I loved Heiny’s first novel Standard Deviation so was looking forward to reading this which sadly wasn’t quite as good. It’s a character driven story of a young teacher who moves to a new town and falls in love with a man who everyone knows is totally unreliable but still fail to resist his charm. Many of the characters are neurodiverse which can make them very irritating and the plot somewhat unbelievable yet I still wanted to find out how it would end for them. This is a book which won’t appeal to everyone but I enjoyed reading it.

A very lovely, heart-warming story with lots of laugh out loud moments.

I enjoyed this from start to finish and I loved the unique writing style. There was a great cast of characters to keep you entertained throughout the book. I read it in only a few days and couldn't put it down.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a review.

This was a sweet book that felt very true to life.

Jane has just moved to town and becomes involved in a new relationship. This book starts to show how Jane becomes enmeshed into the lives of different inhabitants.

Overall I really enjoyed this!

4.5 rounded up.

What a lovely book! This is the story of Jane, an infant school teacher and her family and friends from 2002 to the present day. The little vignettes of their lives at specific times works really well as we follow the changes.

This is a clever, well written book as it’s basically about normal life, about being human, focusing on family life and the meaning and depth of friendship and love. It’s heartwarming without being mushy, it’s life affirming, very astutely observed with dialogue that is wry, witty and authentic. It’s amusing in places as several characters come out with classic one liners. The characters are fantastic and well depicted so that you can visualise them. Jane thinks quite harshly of herself at times but she’s wonderful and incredibly kind especially to Jimmy who hangs the whole book together with his sweet, innocent and utterly guileless personality. Jimmy has learning difficulties and becomes an integral part of the family and friendship group and is much loved. He’s an absolute delight from start to finish. I hadn’t realised how utterly invested in his story I’d become until I felt tears in my eyes! All the characters are interesting from husband Duncan who has a reputation (deserved) as a ladies man, Jane’s mother Phyllis who is a tour de force, she makes you laugh with her forthrightness - a polite term for rude, her capable friend Aggie and her useless husband Gary. What were you thinking Aggie???? Jane’s children Glenn and Patrice provide some humour too, Patrice is a hilarious challenge and I’m so glad she’s not mine! The scenes in Jane’s classroom make me smile in recognition- every class has a Tad. Unfortunately!

Overall, a sweet, acutely observed, entertaining novel with wonderful characters which I recommend to fans of authors such as Anne Tyler.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to 4th Estate for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

I just couldn't get on with this book. I tried really hard but I actually gave up at about half way through. I hate giving up on a book but I was just not enjoying this at all. I realise I am at odds with stacks of other readers who have it, but try as I might I couldn't gel with it. I found the characters all a bit absurd. Aside from Jimmy there was nobody for whom I really felt any empathy - which is rare for me. The story itself is a massive slow burner; I think this is very much a character-driven plot but as I found many of the characters pretty irritating I couldn't just bubble along with the flow of the story telling. I appreciate that by missing half the book I cannot comment much further and as much as this book was not for me I detest writing negative reviews. This is very clearly a novel that many many people have loved and I do wonder whether if I wasn't in my lockdown mindset might I have had more tolerance for the folk within it and made it further into the novel.? Hmmmm.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of #EarlyMorningRiser in exchange for an honest review.

Meet Jane, a young teacher living in Boyne City, Michigan at the start of the 21st century. In addition to a consistently embarrassing mother, Jane has an on‐off relationship with Duncan, an older man who not only seems surprisingly close to his ex-wife, Aggie, but who seems to know every woman in town. Then there's Jimmy, Duncan's nice but childlike co-worker. Spanning nearly twenty years, Katherine Heiny's novel is a hugely addictive visit to a charming and enjoyable smalltown world.

A lovely easy read, quirky characters and heartwarming. I suggest a comfortable chair with a nice hot chocolate drink, Aggie gives a good recipe in the story, but as we find out Aggie is a wonderful cook.

This novel (its laugh-aloud comedy, its actual wisdom) has been a real treat to read, and the discovery of a writer I am now going to follow.

If somebody had told me I would enjoy a novel whose protagonist moves to teach primary school to a small town in North Michigan and engages with the odd-ball locals in rather mundane going-ons from 2002 to 2019, I don't think I would have bought it; yet here I am recommending it heartily to everybody (even my hard-to-please husband laughed out loud when I read him fragments) but in fact the whole writing is wry and keeps you reading not in search of "what will happen next" but in "lets continue hearing from these people" because Heiny does something clever, I think with her story. Jane, her protagonist, comes across as a rather nice (NICE?!), bit clueless yet intelligent young woman; it is her who does all the unflinching (and hilarious) observation of the gallery of quirky (some lovable, some excruciating, all oddly interesting) characters. Jane herself is more of a conundrum... which is what makes the reading actually necessary - where is SHE going? I will not reveal (I think that the general intro to the book above is way too specific!) what ultimately is the core of Jane's journey (it is in 2019, when she is 43, in the final paragraph of the novel that a satisfying realisation is arrived at).

Somebody has compared her to Anne Tyler; I would also add Elizabeth Strout but with far more humour. The comedic element is really wonderful. I really enjoyed this novel a lot - an intelligent entertainment.

With many thanks to Harper Collins via NetGalley for the ARC.

Loved this book. Its a simple, sweet story with a good few twists and turns along the way. A few complicated relationships keep it really interesting too.
Love the time frames- gaps in years between sections and I liked joining the dots to bridge the gaps.
Sentimental, thoughtful and tackles subjects/character traits that books aren't normally brave enough to showcase.
Really enjoyable.

I love books about relationships and people and this is a perfect example.

The characters are perfectly imperfect, relatable and funny.

Very well written and funny book.

I wanted to read this book because I loved Katherine Heiny's first novel Standard Deviation so much, and this second book did not disappoint me.

I think whatever I write about this book cannot do it justice. Just like in her first book Heiny has an innate ability to just write about everyday life and have you wanting to read it forever. At times I felt myself wondering - what would I do when this book was over and I had to leave these people?

Jane is the main character in the book, she has a dry sense of humour and a wonderful way of explaining the world around her. She meets Duncan and soon finds out that she is far from the love of his life, having a trail of exes around town (and the next town over) who he acknowledges all the time when he sees them. Not only that his ex wife is still around and he mows her lawn and fixes anything her current husband can't, which basically is everything.

The star of the novel for me is Jimmy. He has learning disabilities and is so trusting and kind to everyone. My heart was in my mouth for most of the book, hoping he would come to no harm. I think I worried about him more than Jane did.

Eventually Jane's life becomes that of a 2nd grade teacher with two children a husband and Jimmy all to look after. How she gets through her life over the years and what becomes of her is the basis of this novel and one I thoroughly enjoyed. It may not sound like it, but really this book has laugh out loud moments to beat any TV sitcom.

Anyone that has read Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny will be excited to read Early Morning Riser and they will not be disappointed. I loved every bit of this book. Heiny’s ability to write about the minutiae of familial relationships in a funny yet accurate and matter of fact way is astonishing. This is the story of Jane, a teacher who moves to a small town in America and starts a relationship with Duncan who has slept with nearly every woman in the town. We follow her as she navigates life in this town, makes friends and starts a family. This book is funny and full of warmth and heart. It is like the Ted Lasso of books - you feel instantly better for reading it. I will be shouting from the rooftops about this book! 5⭐️

2.5 rounded up

Katherine Heiny's latest novel, Early Morning Riser reads as if Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Strout wrote a novel together: light, character-led, slice of life contemporary fiction touching on matters relating to the human condition. The result is a very easy read which doesn't tax the reader too much and results in a pleasant literary diversion. I have to say I didn't find this to be "laugh out loud funny" as promised by the blurb, but I did find Jane's character to be well-drawn and empathetic. (I think she deserved better than Duncan, though.)

Thank you NetGalley, Katherine Heiny and 4th Estate for the ARC of Early Morning Riser. This is my personal review.
Jane lives in Boyne City Michigan and so does Duncan. Jane falls in love with Duncan but soon realizes he has dated many of the women in the town. Jane sees old girlfriends everywhere she goes. She just wishes she does not have to bump into to one all the time.
The book did have a few funny moments for me, but I felt it was like other books I have read. It was an average read for me.

What an absolute gem of a book, written in the laidback, humorous, observational style I associate with writers such as Anne Tyler.
Jane falls for Duncan, a serial local womaniser, and this gentle novel charts her life over the following few years.
It is so nicely observed and the humour is so wry that I found myself unable to stop laughing out loud at one point!
The characters feel so real - her mandolin-strumming friend Freida with a song for every occasion, her contrary mother, her sweet and simple friend Jimmy who becomes family through a series of unfortunate events.
There are no huge plot twists, no big denouement. Part of this novel’s charm is that it makes everyday life feel so familiar yet so ripe with promise and rich with detail at the same time.
Thoroughly recommended.

Jane easily falls in love with Duncan: he's charming, good-natured, and handsome. He has also slept with nearly every woman in Boyne City, Michigan. Jane sees Duncan's old girlfriends everywhere--at restaurants, at the grocery store, even three towns away. While she may be able to come to terms with dating the world's most prolific seducer of women, she wishes she didn't have to share him quite so widely. His ex-wife, Aggie, still has Duncan mow her lawn. And his coworker Jimmy comes and goes from Duncan's apartment at the most inopportune times. Jane wonders how the relationship is supposed to work with all these people in it.

This book is such a happy read, it leaves you feeling so fulfilled and full of love and hope, it makes you laugh out loud while feeling so uplifted. At times, it does appear heavy and you can genuinely sympathise with the characters and their development. The character development goes through phases of being complex yet funny and most importantly - relatable. You recognise all these characters in your own life. This is a lovely read, one perfect for on holiday, beach or pool.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

This WONDERFUl book charts the life of Jane from the day she moves to a new town and over several years (late youth into middle age). It is about the prosaic and the sublime moments of life, the relationships that we forge, often without realising their importance and reflects on what builds a happy life.
I loved this book. It drew me in with its almost mesmeric quality. The little details and observations create a complex and truthful tapestry of characters that I didn't want to leave when the book ended. In turn hilarious and heart-breaking the book is an emotional rollercoaster for what is essentially a very gently told story of an ordinary life. I adored it and can't wait to work my way through Katherine Heiny's back catalogue.

I bloody loved Katherine Heiny's previous book, STANDARD DEVIATION and this new novel is just as gorgeously heart-warming and outrageously funny. It's about love and unconventional families, all the messy chaos and momentary joys of life. It made me laugh so much and it also made me long for awkward dinner parties, unwanted guests with an unaccountable disapproval of garlic bread and the comfort and warmth of a 'normal' social life 🍨💕🌮🌷☀️ If you are looking for something uplifting and pleasingly readable this is your book! I read this in about a few days, happily gulping in down around the busyness of family life

A slow-burning beauty! I was apprehensive when I first started this one as the style is quite unique, but I eventually thoroughly enjoyed it. The premise, writing and characters were interesting and good food for thought too. Having read this novel, I’m definitely going to read “Standard Deviation” too, as I’m very much converted to Heiny!

What a joy this novel was! Having loved Katherine Heiny's Standard Deviation, I had huge hopes for Early Morning Riser and was not disappointed with this witty and uplifting novel.

Early Morning Riser tells the story of Jane, a teacher in gossipy Boyne City, Michigan. Jane meets Duncan, a carpenter with a reputation for being both late with the completion of various jobs, but also having slept with almost every woman in town. As their relationship grows, Jane's ideal of love, family and happiness develops, particularly when their developmentally slow neighbour Jimmy becomes a big part of their lives.

Heiny's depiction of quirky small town lives, where everyone knows each other, was full of humour. Her characterisation is warm and lively, so much so, I became incredibly invested in all their lives and their happiness. The perfect pick-me-up read for a gloomy year.

My thanks to NetGalley and 4th Estate for this ARC in exchange for a fair review.