Book Review: Four Weekends and a Funeral by Ellie Palmer

4⭐
Genre ~ contemporary romance
Setting ~ Minnesota
Publication date ~ August 6, 2024
Publisher ~ G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Est Page Count ~ 368 (29 chapters +e)
Audio length ~ 9 hours 40 minutes
Narrator ~ Karissa Vacker
POV ~ single 1st, present tense
Featuring ~ debut, dead friend, grumpy/sunshine, slow burn, no steamage

My review:

I was drawn to reading this book due to the fact that the main character carries the BRCA 1 mutation. I, like, our main character, Alison, and the author, Ellie, am a carrier, too. (See below for some BRCA facts I’ve added.)

Alison (30) & Adam team up to clear out their dead friend, Sam’s, house in order to take the burden off of his parents. Speaking of his parents, they think Alison was still Sam’s girlfriend when he died, but it turns out they have been broken up for weeks. She goes along with the ruse for quite a while to spare his mother’s feelings.

Being someone who understands all that Alison feels regarding her carrying the BRCA gene I felt that was well written and relatable. Her mother’s character is relatable to me too since I have a daughter that could very well be positive, too. I don’t think I’ll be as overboard as she was, but time will tell how I’ll react. It definitely gives you a new perspective on life when you get those positive results. She’s already had a double mastectomy and is contemplating the removal of her fallopian tubes, ovaries and uterus. I can’t say I was fully on board with what she thought she was expected to do with her life, but to each their own. While it does a good job of bringing awareness it’s not going to be fully relatable to all readers with its heavier topic since it takes up more of the book then the actual romance portion.

I do like a good grump and Adam fits the bill in that department. He does take a little bit to warm up to, but once you do he’s like a big teddy bear that wears flannel and can’t get enough coffee. With that said, though, I didn’t fully feel their connection honestly. Maybe since it was a super slow burner.

Alison’s friends were great side characters to help keep her in check, even if she didn’t want to listen to their advice. I love the trivia competitions they went to. They really take their trivia seriously and it was fun to read.

Overall, I really enjoyed the good banter in this debut. I look forward to reading more from Ellie in the future.

Narration notes:
I did not listen to this one, but am just giving the info above for reference.

*************************************************************
I always like to provide some information on this topic when the opportunity presents itself.

I had a preventative double mastectomy, an oophorectomy and had my uterus, cervix and fallopian tubes removed back in 2019 in order to reduce my cancer risks significantly (a full guarantee of never getting cancer is not possible).

BRCA1 vs BRCA2
Both mutations increase the risk of ovarian cancer, as well as pancreatic cancer. A BRCA1 mutation can also increase the risk of cervical, uterine, and colon cancer, while BRCA2 can increase the likelihood of stomach, gallbladder, and bile duct cancer, plus melanoma.

For example, about 50 out of 100 women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation will get breast cancer by the time they turn 70 years old, compared to a probability of about 12% for the general population. In the general population, about 0.2–0.3% of people, or roughly 1 in 400, have a faulty BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. However, the prevalence of BRCA gene mutations varies by ethnic group. For example, about 2% of people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent have a harmful variant in one of these genes, and among Ashkenazi Jewish women and men, about 1 in 40 have a BRCA1/2 gene mutation.

There are presently no reliable diagnostic test for ovarian cancer. The two tests available are the CA-125 blood test, which detects a marker in the blood, raised levels of which are associated with ovarian cancer; and trans-vaginal ultrasound, which uses sound waves to build up a picture of the ovaries, including any suspicious lumps ~ are not reliable, they detect only a minority of cancers.

If you remove the ovaries of a woman with a BRCA1 mutation early enough, you can almost halve the risk of her developing breast cancer.

For women with a mutation, the evidence suggests that MRI scanning combined with mammograms can be over 80% reliable. That is, it detects cancers in 80% of cases, while mammograms alone detect only 23% of tumors.

The gene was discovered around 2000.

Add to your never ending TBR  ~ goodreads

I’d love to hear your thoughts if you’ve read it.

Book blurb:

The right guy at the dead wrong time.

When thirty-year-old post-double-mastectomy BRCA 1 carrier and reluctant thrill-seeker Alison Mullally arrives at her ex-boyfriend Sam’s funeral to find that no one knows he dumped her, she agrees to play the grieving girlfriend for the sake of the family and pack up Sam’s apartment with his prickly best friend, Adam Berg. After all, it’ll only take four weekends . . . 

But Adam doesn’t want Alison anywhere near him. Forced to spend long hours with the grump, and his monosyllabic demeanor, Alison decides she must put her people-pleasing abilities to the test. She will make him like her. And after awkward family affairs and packing up dilemmas, the two form a tenuous friendship . . . if “friendship” means incredible chemistry and tension between them. Can Alison come clean and finally embrace the life and love she’s always wanted? Or will her little white lie get in the way of her new, unexpected romance?

A tender, laugh-out-loud debut romance about a woman who ends up in over her head after a little white lie . . .

Connect with Ellie 💕 Facebook ~ Goodreads ~ Instagram ~ Twitter ~ Website

Thanks for stopping by!  Visit my bookish product page here 🥰📚
Other ways to connect with me ⬇