The trials and tribulations of Janice and her two daughters, Lizzie and Margaret.
They all have SO many problems and don't know how to talk to each other about them. ( )

A literary masterpiece...

This riveting story started out like a modern Virginia Woolf novel and escalated into the collapse of a nuclear family upon the cusp of attaining the American Dream.

As things went from bad to worse for the Miller family, I wanted to put the book down but couldn't. I now understand why people slow down to watch the wreckage of an automobile accident on the side of the road. That's what this novel was like for me.

A must read for anyone interested in modern literary novels. ( )

Despite the fact that the cover blurbs promise "a razor-sharp critique of the absurd expectations" of modern affluence, this is merely a story of three women who each loses something of value and has to figure out whether it was really worth all that much to begin with.

Janice loses her husband of 29 years and her title of World's Perfect Silicon Valley Wife, and then is threatened with being denied half her soon-to-be ex's windfall IPO profits.

Eldest daughter Margaret loses her boyfriend and the magazine she has struggled to start goes down the tubes when an anticipated merger falls through.

And 14-year-old Lizzie loses a ton of weight, her virginity, and her reputation.

After setting this triple-play into motion, Brown slows down the pace until the last 50 pages or se drag on interminably. If you've already invested your time up to this point, you might as well hang on for the final denouemont, but you probably ought to pack a lunch. It's a long haul. ( )

The book is about three women in a family during the parents' divorce. I like how different the struggles they are through among the age group: house wife, career starter and a teen. When I was reading the Lizzie's story, I thought I was reading a young adult book. It is like two books in one. =)

Received a free copy from Goodreads First Reads in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Just not my cup of tea.

One thing that kept popping into my head while reading "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything" was that prior to reading it I remembered it being referred to as a great beach book or great summer read. To me that usually brings to mind a light heart feel good storyline or if there are serious issues there are great characters that you feel an emotional investment in and are rooting for. Author, Janelle Brown, offers characters I found it hard to relate to or care for. Janice is the mother of 29 year old daughter Margaret an 14 year old Lizzie who all have a bomb dropped on them by Janice's husband of 29 years. While there aren't deep parental/child bonds this would've been the perfect opportunity for these 3 women to unite and help each other through this crisis and form those bonds. But that's not the case, instead they focus on separate issues of their own without turning to each other. They are plagued with issues and I mean plagued: infidelity, divorce, drug use, alcohol abuse,promiscuity, teen pregnancy, body image issues, financial woes that lead to bankruptcy and the list goes on. Which for many I'm sure would find full of intrigue, for me personally this isn't the type of themes that I can sit back and enjoy unless it were a united front getting through it. Yes, it gave real world issues but for me it left me frustrated how things were dealt with and yet at the end seemingly happily falls into place. By no means do I think it was a bad book just not the type I choose to escape the real world. ( )