Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn
A wise and witty new novel that echoes with timely questions about love, career, reconciling with the past, and finding your path while knowing your true worth.
Longtime personal assistant Georgie Mulcahy has made a career out of putting others before herself. When an unexpected upheaval sends her away from her hectic job in L.A. and back to her hometown, Georgie must confront an uncomfortable truth: her own wants and needs have always been a disconcertingly blank page.
But then Georgie comes across a forgotten artifact—a “friendfic” diary she wrote as a teenager, filled with possibilities she once imagined. To an overwhelmed Georgie, the diary’s simple, small-scale ideas are a lifeline—a guidebook for getting started on a new path.
Georgie’s plans hit a snag when she comes face to face with an unexpected roommate—Levi Fanning, onetime town troublemaker and current town hermit. But this quiet, grouchy man is more than just his reputation, and he offers to help Georgie with her quest. As the two make their way through her wishlist, Georgie begins to realize that what she truly wants might not be in the pages of her diary after all, but right by her side—if only they can both find a way to let go of the pasts that hold them back.
Honest and deeply emotional, Georgie, All Along is a smart, tender must-read for everyone who’s ever wondered about the life that got away . . .
Review:
It took me a bit to get into this book, and that’s not because it was bad, or slow. I picked it up within a few hours of finishing “Hello, Beautiful” which I shouldn’t have done because nothing was going to be able to compare to that book. It starts off with Georgie Mulcahy driving through her hometown wondering what her life has become. Until recently she worked as a personal assistant to a very famous filmmaker who suddenly decided that she was going to give it all up and move to Arizona with her husband. This left Georgie without a job, so she moved back to Virginia to stay with her parents for a while and help Bel, her childhood best friend, get settled into her new home and welcome her baby who will be born in just a few weeks.
Georgie is used to being at her old boss’s beck and call, so actually being “still” and not checking her phone every 2 minutes to see what she ends to do is weird for her.
She immediately runs into her old music teacher who has plenty of sideways comments (Georgie wasn’t exactly a model student), and she has a meet cute with a brooding stranger at the supermarket. She is stuck at the register because she forgot her wallet, and Mr. Grumpy ends up paying for her milkshakes just to get her out of the way so he can be on his.
While at Bel’s house, the two friends find an old notebook that Georgie used to write in. She would make up stories about all of the fun things she and Bel were going to do in high school. Problem is, she never did any of them. Georgie has now found her purpose. Maybe if she goes back and does all of the things she’d planned to do in high school, she’ll be able to find her life’s purpose.
She takes the notebook, excited to get started, but when she gets to her parent’s house she finds that there’s been a mix-up. Her absentminded parents (who are on a road trip) had told a local handyman that he could stay in their house while his home was being remodeled. The dude just so happens to be Mr. Grumpy from the store that day, and to make it worse, Georgie learns that Mr. Grumpy is the bad boy older brother of her high school crush.
You can probably already guess that the two start out awkwardly attracted to one another and move quickly into a “should we or shouldn’t we hook up” dance.
While I started the book thinking it was going to be a simple, cutesy rom-com (which I’m not always a fan of), I ended up really enjoying the book. I think what really helped is that the book is written in the alternating first-person viewpoints of Georgie and Levi (Mr. Grumpy dude). This gave the story more depth – I like when we see more than just one point of view.
The supporting characters are all super likeable. Georgie’s hippie, fly-by-the-set-of-their-pants parents are hilarious and the friendship between Bel and Georgie is relatable. The book is well written and a super easy read. It’s perfect for a summer beach trip.
