I appreciate a romance that is acerbically funny rather than cloying and this one gets bonus points for a main character and her romantic interests who are middle aged and dealing with all the life issues that go with it. The characters, their relationships, and the events felt real and not too improbable and the dialogue was snappy. I enjoyed it so much that it mostly overcame the usual fatal flaw of having been written in first person, present tense. Normally, I’ll DNF those immediately, but I was actually able to forget the style and fall into the story for the most part.

Audiobook, borrowed from my public library. Audiobooks read by the author tend to be pretty hit/miss, but MacMillan did a terrific reading, especially with the dialogue. ( )

Very insightful, I'm at the right place in my life to have been able to to relate to Georgia. I enjoyed her as a character and that the story was ultimately about friendship and love. ( )

I Almost Forgot About You/Terry McMillan In I Almost Forgot About You, Dr. Georgia Young's wonderful life--great friends, family, and successful career--aren't enough to keep her from feeling stuck and restless. When she decides to make some major changes in her life, quitting her job as an optometrist, and moving house, she finds herself on a wild journey that may or may not include a second chance at love. Like Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, I Almost Forgot About You will show legions of readers what can happen when you face your fears, take a chance, and open yourself up to life, love, and the possibility of a new direction.
 
This book was a breath of fresh air in today's literature, and I had a lot of fun reading it.
 
I absolutely adored Georgia for throwing a new perspective on grandmas--she goes from taking care of her sweet grandchildren to planning out her next conquest and I absolutely love how it shows that she's a spunky lady who can manage her multiple hats with ease.
 
Her being a doctor also amused me and humanified doctors in a way. There's very little literature about optometrists--they're not normally the most interesting characters, I suppose--so her occupation and her doubts about it were fun. Again, I think of grandmas as being pretty static people and being pretty set in their ways, so her crisis and her uprooting herself was a lot of fun to read about. She's an intelligent doctor, but she can't figure out her love life--makes me feel a bit better about myself!
 
Of course, it says a lot about the state of our books that it's a rare treat for me to be able to read about something as normal as a black lady dealing with her hair. I absolutely loved the dialogue about race that Georgia created and how honest she was about things like her daughter dating a white man.
 
This was definitely more about Georgia finding herself than anything, and though I wished that the train ride had come to fruition a little more, I enjoyed reading about her various changes and I enjoyed the people she met along the way.
 
I wasn't too enamoured by the ending--it didn't quite feel right to me and while it was pretty sweet, it felt a bit forced..
 
This wasn't astounding, but it was a solid read and I enjoyed having a novel character with an intriguing perspective.
 
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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The protagonist, Georgia, is in her mid-fifties and facing what many of us would call a mid-life crisis. After finding out one of her former loves has died, she decides to look up the men she has loved in the past to see what she can learn from them. [As an aside, I think this is a great premise for the plot of a book, but a terrible idea in real life.] Her optometry practice has become routine and she decides to make substantial changes, such as finding an outlet for her creativity, taking a long trip by train, and selling her house. As the story progresses, she determines which changes fit with her new direction.

There are many colorful characters in this book, and I found their voices believable and genuine. Sarcastic humor is sprinkled throughout. This book has a very uplifting message of personal empowerment and growth. Having made significant changes in my own life on several occasions, it rang true. My complaints were minor: I don't care for repeated use of the f-bomb and the ending was a bit abrupt. Recommended to readers who enjoy encouraging stories of hope for positive change in life, especially as related to finding love or self-fulfillment at any age.
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Please note that I gave this book 4.5 stars, but rounded it up to 5 stars on Goodreads.

I liked this one much better than "Getting to Happy". I was so disappointed because that whole book felt like a shallow sequel to some truly memorable characters. In her latest, McMillan does what she does best. She focuses on one character, her family, and where she wants to be in her life now that she is about to be 55 and realizing that the path she chose may not be what she really needs in the end.

Georgia Young is an optometrist living in San Francisco and wondering why is she in a huge house by herself. Twice divorced, and single for a couple of years, Georgia is wondering if now is a good time to pull up stakes and start doing something new. She has two adult daughters who don't seem to need her as much, and her mother has a new romance she is fixated on. While talking to one of her best friends, Georgia then starts to reminisce about the men in her past and wondering what became of them. Doing what most people would not dare to do, Georgia decides to revisit her past relationships in the hope that it can show her what she needs to do in order to move on to the next phase of her life.

I loved the character of Georgia a lot. She tried very hard not to stick her nose into her daughters business without being asked. And you could see how much she wanted to say some things too. Also Georgia's two best friends Wanda and Violet were a trip. Getting to follow Georgia as she looks at her past relationships and even looks back at what happened in her two marriages was really interesting too.

I thought that McMillan did a great job with developing most of the secondary characters, except for Violet. I did not get what her deal was and why anyone was even friends with her. Especially when some things about her came to light in the end.

Having Georgia go back to former relationships I thought was great. Even when I thought she should leave well enough and not be bothered by some of them. Heck sometimes people's past should stay there in the past. That said, I liked how if you were paying attention, you could tell that one of these guys (not saying who) was going to be more important than the other ones. I was glad to see that I was right too. And I liked how Terry McMillan flipped what people were thinking the story was going to go.

I thought the writing was really good. I thinks sticking with one character throughout the story really helped and we didn't have to worry about popping in and out of other people's heads. I also laughed a bunch of times while reading this. Probably because some of Georgia's interactions with her family and friends reminded me of how I act when I am with my family and friends. And when we get to Georgia finally taking her long awaited train trip, I laughed a lot. In fact I had to re-read that section like three times. I think McMillan has traveled by train and is not feeling it.

I thought the flow was pretty good throughout, though I thought the whole she must sell her home subplot really dragged sometimes. Sometimes the story would jump ahead weeks or a few months and I would go, wait what just happened.

The setting of San Francisco was utilized really well. I loved San Francisco when I visited years ago, and can't imagine trying to move from there to go anywhere else.

The ending was satisfying, but I wish that the epilogue had been a bit longer to wrap things up even more. It was just enough to tell us what happened to key people. However, I wanted more details. ( )