I Smile Back (edit title)

• Rated 3 stars

“Laney Brooks is not a character most people are going to like, and even fewer will respect. When we meet Laney, she is spending her days drinking in her closet, cheating on her husband, and snorting coke before she goes to pick up her kids. The book follows Laney through her bottom and into rehab, and then back into her life again as she struggles to deal not only with her substance abuse, but with the reasons why, which she thinks goes back to when her father left the family. Frankly, Laney is an incredibly narcissistic woman, who sees every situation only how it affects her. Even when her son starts to show signs of compulsive behavior, all she can think about is how it will make her look. I didn’t like Laney, and I didn’t care about the choices she makes in the end, but I can respect the book as an interesting piece of writing.”