Camille Pagan’s follow-up, “Don’t Make Me Turn This Life Around,” to “Life and Other Near-Death Experiences” captures the raw, rich and real side of marriage and family as the Velasquez family navigate life.

Thirteen years ago, Libby Ross-Velasquez was diagnosed with cancer and it turned her life upside down. Now, she’s ten years cancer free and ready to celebrate. Why is it that everything else is falling apart now that she’s healthy? Her father has suddenly died, one of her 12 year old twins has been diagnosed with Diabetes and her marriage is floundering. She should be excited and feel alive, yet life is getting her down. In an attempt to pull herself out of the downward spiral of negativity, she suggests a family vacation to Vieques, a Puerto Rican island where she and her husband, Shiloh, fell in love. Just when it couldn’t get much worse, life throws a curveball and the island is facing hurricane Maria. Will it make them or break them?

Camille Pagan knows how to tackle difficult life experiences with the perfect balance of humour and heart. Discouraged at the melancholy funk Libby found herself in, I was tempted to give up on the book. Thankfully, other readers encouraged me to keep reading. It did pick up and it was a satisfying read. Loving other people is tough. It means you experience heartache. It takes work. But, oh, it’s so rewarding. Pagan captures what it means to love; the good , the bad, and the ugly. As I turned over the last page, I thought about the power of love and unbreakable family ties.

Thank you to Camille Pagan, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Publishes May 11, 2021.

In Camille Pagan’s latest book “Don’t Make Me Turn This Life Around”, it starts off with Libby finding out she is 10 years cancer free. Her, her hubby and 2 twin girls go to Puerto Rico for a vacation. One of the twin girls has diabetes and it focuses A LOT on that throughout the book. Their vacation does not go as planned and a few surprises pop up. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review.

I've wanted to read a book written by Camille Pagan for awhile and this was a great first. Her writing comes off as a beach read type book, but this was unexpectedly pretty serious. Don't Make Me Turn this Life Around deals with very realistic situations and relationships. It delves into a family's dealing with medical traumas and grief coming from deceased parents.

Libby is the mother of two twin girls, one of which has a medical condition. She herself has also overcome a medical prognosis 10 years earlier. She feels "off" and cannot figure out why, but takes a chance trip with her whole family down to Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, they encounter a tropical storm while on vacation that throws everything for a loop.

This was a really quick, enjoyable read. It was easy to connect and empathize with the characters as they faced the trials and tribulations of every day life. This has motivated me to check out a few of Camille Pagan's other books.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for sharing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this one bringing back Libby from one of the authors earlier books. Libby is cancer free but she’s feeling empty. I feel the book draws on many things we go through at midlife. Is my marriage coasting or failing, are my kids okay, are the ones I love happy? The trip to Puerto Rico was an adventure and a heartfelt one. Being a dog lover, my favorite part was Libby spilling her heart out to Pedro, the dog. Many laugh out loud and many heartfelt moments. Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the ARC

Libby is me. I am Libby. I finished this book a few days ago but needed to organize all my feelings before I could write about it.

Libby is worried for her marriage, her twin pre-teen daughters and her brother and leaves little room for herself. She can hardly celebrate good news when she hears it. But she’s not sure why. She suffered a recent loss, which I have too, and it made it hard for her to deal with everything else as she hadn’t really come to terms with her loss. I hate to say this, but she can’t get out of her own head most of the time! But boy, could I relate to her!

She decides to visit Vieques, Puerto Rico, where she met her husband years ago. She wants her daughters to enjoy a family vacation that, in her mind, could fix everything. But in true Libby style, things don’t go as planned. After some pretty scary events, one after another, Libby comes to term with honesty and expressing true feelings.

This book was written with true emotions. I usually have a heart of stone but I teared up a few times. I’ve been in a reading funk the last few months and this book got me back to the “I can’t wait to get back to my book” feeling! I honestly miss Libby now.

DON”T MAKE ME TURN THIS LIFE AROUND by Camille Pagán is an emotional and heartwarming story of love, family and overcoming adversity. I didn’t realize at first that this was a follow-on to her LIFE AND OTHER NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES which I enjoyed so much. I was happy to be reunited with Libby and some of the other characters in that book. That said, this could easily be read as a stand-alone novel. Libby Ross-Velasquez should be ecstatic. She has just learned she is still cancer-free on the ten-year anniversary of finishing her treatment. But other things in life have her troubled. She is mourning her beloved father’s death. Her husband, Shiloh has been notably distant lately and one her twelve-year-old twin daughters has been diagnosed with Type I diabetes, causing a lot a strain between the once close sisters. Hoping to bring her family together to rekindle their bonds, she books a trip to Vieques, Puerto Rico where she and Shiloh first fell in love and where her dear friend, Milagros still lives. One thing after another goes wrong, threatening to ruin their time away. When a tropical storm hits the island, the characters find themselves pulling together and learning about what is truly important in life. I loved these characters and the beautiful descriptions of the setting. The story is told with a warmth and compassion that had me engaged from beginning to end. I enjoyed this touching and hopeful book and highly recommend it. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy.

This was a great read! I adore this author and doubt she could write anything I wouldn’t enjoy. I loved the characters! All of them. They felt so real and raw and felt like family to me. I did start to feel really sorry for the main character, as mishaps kept happening but the story plays out beautifully and you see how all of it is necessary to get to “this point. “ No spoilers. I highly recommend this book! It was a quick read for me but will stay with me for a long time.

I really enjoyed this book about a woman, in midlife questions just where her life is going. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because I found the ending a little too trite for my taste. I plan to read more by this author as I really like her style of writing and character development.

In Don’t Make Me Turn this Life Around, Pagán weaves love and loss together into a searingly honest and poignant portrait of a family searching for happiness. At times heart-wrenching and humorous, the relatable characters and storyline will have readers laughing, crying…and thinking. Life, indeed, is an adventure and Pagán takes us on a heartfelt and hope-filled journey.

This was a good book for fans of contemporary women's fiction. It covers midlife questions and has suspenseful moments at different points in the story to keep the reader engaged.

I enjoyed this book! I liked how it was based partially on true events around hurricane Maria and the devastation it has left. I didn’t realise it was a sequel which is disappointing. I’d have liked to have read book one first. It did work as a stand-alone though too. It explored all sorts of real topics in a really sensitive way such as battling with Diabetes and Cancer, repairing a struggling marriage, poverty and lack of income after a hurricane, and many more.

I really liked the relationship between Libby and Milagros. Sometimes you can form a bond stronger than that with a family member and this was a really nice example of it. I would consider reading more by this author.

I have read other books by Camille Pagan and like her writing style. I was excited to read this latest book.

Libby has a husband she loves, teenaged twins, and a job she enjoys. Other than that, her life is just one beat down after another. This book has a great storyline but the constant hits are almost too much for anyone to take. I love to read so that I can escape the disappointments of real life. This book is full of the disappointments of real life.

I really enjoy this author, and this new book was no exception. Like Camille Pagán, this is a story about family and the highs and lows of navigating the big and small issues that life presents. Here, the main character is a cancer survivor of over a decade, but, even after receiving good health news, finds her feeling stuck and dispirited. She tries to shake things up with a family trip to Puerto Rico, but things don't go quite as planned or expected. Recommend this book!

I could not even believe how spot-on parts of this one felt for me, and I almost couldn't read it for all that. I am 47 and my father passed away 5 months ago. Reading how Libby dealt with her grief was very difficult - particularly since I saw a LOT of parallels in how I've dealt (or not) with my own. I think Pagán did an incredible job with the emotional aspects of grief in this novel - she captured perfectly the way some of us think we can work around it, and how that inevitably fails and causes more grief...

That aside, the book was a lovely trip into someone else's life for a while, as her books always are. While I found this one a more difficult read because that trip was one with parts I'm all too familiar with, the rest of the story was a lovely and moving tale about coming to terms with aging and the importance of family (the ones we are given and the ones we choose for ourselves). The writing was easy to fall into and the descriptions of the ravaged Puerto Rico were powerful and incredibly evocative. The mixture of light and dark, tragic and comic that seems to be a hallmark of Pagán's fiction was present as always, and it made what could have been a difficult book for me into one that helped me feel less isolated in my responses to everything that has happened in recent months... It was a wonderful read and I thank her for the delicate way she managed it!

Libby is an eternal optimist. But what happens when she isn’t? Life is hard. Sometimes seeing the good in it isn’t easy. I’m pretty sure everyone has had times in their lives when it felt like everything was going wrong. I really liked the way Pagan wove depression and hope into the story. She normalized that it’s okay to not feel ok- your emotions are valid, no matter your situation! But there’s always hope, even when it’s hard to see in our darkest moments!

Don’t Make Me Turn This Life Around has a great cast of characters- many of which we already know and love from Life and Other Near Death Experiences. I love the wit always evident in Pagan’s books. It reminds me of Katherine Center books.

A sequel, but first I've read. At times, touching. At times, irritating. At times, endearing. Libby has survived 10 years after having cancer, but doesn't feel fully alive. She is worried her husband is having an affair, her children have to adjust to diabetes, and she just feels sad. Must admit I tended to skim this one a bit, as the emotional roller coaster got a bit tiresome. Overall though, I would recommend the book, especially if you've read previous by this author.

This was a fun quick read. They story hooked me in and the writing was great. I really felt like i was in Puerto Rico. Highly recommend this book.

I'll be honest, the first half of this book was hard to read! Libby, the main character, is deep in a cycle of negativity and so many things kept going wrong. If I had not read a previous novel by Pagán (I'M FINE AND NEITHER ARE YOU), I might have had trouble finishing. However, based upon how the previous book I read went, I knew I could trust Pagán to make it worthwhile. I cannot pretend to know what it must be like to go through cancer and to continue to keep expecting the worst every time you go to the doctor, but the idea of "not feeling yourself" in spite of a major good-news milestone is highly relatable. Pagán knows how to create characters who feel and behave as we the readers do, all while instilling hope and fortitude.
Extra tidbits I really liked: the setting was mostly Puerto Rico and the island of Vieques, post-Hurricane Maria and I appreciated the recognition of the devastation. Also, the MC's brother is gay and everything about him and his husband, kids, etc, was such a great, normal (even if not always happy) representation that fit perfectly within the larger plot.
I hadn't known this was a follow-up to an earlier novel of hers (LIFE AND OTHER NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES) and the characters are ones I want to know more about, so I will be reading that one now, too.

This is such a poetic look at life. Because life is not guaranteed, we should all treat life as if it is limited rather than limitless.

Libby's life isn't easy and as she feels things starting to fall apart, she decides a reset is in order. But even her opportunity for resetting is fret with disaster. But sometimes, the answers to life's questions are wrapped in neat little bows, just like this one.

I just loved everything about this book.

Bit of a strange one this. Liked the idea but felt like it was trying too hard. Easy enough to read but didn't really gel with the characters.