A fun rom-com/family drama. Penelope hasn't been back to her parent's home in San Diego for years. This year, she flies in from San Francisco to join them for Thanksgiving (mostly so she can ask her father for a business loan to open a bookstore specializing in romance novels). All of Penelope's plans seem to derail when her ex-husband steps into Penelope's ride share and she lies about having a boyfriend...

This is a light, quick read full read with a few surprises here and there - it is more of a story of self-discovery and family reconciliation with a cute romance sub-plot.

Thank you to Lake Union and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

A fun, witty family family drama/rom com that was eminently readable and NOT cringe. Which is more than I can say for other supposedly funny romances that I pick up and I just end up wanting to fling the book across the room in frustration.

Not this one, though.

This is about Penelope Banks, a romance novelist who lives in San Francisco, but is returning home to Southern California after 10 years away to spend Thanksgiving with her family, but it's not out of love-she has an ulterior motive.

She's wary of meeting her family because she feels like a f**k-up compared to the other members of her family. On the way home to meet them, she decides to use a ride-share, and the only other passenger that she ends up sharing the ride with is her gorgeous ex-husband, Smith Mackenzie.

A great deal of chaos later, her father ends up inviting her ex-husband over for dinner (not once, but twice) much to her shock, because her Dad has always despised him. Just so that she doesn't look like a loser to her ex-hubby and his shiny new girlfriend, she asks Martin Butler, one of her Dad's colleagues, to be her fake boyfriend for the weekend. He has been invited by Penny's mom for Thanksgiving since he has nowhere to go, and of course you know it's to set her up. So unsubtle, haha.

It's so many years later, but Penny still has to contend with her 'propah' OTT southern-belle mother, her hoot of a grandma who is 96 years old, but still checking out the guys, knocking back the booze, and growing (ahem!) 'herbs' in her greenhouse. Then there's her Dad, who she feels she's let down by not becoming rich and successful, and last but not least, her twin sister Phoebe, who seems to resent her very existence most of the time.

By the end of it all, she realizes that the worst that we imagine is mostly always in our heads, and we, the readers, get a tidy and happy little ending that's warm and fuzzy.

This is a debut novel by author Brooke Abrams, full of witty dialogue and repartee, well-defined characters, and overall a fun read. I will definitely be reading more from this author.

I received an ARC of 'Penelope in Retrograde' from NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this arc.

Penelope’s story hilariously details rekindling relationships with many members of her family, including her ex husband. While Penelope navigates being home for the first time in 10 years, she also meets Martin who is everything she writes about in her romance novels,
I found Penelope’s humor to be very ‘laugh out loud’ and the idea of mending relationships while also forming new ones to be very warm. This was a quick read for me and I enjoyed it.

This book was such a cute read! I appreciated that the romance aspect was just as important as the family dynamics. I loved how the character grew as the book went on and worked on bettering some of her flaws. I started thinking I knew where the love story was going to go and was quickly shown otherwise! I’m not huge into astrology, so I was wary picking up a book that seemed like it would be the focus, but it was sprinkled in just enough to work and was explained without being too much.

Wonderful Thanksgiving RomCom! Loved Penny and Martin. This is the fake dating trope at its finest. Think Meet the Parents - and then some. And there are so many allusions to pop culture. My 90s teen heart was happy. Thank you Brooke Abrams for this light holiday read!

This book was adorable! It wasn't the standard "girl sees ex" rom-com, it was so much more. I loved the Friends-style Thanksgiving theming. This was a perfect fun palette cleanser from the last book I read!

Penelope Banks lives in San Francisco, she writes romance novels and is returning home to Southern California to spend Thanksgiving with her family. It’s been ten years since she visited, her dad is the CEO of United International Engineering, her twin sister Phoebe and her fiancée Falon both work for him and Penny feels like a failure and she's never been good enough.

Things don’t get off to a great start when her plane lands at the airport, her mum thinks it’s not safe for her to use a ride share, maybe she should’ve listened, because her fellow passenger just happens to be her old neighbour, high school boyfriend and partner in crime and ex-husband Smith Mackenzie.

When she finally arrives everyone is waiting out the front of the house, as they didn’t believe Penny will actually show up, her mum Sylvia, dad Carter, Phoebe, Falon, Grandmother Rosie and Martin Butler and her mother invited him because she doesn’t like to have an uneven number at her dining table and she's trying to find Penny a husband.

Penny is rather surprised by Martin Butler, he’s rather good-looking, and he’s her father’s work colleague, she asks him to be her pretend boyfriend so she doesn’t look like a loser, Smith has a new girlfriend and want him thinking she's been pining for him for all these years.

Penny and her fellow writers Chelsey and Jackie and members of The Smut Caven want to open a romance only bookstore, and she's waiting for the perfect time to make her pitch to her father and Phoebe keeps telling her that she and Falon have big news to share and Penny has to wait.

Meanwhile Penny has to deal with her over the top southern belle mother, her grandmother Rosie is ninety six, she likes a drink and isn't growing herbs in her greenhouse, her clothes and comfy birkenstocks are not up to her mother's lofty standards, Martin turns out to be a nice guy and not all what she’s expecting, her dad has a bit of a scare and Phoebe discovers her perfect love story might be about to unfold in the last place on earth she wants to be.

I received a copy of Penelope in Retrograde from NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Brooke Abrams debut novel is a hilarious, four days of mayhem, madness, full of quirky characters and it turns out Penny isn't the disappointment to her family and no one is perfect. Fours stars from me, a quick read and a humorous story.

Penelope in Retrograde by Brooke Abrams is an entertaining and funny read!
It’s probably one of my most favorite from the last couple of months!
The characters were so well written that their personalities were real authentic and engaging. I honestly enjoyed them all.
It was a really good story with heartfelt moments, realistic characters and it had a great ending.
I absolutely adored this book. It's heartwarming, entertaining and very well-written. The plot moves along at a pleasing, quick pace.
A fun and page-turning debut. I’m excited to see what Abrams creates next.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

This is a fantastic read from start to finish. It’s fun, touching and hilarious at times.

Penelope, Pen, is a divorced romance author who decides to go home for thanks giving to visit her family so she can talk to her dad about a business loan for her new romance only bookshop idea. On the way home she gets in a ride share with her ex husband who’s also going home for the holiday, then chaos that ensues after she finds out he has a new girlfriend and blurts out that she’s also seeing a guest her parents have invited over that she has never met.

Great book that follows Pen and family through the thanksgiving break, with new fake boyfriend Martin, ex Husband Smith and over the top Nana Rosie. The book makes you feel like you truely know the family and don’t want to leave them at the end. An absolutely brilliant debut for Brooke Abraham’s.

I felt like I was reading a HALLMARK movie. Very predictable and cute. I felt it lacked substance. I also hated some of the references to astrology and spiritualism. I thought all the characters were stereotypes.

Thank you Netgalley, but this book didn’t match my taste.

I was cracking up from the beginning of this novel, cannot wait to see what Brooke writes next! This book was just what I needed and more. If you love astrology, romance, and humor, give this book a chance. I highly recommend and can’t wait to read this again.