87. Back in the Burbs by Tracy Wolff and Avery Flynn

listened on Audible

2021
400 pgs.
Genre/Level
Finished 8/9/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.81
My rating: 3.5
Setting: contemporary suburban NJ

My comments: My feelings about the protagonist, Mallory, kept switching b ack and fort, just like her attitude towards Nick.  I guess the theme of the novel is if you want to get to know yourself, you have to trust yourself.  Some of it was very cute, some of it was very tedious, and some o fit really made me think deeply.  Not very believable, especially the way Mallory's mom makes such changes in her thinking.  Oh well, it's a novel.  A cute one when I wasn't groaning to get on with it.

Goodreads synopsis:   Ever have one of those days where life just plain sucks? Welcome to my last three months—ever since I caught my can’t-be-soon-enough ex-husband cheating with his paralegal. I’m thirty-five years old, and I’ve lost my NYC apartment, my job, my money, and frankly, my dignity.

But the final heartache in the suck sandwich of my life? My great-aunt Maggie died. The only family member who’s ever gotten me.  Even after death, though, she’s helping me get back up. She’s willed me the keys to a house in the burbs, of all places, and dared me to grab life by the family jewels. Well, I’ve got the vise grips already in hand (my ex should take note) and I’m ready to fight for my life again.

Too bad that bravado only lasts as long as it takes to drive into Huckleberry Hills. And see the house.
There are forty-seven separate HOA violations, and I feel them all in my bones. Honestly, I’m surprised no one’s “accidentally” torched the house yet. I want to, and I’ve only been standing in front of it for five minutes. But then my hot, grumpy neighbor tells me to mow the lawn first and I’m just...done. Done with men too sexy for their own good and done with anyone telling me what to do ever again.

First rule of surviving the burbs? There is nothing that YouTube and a glass of wine can’t conquer.