Messy Years /ˈmes.i/years/
The “messy years” generally refer to a period of life, often encountered in one’s 20s and 30s, characterized by significant life changes, increased responsibilities, and a lack of clear direction or stability. It’s a time of transition where individuals are navigating career choices, relationships, financial independence, and personal growth, often with a feeling of being overwhelmed or uncertain.
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Maeve, Hadley, and Lizzie thought they’d have it all figured out by now. But life, love, and loss have a way of rewriting even the best-laid plans. The trio were inseparable in college, and now navigating the messy years of adulthood on Boston’s South Shore.
Still reeling from the sudden death of her husband, Maeve is determined to rebuild—until a preppy golden boy named Pope not only swipes her promotion, but starts cracking open the heart she swore she’d sealed shut. Hadley, a Southern Belle newlywed with steel beneath the pearls, is trying to conceive while clinging to a vision of the perfect life that’s slipping through her fingers. And Lizzie, the glamorous, divorced, high-achieving realtor, is publicly unraveling—still obsessing over her ex and questioning every choice that’s led her here.
Perfect for fans of Elin Hildebrand, Annabel Monaghan, and Emily Henry, The Messy Years is a heartfelt, humorous, and honest portrait of friendship during the painful years of adulting.
Ciarra Corona, Reviewer, Net Galley stars
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. I finished this book in one sitting, and I was pleasantly surprised when we were getting multiple POVs throughout the story. The dialogue throughout the book was clever and interesting. Following three separate perspectives of three women in a friendship made it a much more insightful read. All of the women are in a much different phase in their lives in regard to their careers, romantic relationships, and life milestones. I found myself admiring the friendship that the women had. There was a slight resemblance to Sex and The City, which I think will really allow readers to feel comfortable and seen by the story lines. Would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in women’s fiction.
Kitty NB., Reviewer, Net Galley
Okay, so I just mainlined The Messy Years, and I’m gonna be totally straight with you: this book is a spectacular, incandescent dumpster fire, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Alexandra Slater has this utterly insidious way of crawling inside your prefrontal cortex and exposing the exact flavor of existential dread you thought was uniquely yours. It’s like a literary endoscopy, but instead of finding polyps, you find a meticulously cataloged history of bad decisions.
Our protagonist is, to put it mildly, a magnificent trainwreck. She’s supposed to be navigating that liminal space between “figuring it out” and “being a functioning adult,” but mostly she’s just a master of procrastination and self-sabotage, constantly orbiting a nucleus of poor life choices. The prose is so ridiculously refulgentseriously, Slater uses words I haven’t seen since my SAT prep days, that it elevates even the most mundane internal monologues about stale cereal into a grand, lugubrious epic. I spent half the time nodding violently in recognition and the other half reaching for my dictionary. The dialogue? Utterly verisimilitudinous. It’s the kind of rapid-fire, emotionally stunted banter you have with your best friends after three too many glasses of cheap wine, drenched in a thick patina of sarcasm. If you’re not actively squirming from the sheer relatability, you’re reading it wrong. It’s a five-star masterpiece of neurotic overthinking.
Chelsea Langford, Reviewer, Net Galley
I enjoyed this book. It felt like a reality TV show in real time and I am happy with the ending for the main characters. It was like the Summer I Turned Pretty but for 30 year olds!
Cathy Ranier, Reviewer, Net Galley
I laughed, I cried, and I felt the rollercoaster, the journey we call life in our 30s. This book is a hilarious (if somewhat too close to home) reality of life in your 20-30s. Quite literally the messy years. There is no topic left untouched: work, love, regret, friend drama and so much more. What I love is, although this is fiction I truly believed the characters struggles and pains, and was enamored with their stories. All of the character characters intertwine and create this beautiful messy complex relationship that you get to be a fly on the wall for.
Sheri Fields
Reviewer, Net Galley
Thank you NetGalley for this book opportunity, and a new to me author!! The messy years was just that for these three best friends, I found such joy in this book. Hadly, Puzzle and Marvel all were such well written characters and their friendship wraps you into their world. These three women bring you in their world with their weaknesses and their strengths, their love for each other and at times their I dare say dislike, but there is always bits and pieces of that among best friends, but when push comes to shove and times are the tough they are one for all. I loved the book, read it, enjoy it remember you best friends..