Weekend Review - Balancing Acts by Zoe Fishman

I recently finished reading the book, Balancing Acts, by Zoe Fishman. From the Harper Collins Website:

"Book Description

A poignant debut novel about the transformative powers of yoga and friendship for four women on the verge of realizing their dreams

With beauty, brains, and a high-paying Wall Street position, Charlie was a woman who seemed to have it all—until she turned thirty and took stock of her life, or lack thereof. She left it all behind to pursue yoga, and now, two years later, she's looking to drum up business for her fledgling studio in Brooklyn. Attending her college's alumni night with fliers in tow, she reconnects with three former classmates whose post-graduation lives, like hers, haven't turned out like they'd hoped.

Romance book editor Sabine still longs to write the novel that's bottled up inside her. Once an up-and-coming photographer and Upper East Side social darling, Naomi is now a single mom who hasn't picked up her camera in years. And Bess, who dreamed of being a serious investigative journalist a la Christiane Amanpour, is stuck in a rut, writing snarky captions for a gossip mag. But at a weekly yoga class at Charlie's studio, the four friends, reunited ten years after college, will forge new bonds and take new chances—as they start over, fall in love, change their lives...and come face-to-face with haunting realities."

Overall, I really liked this book. Once started, it was definitely a book that I had to keep reading to see what happened. I found it easy to relate to the characters and their struggles. I think that Zoe did a good job of drawing the reader into the lives of these four friends. I would definitely recommend it to women in their 20s-40s. I think that the book gives women the opportunity to think about their lives; their successes, their failures, and what they have yet to accomplish.

Unfortunately, I did have two issues with the book that bothered me. First, I didn't really like the ending. Perhaps the author was trying to leave the book somewhat open ended so that she might continue the book at a later time. I can see her trying to create a series about these women and the progress they make as life goes on. Perhaps she didn't want to give a concrete ending so that the reader might feel empowered to create their own ending - in the book and in their own life. My other frustration was not an "author" issue, but perhaps more of an editing issue (or maybe even my own reader issue). There were two times in the book that I had to reread a page or two to determine which character was being talked about. The book said, "Naomi", but I am almost certain that they were talking about Charlie. I wasn't reading an ARC, so I wasn't expecting to struggle with issues like that during this book. Even though I know I make oodles of my own mistakes in my blog and in life, for some reason I like the books I read to be perfect. I know that it is hypocritical, but it is what it is.