Product Description

Meredith McKay has gone to a lot of trouble to create the picture-perfect life for herself-far away from her troublesome family, thank you. When her father+s car accident forces her back to her hometown, however, she soon discovers that there+s no running away from family issues-there+s only delaying the inevitable. Can anyone sort out a lifetime of drama in one hot summer? Throw in a hot guy from back in high school with an ax to grind, a best friend turned enemy turned soon-to-be-sister-in-law, and of course, the sometimes irritating, sometimes delightful members of her own family, and Meredith is on her way to figuring out that a trip through the past is the best way to move forward. With one revelation after another coming to light, Meredith must reexamine all the things she+s ever believed, including the truth about herself. Could it be that she isn+t the picture-perfect good girl she always thought she was?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #509847 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 264 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780446694339
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
Crane shows a growing depth. The humor we enjoyed in Crane's debut bubbles up here, too. -- Library Journal Library Journal

About the Author
MEGAN CRANE lives in Los Angeles, California

Customer Reviews

excellent chick lit contemporary romance
Several years ago twenty-eight years old Meredith McKay fled the Hoboken area to escape her pain in the butt family and feels good about her life as she likes her job and her boyfriend. When her brother Christian calls demanding she come home to help care for their father while he heals from a broken leg he received in a car accident, she wants to say no as their dad has three adult children with two living nearby. However, being the responsible one she arranges time off from work to come home so that her mother can continue her tour of Europe without knowing of her spouse's accident.

Girl code insures that Meredith behaves when she sees her former best friend from high school Jeannie though she would prefer to slap her once pal, but she is Christian's fiancée. She keeps her sister Hope and Christian from killing one another while tending to her father's needs. Meredith cannot wait to get out of Dodge until she meets sexy Scott Sheridan, whom she and her crowd tormented in high school as befitting nerd status. They share torrid sex, which she finds divine and he finds as retribution for what Meredith and her merrymakers did to him a decade ago.

This chick lit contemporary romance is refreshed by Meredith's reassessment of her seemingly dysfunctional family as she draws different conclusions the second time around by living with them as she grows from scorn to understanding. The cast is solid as her siblings, her future sister-in-law, her lover, and her dad turn Meredith's cushy world upside down. Meredith's maturation is handled with humor and pathos so that the sub-genre fans receive a wonderful tale.

Harriet Klausner

great voice, humorous yet touching
I read this one before her debut novel, English as a Second Language, and though both are good, this one surpasses her first. Ms. Crane really brings out the characters and fleshes out the story more in the this one, they are far more believable and less part of the background. Both of her heroines have been flawed (aren't we all), but I found Merediths voice to be more substantial, and her family is a riot. Having gone through the similar experience of moving home after college, I can say that I empathized with everything she was going through trying to fit back into a life she had mostly outgrown, and in the end, accepts in a new way. I think Ms. Crane's writing will just get better and better, her sense of humor is fantastic, laugh out loud funny, and her stories are deeper than what is seen on surface. Her grasp of the trials and tribulations of friendship is very sharp. Looking forward to Frenemies.

Hot and Insightful
Megan Crane is a great novelist. I found this book to be an unexpectedly compelling read (unexpectedly because I'd never heard of Megan Crane and wasn't expecting much.) The character development here is exquisite and--in a departure from most chick lit--100% organic. These aren't prepackaged stereotypes for your absent-minded pool-side consumption. The first person narration skillfully weaves a tale from the slightly flawed, somewhat narrow viewpoint of the heroine while the reader has the delight (and the trauma) of watching her grow. The events are satisfying but realistic--no perfect, candy-coated solutions here--and so much better for it. This book is funny and wry and very observant. Certain lines, universal truths that I'm not sure anyone has ever put into words before, will never leave me. And The Guy is INCREDIBLY HOT!