Despite the fact that I’ve read a whole lot of books in the last two years. And while I still have a long to-read list of books I’ve already bought or downloaded in the case of fanfic. I still love to read my favorite books a second time. So, The Goodmans is one of those. Because this book by Clare Ashton is brilliant 🥰! A lesfic classic, if you ask me.
The book tells of the Goodman family. Maggie and Richard Goodman, their children Jude and Eli, and Grandma Celia. The beautiful doctor Abby Hart has also been a regular at the Goodmans’ home since her mother passed away. Abby has been secretly in love with Jude for years. Jude is straight so it’s a pretty hopeless case. She is completely oblivious to Abby’s crush, until Jude’s boyfriend Bill makes an awkward marriage proposal that leaves Abby completely devastated.
Jude worries about Abby and sets out to find her. Then she accidentally overhears her brother Eli telling his fiancée Selene that Abby is in love with her. From that moment on, Jude sees Abby in a very different light, and it begins to become increasingly clear to her that she feels more than just friendship. Bill is also very quickly forgotten 😂.
Meanwhile, the wonderful but rebellious Maggie Goodman is delightfully immortalizing herself by sharing her misery over all sorts of things. She also makes no secret of the fact that she would really like Abby to choose a man. Lesbians are in danger and their loves always end badly 😳🤔. Maggie will certainly not be happy when Jude and Abby start a relationship.
Then beautiful Juliette, Selene’s mother, appears on the scene and it turns out that Maggie has been keeping secrets from her family. Oh, and she keeps them to herself for a long time! She is so hard and mean to Abby and Jude 😢❤️🩹. But I also felt a lot of affection for her, because you gradually know why she acts that way.
Anyway. A lot happens in the pleasant town of Ludbury, where the Goodmans live, before things turn out all right ❤️. Truly a wonderful novel that made me laugh a lot. And I don’t think I’ve ever put so many trope tags on a post. Bizarre 😂.