More Like Her by Liza Palmer

More Like Her
Liza Palmer
2012, 309 pgs
Purchased

Book Summary from Goodreads

What really goes on behind those perfect white picket fences?

InFrances's mind, beautiful, successful, ecstatically married Emma Dunham is the height of female perfection.Frances, recently dumped with spectacular drama by her boyfriend, aspires to be just like Emma. So do her close friends and fellow teachers, Lisa and Jill. But Lisa's too career-focused to find time for a family. And Jill's recent unexpected pregnancy could have devastating consequences for her less-than-perfect marriage.

Yet sometimes the golden dream you fervently wish for turns out to be not at all what it seems--like Emma's enviable suburban postcard life, which is about to be brutally cut short by a perfect husband turned killer. And in the shocking aftermath, three devastated friends are going to have to come to terms with their own secrets . . . and somehow learn to move forward after their dream is exposed as a lie.

My Summary

This book was a disappointment for me. I’m going to start with the couple things I did like – the male romantic lead was Sam, and he was adorable, great Southern manners, tall, and just a great guy. There were also a few great insights about how Frannie always assumes that how a relationship heads is a guys choice. When Lisa tells Frannie “You choose where this goes” – I really liked that quote.

I don’t like the term “chick-lit” for quite a few reason, but the biggest one is that it’s used to describe to broad a range of books. Here are some fairly prolific “chick-lit” authors (all of whom I like/love) and where they fall on the scale from super light reading to fairly heavy, tears will be involved, but will still end happy (I think there are three general criteria for something being labeled as chick lit –female author/protagonist, some romance, and a happy ending).

Very Light and Enjoyable
Sophia Kinsella
Meg Cabot

I love both of these authors, but these books rarely cause me to stop and think. They are just fun, usually quick reads with likeable characters.

Still light, but with some insight and more depth
Liza Palmer (current review)
Lauren Weisenberger

Enjoyable, but with heavier themes, characters have more depth
Claire Lazebnik
Barbara O’Neal

So Palmer’s novels usually fit into the middle for me. This book felt like she was trying to move into the more serious category, but didn’t make it.

The prologue starts with a 911 call (I’m not going to say what it was about) so you start chapter one knowing something bad is coming. Then in the first chapter you’re introduce to the main character Frannie. The book is written in first person and all the main characters, except Frannie, have four letter, very common first names – Jill, Lisa, and Emma. I was at least 40 pages into the book before I was able to truly distinguish which character was which when they entered a scene.

About the time I was actually starting to get into the book and enjoy it, the event that caused the 911 call happens, and it was just WAY too heavy for the tone of the book. It was jarring and abrupt and since the rest of the book was Frannie dealing with the fallout from that event I never really got back into it.

Next, while I loved Lisa’s advice to Frannie, I felt like Frannie incorporated it into her life/actions too quickly. When your natural reaction to a situation has been to do things a certain way for a decade, one piece of advice doesn’t change that in a week.

My Rating
5 out of 10 stars