Don’t Forget to Write

Don't Forget to Write

by Sara Goodman Confino
Setting: New Jersey
Genres: Fiction / Historical / General
Published on August 15, 2023
Pages: 335
Format: eBook Source: Owned

In 1960, a young woman discovers a freedom she never knew existed in this exhilarating, funny, and emotional novel by the bestselling author of She's Up to No Good.

When Marilyn Kleinman is caught making out with the rabbi's son in front of the whole congregation, her parents ship her off to her great-aunt Ada for the summer. If anyone can save their daughter's reputation, it's Philadelphia's strict premier matchmaker. Either that or Marilyn can kiss college goodbye.

To Marilyn's surprise, Ada's not the humorless septuagenarian her mother described. Not with that platinum-blonde hair, Hermès scarf, and Cadillac convertible. She's sharp, straight-talking, takes her job very seriously, and abides by her own rules...mostly. As the summer unfolds, Ada and Marilyn head for the Jersey shore, where Marilyn helps Ada scope out eligible matches--for anyone but Marilyn, that is.

Because if there's one thing Marilyn's learned from Ada, it's that she doesn't have to settle. With the school year quickly approaching and her father threatening to disinherit her, Marilyn must make her choice for her future: return to the comfortable life she knows or embrace a risky, unknown path on her own.

This book was a delightful surprise. It was a selection for this month’s Kindle First Reads program. I picked it because I am a sucker for books about feisty older women.

It is 1960. Marilyn is in college but only because her father thinks it is an acceptable way to find a husband for her. When she embarrasses her family in public, she is sent to an aunt she’s never met to give her father time to calm down. Her mother is going to try to get him to agree to let her go back to college in the fall but it isn’t assured. Marilyn can’t get into any more trouble over the summer.

Marilyn doesn’t know that Ada is going to push her even more out of her comfort zone. She is going to try to open Marilyn’s eyes to a world of possibilities that she’s never even considered.

Ada is smart and funny and opinionated and knows everyone. She’s a shrewd judge of character. She’s a matchmaker who has never been married. Marilyn wants to know why. Ada slowly lets her unravel the mystery of her life one clue at a time.

“She should have been miserable. A meddling spinster with a bad attitude. But she wasn’t. She was happy and free and lived and loved exactly how she was meant to. And I don’t think there’s much more that anyone can wish for.”

The characters have great chemistry together. It is well settled in the era. White women are just starting to see a world where they can be more than just wives and mothers if they want. A new world is scary and Marilyn doesn’t know if that is what she should be wanting.

I went into this one without knowing much about it and it was a wonderful choice. It kept me reading to see what was going to happen next.