, and those changes can affect each partner in different ways. Sometimes, those experiences can bring two people closer together, but other times, they can create distance in relationship and, as a result, feelings of love may wane. B&N: Yes, that’s no teachers. Yes, shout out to teachers. That’s a very relatable, deep memory about having your story shared in front of the class. And the level of embarrassment that I’m like, I don’t know if they’re trying to do this, but they do.Where do I begin with this? There is not ONE character in this book that I liked. These are the most insecure women ever and they frustrated me so bad. I was completely bored with this book. Yes, the book portrays how society puts so much emphasis on beauty and all the insecurities that women have faced over the years because of it. But it was downright depressing, a very heavy read. Snap out of it ladies, grow some self-worth. I kept on reading in hopes that all three of these women would make dramatic changes in their lives but that just was not the case. I really do not know how to say this other than this book just did not do it for me. I enjoy books with women as lead characters, women’s rights, feminist characters…but this one was a miss for me. This whole novel resonated with me. I think it will resonate with many women. I felt for Joy, a self conscious and chronic people pleaser, in love with a man who was only too happy to use her for an emotional relationship while having a sexual relationship with another. I felt for Annie, finding out that the boss who has always been kind to her has been preying on women at the office, while dating a man who is never supportive when she needs him. I felt for Celine, praised for her beauty and overlooked for any other qualities, dating the ‘nice’ man because she feels it’s the right thing to do. I understood the way Annie and Joy were able to see what would be the best thing for one another and to recognize unhealthy patterns in the other, but not be able to do the same thing for themselves. B&N: It kind of seems like for for Celine, a lot of her decisions in life had been based on the validation she’s received. You know, she’s the one that we get, like the most of her history with the current boyfriends and kind of who she actually liked. And then the experiences that kind of just happened and she just went with it. And even with Theo, I think it was kind of like, you know, they had this connection. Maybe. He was a nice enough guy.

The author makes so many generalizations about women and their lives in this book that it just made me angry. Consider the following which was written as one of the characters last sentances (this is supposed to be her little final, conclusive, prance off into the sunset moment): "Actually, I haven't met one straight woman yet who hasn't gotten self worth from having a man in her life." This coming from a character who spent the entirety of the book in an unhappy relationship (that she leaves but then glorifies but then blames herself for?). Also, guess how she ends the book. Take one guess. Yup, in another relationship. Three young women come to terms with the roles of the men in their lives and the sad fact that they put them there.JC: Exactly. Yeah, no, there’s like a lot of talk on her on like dating apps and just looking for that like instant approval. And she likes to fine, but she isn’t like in love with him. She just feels I think for her being single equals not feeling good about herself. So she finds relationships, moves into relationships, finds approval from them, because if she doesn’t have that approval, she’s not feeling fulfilled, you know, at all. And that moment I think about all the time. I’ll hear her voice as I wait at a stoplight or even when I pee. Much of this book is very relatable. Joy and Annie are close friends and roommates who are around 30. Annie has a bad boyfriend that she insists is great. Joy is single and depressed about it, she is starting to feel that being fat means she will not be loved. When they rent out the third bedroom in their apartment to handsome, flirtatious Theo everything gets complicated.

Celine is still not over her ex even though she does not vocalize this to Theo. So, the story goes on with Joy critiquing every move that Celine and Theo make. B&N: So I think that kind of also may have something to do with their mothers. And I feel like with women, it’s also there’s that connection, we have these relationships with our mothers, sometimes they’re strained, sometimes their best friends, it can be a very complicated thing. And I think that each girl’s mother has they have a different type of relationship and a different dynamic. And I think it’s really interesting. And I’m curious, why did you feel the need to mention them at all? Because they weren’t a huge part of the story.I read How to Fall Out of Love Madly over a month ago and I’ve been dying to sit down and write a review about it, but life got busy. Here I am, a week past publishing date, ready to review. You’re overthinking this. I think everyone knows ‘young professional’ is code for early thirties anyway,” Annie said. To me, the thing as a writer that you should always be working towards is like, how can I make this just be delicious for the reader?”

All of the men in this book were completely terrible people. It got to the point they were almost unbelievable; I would often be taken out of the story thinking, "ok, this would never actually happen." I'm too lazy to go through the entire book to find the exact quote, but I remember the book saying something like "there are very few good men in the world which is why so many women settle for less than their worth." One of the other secondary characters is also married to a man who, according to one of the women narrators, isn't funny or particularly interesting. Though the wife seems to be perfectly happy, all the narrator does is judge and berate her (not the husband) for the marriage because she thinks that her friend has "settled". Three woman who join together to rent a large space along the beach in Los Angeles for their stores—a gift shop, a bakery, and a bookstore—become fast friends as they each experience the highs, and lows, of love.It was a godsend when the cramps eased up and she didn’t have a ton of side effects from the hormones either, as her mother had feared she might. This is going to be the darling of millennial reads this year and trust me, you will not be disappointed. If you are a fan of Sally Rooney, Brandon Taylor’s REAL LIFE, MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION and SORROW AND BLISS you are going to absolutely enjoy this beautifully, well done debut novel. B&N: Regardless of which city you’re talking about, if you’ve had that experience living in a big city, you can relate to the you know, like you want to be there, you want to be where the things are happening. But you probably have to have roommates to probably are sacrificing a little bit to get there. Yeah, exactly. So Joy had a conversation or with her mom, or she was just reflecting on her mom, you know, in her 30s, she had a house, she had a family, she had a good job, she had a home. And that’s not necessarily the reality for a lot of people right now. Right? There’s that pressure to kind of do that. Three relatable thirty somethings drive this ode to womanhood. Learning the hard way to love themselves, the women teach invaluable lessons.”— People They took a picture of the empty guest room, soon to be the home of a stranger, and posted it alongside the description.