So have you ever read a book where, overall, you really like the book but there was just something that bugged you about it? Like you would have really loved it if only something had been right instead of the way that it actually was in the book?

Well this was one of those books for me. And there were two things that bugged me. First off the cover. Don't but a redhead on the cover when the protagonist is supposed to have dark curly hair!! We dark curly haired girls need all the love we can get! Second, this novel reached a point where there were just too many bad things happening to the main character. No one has a day that bad, and it just got to be a bit too much.

But after I was able to set aside those two things, I really enjoyed this book. It's a good mother-daughter, coming of age story.

Laura Moriarty's "While I'm Falling" follows Veronica, a junior in college at the University of Kansas as her life slowly unravels in the late fall. Veronica is trying to do it all--succeed as a pre-med major, work as an RA, keep a healthy relationship with her boyfriend Tim, and stay on the sidelines of her parent's messy divorce. But when Veronica agrees to drive a coworker and his girlfriend to the airport one icy morning, an innocent car crash sets of a series of events that will cause Veronica's neat life to unravel. But ultimately her troubles will be superseded by her mother Natalie's problems. The experience draws the two women closer together, but how much will they have to give up to survive?

I really, really enjoyed this book. It was my first encounter with Moriarty, who is obviously a gifted storyteller with a talent for telling the emotional side of everyday American lives. I felt like my heart was twisting with every turn of Vernoica and Natalie's lives, and I was really cheering for them to make it out okay in the end. The emotionally relationships between the different characters in the novel was really rich, and I enjoyed how Moriarty fit the family together as a whole over the course of her novel.

If you enjoy stories about everyday women in difficult times with a focus on their emotional struggles, this is a book for you.