Book Review: Love, Suburban Style by Wendy Markham

Read and reviewed for Armchair Interviews.

The fatal day that everything fell apart, Meg Addams decided to leave Manhattan for the wholesome suburban life-style of Glenhaven Park. The small suburban town that she grew up in. She assumed that moving out of the big city wasn’t going to be a problem for either her or her fifteen year old daughter Cosette. Well, other that re-adjusting their lives from the rhythms of the city that never sleeps to those of small town living. However there were things Meg hadn’t expected that were making that transition a less than easy experience.

Glenhaven Park had, in Meg’s absence changed. Many of the inhabitants were more wealthy than the blue-collared inhabitants Meg grew up with, the main street has been invaded by upscale boutiques and posh eateries. On top of everything else, Meg had not expected her house to be truly haunted (although it had that reputation when she was a kid). She also did not expect her next door neighbor to her high school crush. Neither did she expect the fact that he was a hunk and that she found herself attracted to him still.

What follows is a wacky story of homecoming, romance and finding ones place in new but familiar surroundings. Meg and her daughter bump into each other (teen conflict combined with the added stresses of moving), their home’s un-earthly co-inhabitant, and their new neighbor Sam and his two children. While Meg and Sam try and figure out their attraction to each other, Cosette and Ben (Sam’s eldest), find themselves attracted to each other and in a fledgling relationship of their own. Wendy Markham has written a contemporary romance that will please the older chick lit fan with a quick paced and movingly funny plot. This book has a quirky and funny look at life as a single mom dealing with major life changes, a teen age daughter who is testing her limits, a ghostly inhabitant who may or may approve of sharing a house with Meg and Cosette, and a growing attraction to her neighbor Sam.