Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Review: Balancing Acts by Zoe Fishman






Description from Harper Collins Website:


A poignant debut novel about the transformative powers of yoga and friendship for four women on the verge of realizing their dreams


With beauty, brains, and a high-paying Wall Street position, Charlie was a woman who seemed to have it all—until she turned thirty and took stock of her life, or lack thereof. She left it all behind to pursue yoga, and now, two years later, she's looking to drum up business for her fledgling studio in Brooklyn. Attending her college's alumni night with fliers in tow, she reconnects with three former classmates whose post-graduation lives, like hers, haven't turned out like they'd hoped.
Romance book editor Sabine still longs to write the novel that's bottled up inside her. Once an up-and-coming photographer and Upper East Side social darling, Naomi is now a single mom who hasn't picked up her camera in years. And Bess, who dreamed of being a serious investigative journalist a la Christiane Amanpour, is stuck in a rut, writing snarky captions for a gossip mag. But at a weekly yoga class at Charlie's studio, the four friends, reunited ten years after college, will forge new bonds and take new chances—as they start over, fall in love, change their lives...and come face-to-face with haunting realities.

Balancing Acts by Zoe Fishman is a story about women's friendship, it's about a group of women in their 30's at different stages of their lives. They are all single, looking for their dreams and passion that seems to have gotten lost along the way since they left college. They all meet up at a college reunion and forge a friendship of sorts and meet for a six week yoga class. The book mainly focuses on  this six week time period in the women's lives.

I am a fan of women's fiction and books about women's friendship and was excited when I heard about this book. It sounded wonderful and I also liked the link to yoga and what a group of friends could learn as they take a yoga class together. I'm sorry to say that the story just didn't work for me. It was a bit too soap opera-ish and sappy for me and I just never cared much for any of the characters or connected to them. I think that this book is geared more towards the twenty-something and thirty-something single or just married woman readers. It wasn't a book that worked for me. If you enjoy books about women's friendships with an added bonus of yoga classes and a bit of a soap opera style feel, you just may enjoy this book.

Here are some reviews with different perspectives:






Disclosure: Book provided by Harper Collins & TLC Book Tours. I am an amazon associate.


9 comments:

  1. I bought this yesterday :) I appreciate your review, Bonnie. Not sure when I'll read it but it did sound good to me. Does soap opera style feel mean overly dramatic? Too much romance?

    ReplyDelete
  2. This sounds jolly interesting and a nice read. i have just (in the last three months) started yoga - so i would quite like to read something with yoga in it.

    Lovely post - thank you indeed for sharing

    Hannah

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love books about women's friendships too - too bad this one doesn't live up to its potential.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Too bad you didn't really like this one Bonnie. It does sound really good. I love the cover.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You know I'm a sucker for female friendship books....but if you didn't get a connection then I'm so very positive it wouldn't work for me either!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sorry this book wasn't your cup of tea. Sometimes a book just doesn't speak to you! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm sorry this one disappointed you! I can definitely see what you mean about the "soap opera" quality of the story, but I guess that's what I liked about it. I enjoyed all of the drama and little love stories and liked the dialogue.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for visiting, I'm glad to find you...my TBR pile is out-of-control, but I'm always on the look out! I'll be sure to stop by & see what you are reading :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I don't like sappy books either, and much as I am interested in this book, I'm worried it won't hold my interest. Good review.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting and sharing a comment!