Review: Sisters Like Us

Sisters Like Us

About the Book:

Divorce left Harper Szymanski with a name no one can spell, a house she can't afford and a teenage daughter who's pulling away. With her fledgling virtual-assistant business, she's scrambling to maintain her overbearing mother’s ridiculous Susie Homemaker standards and still pay the bills, thanks to clients like Lucas, the annoying playboy cop who claims he hangs around for Harper's fresh-baked cookies.

Spending half her life in school hasn't prepared Dr. Stacey Bloom for her most daunting challenge—motherhood. She didn't inherit the nurturing gene like Harper and is in deep denial that a baby is coming. Worse, her mother will be horrified to learn that Stacey's husband plans to be a stay-at-home dad…assuming Stacey can first find the courage to tell Mom she's already six months pregnant.

Separately they may be a mess, but together Harper and Stacey can survive anything—their indomitable mother, overwhelming maternity stores and ex’s weddings. Sisters Like Us is a delightful look at sisters, mothers and daughters in today’s fast-paced world, told with Susan Mallery’s trademark warmth and humor.

My Comments:

If you can get over the fact that the main characters all come across as caricatures, this isn't a bad read.  Harper feels guilty for not making fresh pasta (you know the kind you make with flour and ...I don't know,,, I did it once, definitely didn't think it was worth the trouble and she always layers the table cloths and place mats on her table to create a coordinated look.  She's beyond Suzy Homemaker but now that she is trying to run a business, she just doesn't have time for all that anymore.  

Lucas is Harper's age but dates the twenty year old airhead of the week--but is becoming more and more a part of Harper's life every day.  Where do you think this is going?

Stacey is the stereotypical science nerd.  She just doesn't "get" so many social things, but she marries a kind nurturing man who wants a baby, so she obliges, and is then terrified that she won't love her baby.  Stacey and her husband take in his nephew, who is eighteen.  When Stacey learns he is dating her niece, she gives him the condom talk--and then tells him how he needs to stimulate a woman to orgasm, but the scene comes off not as erotic but as a sadly funny reflection of Stacey's lack of social skills. 

Clearly this book is far more about the characters than about the plot line, which is pretty is obvious from the beginning.  Still, it was an enjoyable and relaxing read, so I'll give it a B. 

Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy via NetGalley.