IF YOU WERE HERE

Humorist Jen Lancaster’s breezy, conversational style translates well into the audiobook format in her first work of fiction. Jamie Heinlein is well cast as Mia, the sweetly sarcastic narrator. Mia’s success as an author of Amish teen zombie books has given her the means to move to a nicer neighborhood. A lifelong obsession with John Hughes movies leads her to buy “Jake Ryan’s house” from the movie SIXTEEN CANDLES—a disaster of a fixer-upper that threatens to undo her career, pocketbook, and marriage. Heinlein responds to each crisis with a light touch and deft comic timing. She resists the temptation to play into Mia’s snarky side, keeping her charmingly accessible as she endures a spiral of indignities with pluck and irreverent wit. A.M.R. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2011]