Everything’s Relative by Jenna McCarthy

• Title:  Everything’s Relative: A Novel
• Author:  Jenna McCarthy
• Genre:  Women’s Fiction
• Pages:  352
• Published:  February 2016 – Berkley
• Source:  Publisher

My take:  Jules, Brooke and Lexi were young girls (12, 8 and 6 respectively) when their father died suddenly leaving them and their mother devastated. Jules took on family responsibilities well above her age level doing what her mother could no longer do. Brooke became the family peace-maker/fixer. Lexi thumbed her nose at everyone. The three girls took these characteristics with them into adulthood. When their mom died twenty years after their dad she left an unexpected inheritance for the three sisters. In order to collect the inheritance they would have to meet specific conditions and they all had to do so or none of them would receive their due.

Jenna McCarthy’s story of sisters drew me in from page one and had me turning the pages quickly. The chapters are short and each is from a different sister’s perspective. I loved seeing the changes in each character and pulled for all three as they tried to accomplish their assignments.

Everything’s Relative is a thoroughly entertaining novel that by turn tugged a few heartstrings and made me laugh out loud. Recommended to fans of contemporary humorous fiction about dysfunctional families.

Pretty Much Screwed by Jenna McCarthy

• Title:  Pretty Much Screwed:  A Novel
• Author:  Jenna McCarthy
• Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
• Published:  July 2015 – Berkley
• Source:  Publisher

My take:  Charlotte Crawford’s husband of twenty years took her out for a nice dinner and told her he wanted a divorce. If that wasn’t bad enough he also told her there was no one else – he just didn’t want to be married to her anymore.

Charlotte’s best friend went through a divorce a year earlier so she knew how hard it would be. When the legal issues were finalized Charlotte had to start living again. She found that being single and dating was a different game than twenty years ago. Jenna McCarthy had me laughing as I read about Charlotte navigating 21st century dating via social media, texting, etc. She really met some winners.

While I liked a lot of this novel I had difficulty believing some of the decisions Charlotte made. That said, I really liked Charlotte’s best friend Lizzy as well as a certain chef named Jesse. I thought the novel wrapped up a bit too neatly but that aspect, along with McCarthy’s gift for telling an entertaining story, made Pretty Much Screwed a perfect beach read.

Spotlight/Giveaway(US): I’ve Still Got It…I Just Can’t Remember Where I Put It by Jenna McCarthy

• I’VE STILL GOT IT…I JUST CAN’T REMEMBER WHERE I PUT IT
• Awkwardly True Tales from the Far Side of Forty
• by Jenna McCarthy
• Berkley Trade Paperback Original
• On-sale: July 1, 2014
• $16.00; ISBN: 978-0-425-27253-4

Welcome to Middle Age! Please check your functioning internal thermostat and razor-sharp memory at the door and pour yourself a nice, stiff drink… 

In the comic tradition of Jen Lancaster, Chelsea Handler, and Nora Ephron, Jenna McCarthy offers her own laugh-out-loud observations on the midlife years in I’VE STILL GOT IT…I JUST CAN’T REMEMBER WHERE I PUT IT: Awkwardly True Tales From the Far Side of Forty (Berkley Trade Paperback, July 1, 2014, $16.00), covering everything from vaginal rejuvenation surgery to bucket lists to why forty-somethings are so tired all the time.

Jenna McCarthy might be forty-something, but she doesn’t feel forty-something. And between complaining about how tired she is, trying to remember what she came in here for and wondering whether she drinks too much, she does not have time for a crisis.

She has, however, had time to crack the mysterious midlife code. She’s figured out how to tame her muffin top, keep the spark in her marriage and probably not die a fiery hoarder’s death. She’s learned the trick to looking ten years younger and the secret to feeling ten times happier (and it only cost $14.99 plus shipping and handling). And she’s discovered the one thing she will need to do for the rest of ever if she’s going to continue to refuse to “dress her age.”

Tackling everything from financial panic to skinny jeans and the meaning of life, I’VE STILL GOT IT…I JUST CAN’T REMEMBER WHERE I PUT IT is a middle age manifesto filled with hilarious misadventures, humiliating confessions and occasional (hot) flashes of genius.

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About the Author:

Jenna McCarthy is the author of six books and lives in Santa Barbara, California. For more information visit Jenna online at www.jennamccarthy.com, www.facebook.com/jennamccarthywrites, and www.twitter.com/jennawrites.

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