The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "You and Me and Us" by Alison Hammer, Served with a Basil Arnold Palmer (Made with Ina's Fresh Lemonade)

It's Friday! Isn't it odd how much the days run together with the whole social distancing/stay home thing? And I say that as someone who is dividing my days being at the office and working from home. If I didn't have a couple of set days where I venture to work (in my mask of course), I feel like I'd have no idea if it was Friday or Tuesday or Saturday. But Friday it is, and I'm happy to be celebrating it by being today's stop on the TLC Book Tour for You and Me and Us by Alison Hammer. Accompanying my review is a refreshing Basil Arnold Palmer (made with Ina Garten's Fresh Lemonade) inspired by my reading.

Publisher's Notes: 

The heartbreaking, yet hopeful, story of a mother and daughter struggling to be a family without the one person who holds them together—a perfect summer read for fans of Jojo Moyes and Marisa de los Santos.

Alexis Gold knows how to put the “work” in working mom. It’s the “mom” part that she’s been struggling with lately. Since opening her own advertising agency three years ago, Alexis has all but given up on finding a good work/life balance. Instead, she’s handed over the household reins to her supportive, loving partner, Tommy. While he’s quick to say they divide and conquer, Alexis knows that Tommy does most of the heavy lifting—especially when it comes to their teenage daughter, CeCe.

Their world changes in an instant when Tommy receives a terminal cancer diagnosis, and Alexis realizes everything she’s worked relentlessly for doesn’t matter without him. So Alexis does what Tommy has done for her almost every day since they were twelve-year-old kids in Destin, Florida—she puts him first. And when the only thing Tommy wants is to spend one last summer together at “their” beach, she puts her career on hold to make it happen…even if it means putting her family within striking distance of Tommy’s ex, an actress CeCe idolizes.

But Alexis and Tommy aren’t the only ones whose lives have been turned inside out. In addition to dealing with the normal ups and downs that come with being a teenager, CeCe is also forced to confront her feelings about Tommy’s illness—and what will happen when the one person who’s always been there for her is gone. When the magic of first love brings a bright spot to her summer, CeCe is determined not to let her mother ruin that for her, too.

As CeCe’s behavior becomes more rebellious, Alexis realizes the only thing harder for her than losing Tommy will be convincing CeCe to give her one more chance.

You and Me and Us is a beautifully written novel that examines the unexpected ways loss teaches us how to love.

Hardcover: 432 pages

Publisher: William Morrow (April 7, 2020)

My Review: 

I get to select my review books months in advance which is good and bad. It's bad because when I picked books back in December, the Coronavirus was not yet a thing and I didn't know that by March, I wouldn't want to read sad books. It's good because if I had banned sad books from my life, I would have missed You and Me and Us and that would have been a shame because it is an excellent book with some tear-jerking moments, but also plenty of hope and some humor too.  Even before you get to the back cover blurb, you know things aren't going to go well for the characters with the tagline "One Family. One Last Summer."  As the book begins we meet Alexis Gold, who is a better business owner and executive than she is a mother to her 14-year-old Cecilia (CeCe). The parenting is done by Lexie's husband Tommy, a psychologist who works from home and is there for CeCe when Lexie isn't. Lexie has been too busy to notice how bad Tommy's cough has gotten and is a bit blindsided when he tells her he has terminal lung cancer and rather than prolong the suffering for him and his family, he wants to forgo treatment and make the most of the time they have left by heading to their beach house in Destin, Florida. The place has special meaning as it's when Tommy and Lexie first met during the summers she spent with her grandmother, and it's where Lexie's best friend Jill still lives. Unfortunately, Tommie's ex-wife is also there for the summer filming a television series and CeCe is obsessed with becoming an actress and Lexie wants the woman far away from her family. The summer unfolds from the perspectives of Lexie and CeCe mostly, and their already strained relationship is in danger of fracturing more as they deal with their grief and Tommy worsens. 

OK, I made it sound like a downer, but it really isn't, instead it is a touching and beautifully written debut novel with very real characters and relatable family drama. Did I tear up? Yes, several times. Did I ugly cry? Maybe once and it was actually cathartic. Did I smile or laugh? Yes, often. Did I end up happy I read it even during a pandemic? Most definitely. The pages flew by and I was sorry to see it end as I wanted more time with this family and their friends. I really enjoyed You and Me and Us and would love to read a follow up and will look forward to more books by Alison Hammer.

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Author Notes: Founder of the Every Damn Day Writers, Alison Hammer has been spinning words to tell stories since she learned how to talk. A graduate of the University of Florida and the Creative Circus in Atlanta, she lived in nine cities before settling down in Chicago, where she works as a VP creative director at an advertising agency. You & Me & Us is her first novel.

Find out more about Alison at her website, and connect with her on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

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Food Inspiration: 

There is a good amount of food in You and Me and Us as CeCe is a budding chef and Lexie's friend Jill owns a cafe/bakery. Mentions included a dinner of white fish, sauteed spinach and tiny roasted purple potatoes, sliced baguette with fresh mozzarella, Roma tomatoes and torn pieces of basil, Cheetos, onion rings, barbecue sauce, curry, Arnold Palmers, cream cheese eggs, ice cream, fried green tomatoes topped with lump crab meat, white wine, cheddar and caramel popcorn (Chicago mix), chocolate chip cookies, iced vanilla latte, cheese Danish, popcorn with fresh butter, rose wine, grilled chicken breasts marinated in olive oil, lemon, thyme, rosemary, garlic and black pepper, potatoes, pita, grape popsicles, souffle, Tropical Chicken Salad, crab cakes, cheeseburger, chips and candy, Fla-Vor-Ice pops, chocolate wedding cake with caramel icing,  string cheese, pizza, Bloody Marys, cheesecake brownies, deli platters, tea, coffee, Long Island iced tea, champagne and sparkling grape juice.

For my bookish dish, I had to go with recreating CeCe's Arnold Palmer that she "elevates" from the artificial lemonade and black tea mixes that Lexie's grandmother used by using sun tea, fresh lemonade and muddling fresh basil. The Arnold Palmer (half iced tea & half lemonade) never fails to put a smile on my face because I have a good friend who loves them and orders them frequently. The smile is because we went out to lunch at a new restaurant in Waikiki a few years ago and he ordered one--only to be informed by the waitress that they were not on the menu. He (nicely) pointed out that they had both lemonade and iced tea on the menu and requested that she ask the bartender to mix the two, and she replied that they couldn't deviate from the menu as they wouldn't be able to ring it up correctly in the register. I would have given up but he calmly ordered an ice tea and a lemonade and a glass of ice and mixed his own. We still laugh about it.

For my version of CeCe's drink, I used a basic black English Breakfast tea and for the lemonade, rather than stirring it together I used Ina Garten's blender recipe that I made and posted about two years ago (here). It's great when you don't want to make a simple syrup or bother with stirring the sugar until it dissolves and the blender pulverizes the ice so that it is nice and icy cold. I "muddled" fresh basil in a glass (Using my wooden muddler) and poured the liquid on top (mixed half-and-half). If you don't have basil, CeCe also considered rosemary and mint which would also be delicious.

Fresh Lemonade
By Ina Garten via Barefoot Contessa at FoodNetwork.com
(Yield 1 1/2 Quarts)

1 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice (5 to 6 lemons)
1/2 to 3/4 cup superfine sugar 
1 cup crushed ice
4 cups very cold water

Place all the ingredients in a blender and process until completely smooth. Serve over ice.

Notes/Results:  It's so good! I know it looks like beer in the glass because I needed to grab the natural light for the photos and didn't let my blender-made lemonade settle before I took pictures--so you can see the foam. I love the addition of the basil and it does elevate this classic drink with it's sharp herbal kick. It also brings out the toasty notes of the black tea and works well with the sweet-tart lemonade. I am happy to have a pitcher of these for the weekend. (I will "muddle my basil as I go to keep it fresh) and I think this will be my summer drink (the nonalcoholic one at least!) ;-)

Linking up with I Heart Cooking Clubs where April is a month-long Needs Must theme--cooking the ingredients we have or can get using the recipes from our 20 featured chefs. 

I'm also sharing it at the Weekend Cooking event at Beth Fish Reads, a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. For more information, see the welcome post.

Note: A review copy of "You and Me and Us" was provided to me by the author and the publisher Harper Collins via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for my review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.  You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here.
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