Nice to Come Home To

Nice to Come Home To by Rebecca Flowers

I'm on break... sweet, sweet spring vacation ... and I took out several books to divert my attention from the more relevant, more terrifying May 15th deadline of my BEST.

I always steer myself to the YA section because 1) reading YA is more beneficial to my business and 2) I really do have a passion for YA literature. But I do feel the calling to read something, on occasion, for the adult masses. Also, it's nice to be able to throw out one book appropriate for an adult conversation. (Needless to say, when socializing, not everyone shares my joy when discovering that the 4th Wimpy Kid is coming out in October and that The Last Olympian is coming out in a few weeks!) This week I picked up Nice to Come Home To to fulfill that need.

I got this book with the assumption that it would be a quick, typical chick lit book. It was quick, but only because I enjoyed it so much. Rather than leaving me feeling like I could have better spent my time elsewhere, I finished this book with the satisfaction that I had just read good literature.

Our protagonist in this story is Pru Whistler. She's 36, has a gay friend, lives in a city, and has recently been dumped and fired! And to make matters worse, she's now the owner of her ex's former lunatic cat! All of the makings of chick lit, right? But it's not the quintessential chick-lit, either. It's funny, but not in an embarrassing way. The protagonist doesn't spend hours complaining about her body. There's drama, but it always seems so subtle and tight. No room for drama queen moves by the protagonist.

Despite the catastrophic events that occur in the first few pages, Pru remains relatively calm during these times of duress. And the story quickly moves past the firing and the break-up. Typically, chick lit would harp on these issues throughout the story, but Flowers uses these quietly to help Pru grow. Pru wrestles with finding a new job. While developing a new life plan, she meets John Owen, who has recently separated from his wife. They develop a friendship that sits on the fence of "something more" throughout the whole book. The relationship feels very real, in the sense of people who are reluctant to give it another go. In the meantime, Pru's sister Patsy moves to the East Coast. Patsy and her daughter end up moving in with Pru, while both sisters recover from job loss and hurt.

This quickly goes from being a story about a girl to a story about a girl and her family. There are many important characters in this book, and Flowers does a great job developing them. Pru, Patsy, John, and Pru's mother are all drawn up so wonderfully.

However, like chick lit, this story ends happily, and that's always nice.

Grade: A/A-

BTW, this is my 44th book.