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If You Were Here

3.5 of 5 stars 3.50 · rating details · 5,378 ratings · 928 reviews

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The fiction debut of the New York Times bestselling author of My Fair Lazy.

Told in the uproariously entertaining voice readers have come to expect from Jen Lancaster, If You Were Here follows Amish-zombie-teen- romance author Mia and her husband Mac (and their pets) through the alternately frustrating, exciting, terrifying-but always funny-process of buying...more

Hardcover, 306 pages

Published May 3rd 2011 by NAL Hardcover (first published April 13th 2011)

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May 28, 2013 Angela rated it 2 of 5 stars

If I'm being completely honest, the two star rating is probably not entirely fair. I suspect that had I not been a fan of Lancaster's breezy, snarky memoirs going into If You Were Here, her first work of fiction, I might have enjoyed it quite a bit more. But I am a fan of her memoirs, and despite my best efforts to enjoy Here on its own merits, I couldn't help but compare it to her previous material--and those comparisons most certainly did not help its star cause.

Lancaster takes the age-old wri...more

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Jun 16, 2013 Elena rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: chick-lit, fiction-novels-bestsellers, humor

I am a huge Jen Lancaster fan, and her memoirs often make me laugh out loud. Her first foray into fiction was ok, but certainly not her best. The plot centers around Mia and Mac repairing a money pit of a house in Abington Cambs, the John Hughes hallowed grounds. Her war on Stephanie Meyers was hilarious- I loved the Amish Teen zombies in love jokes- and there were many laughs throughout. But because I have read all of her novels, and often read her blog, I know her reach into fiction wasn't rea...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Joellen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jen's schtick is growing old for me. Predictable and far-fetched. The only thing that saved it for me was her tendency toward footnotes. I am a sucker for footnotes, it's like being in a meeting, lecture, sermon, etc, and having a very sarcastic* person sitting next to you whispering comments.

*and I know quite a few of these

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Mar 15, 2011 Gertie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: chick-lit, humor

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 12, 2013 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is Jen Lancaster's first foray into fiction but as you read it, you will find it hard to separate this one from her autobiographical books. This completes my series of books written by this author. I actually read her most recent one right before this one because it was from the library and brand new. When I have a brand new book, I like to get it read and then return it to the library as quickly as I can since I know that others are waiting for it.

My daughter introduced me to Bitter Is The...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Ciara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

i didn't realize when i checked this out of the library that it was a novel, & i admit it, my first reaction when i did realize it was, "ugh." i have written before about how i am not always the biggest fan of jen lancaster's middle-aged sorority girl republican-voting style, but at least in her (numerous) memoirs, she is confined to events that actually happened. i worried about what might happen when she was let loose in a fictional terrain. the answer: ...pretty much the exact same kind o...more i didn't realize when i checked this out of the library that it was a novel, & i admit it, my first reaction when i did realize it was, "ugh." i have written before about how i am not always the biggest fan of jen lancaster's middle-aged sorority girl republican-voting style, but at least in her (numerous) memoirs, she is confined to events that actually happened. i worried about what might happen when she was let loose in a fictional terrain. the answer: ...pretty much the exact same kind of book as one of her memoirs, but with a little more narrative cohesion.

the plot follows a reasonably well-off couple that bears a marked resemblence to jen & her own husband. they decide the time is nigh to move out of the city when they inadvertently find themselves in the midst of a battle with a local gangbanger that actually devolves to drive-by shootings. (so you have your little soupcon of race/class discomfort that you can expect from pretty much every lancaster book.) after weeks of scouting fancy digs in posh suburbs, the narrator discovers that the jake ryan house is on the market--the house that jake ryan, heartthrob of "16 candles" lived in in the movie. it's not in great shape, but she is determined that she & her husband can fix it up & make it great.

what ensues is everything that could possibly go wrong with a home renovation project, & two people discovering that they were not cut out to live in a posh suburb. things go from bad to worse to truly mind-boggling, almost as if lancaster had been reading all those fiction-writing books about how your character has to hit rock bottom before you resolve the narrative conflict & tack on a merry denouement in which everything works out for everyone, even the best friend who is outed as a nationally-syndicated sex columnist to her very traditional indian parents.

it's all a bit formulaic, & painfully autobiographical in places, but it was a pleasant enough romp. it got me through a rough evening of pregnancy nausea, which is all i really want from a book these days.(less)

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Jul 17, 2012 Karen Hansen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have a lot of love for Jen Lancaster as an author and I think that's what has bumped this review to three stars. Lancaster always makes me laugh and when I read her books, I feel like I am hearing a close friend spill about their life. She has a great way of bonding with readers, drawing me in and making me feel like I am a friend. As a writer, I think that this is a wonderful skill and something that a lot of other writers are unable to accomplish.

"If You Were Here" marks Lancaster's departur...more I have a lot of love for Jen Lancaster as an author and I think that's what has bumped this review to three stars. Lancaster always makes me laugh and when I read her books, I feel like I am hearing a close friend spill about their life. She has a great way of bonding with readers, drawing me in and making me feel like I am a friend. As a writer, I think that this is a wonderful skill and something that a lot of other writers are unable to accomplish.

"If You Were Here" marks Lancaster's departure from non-fiction, a story about a couple who buy the house used for the character Jake Ryan in the John Hughes classic "Sixteen Candles." The house ends up being a complete renovation nightmare and surrounded by bitter neighbors who didn't want the house sold in the first place. The couple quickly go from bliss to homeowner hell.

As a long time fan of Lancaster's non-fiction books, I had a difficult time separating the two main characters of Mia and Mac from Lancaster and her husband, Fletch. Mia and Mac were just so similar in tone to the way Lancaster has always portrayed her husband and herself. I felt like Lancaster had always wanted to buy the Jake Ryan house, so she inserted herself/her own personality in a fictional scenario. Even though I love Lancaster, I wanted different characters for this story.

Also, with the notable exception of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", I am not a John Hughes fan. I don't at all relate to his movies and they in no way resemble my teen years. I know that his is a huge icon for many people my age, but I just don't get his movies. This immediately made it difficult for me to relate to the character of Mia in the story and I feel that this was a significant reason for my feeling distant.

I've been through home remodel hell. I get it and many portions of this book had me nodding in understanding. However, the home repairs seemed to never end and after awhile, it went from humorous to tedious. The story could have used some editing in the last third or maybe a different plot direction. It grew old.

I still love Lancaster, but this fiction attempt fell flat.(less)

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Jul 14, 2012 Sara Strand rated it 1 of 5 stars

OK. Now all of Jen's previous books had been memoirs, with my hands down favorite being Such a Pretty Fat. I've read every book of hers, but that one is hands down her best. Every book after it has gotten worse (for me) and basically feel as if she's trying too hard. The kicker is that she doesn't need to- she's a naturally funny person, but I feel like maybe she's done what she could with memoirs. So when it was announced she was doing a fiction book... I was thrilled.

Until I read it. First of...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Angela Risner rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am a huge fan of Jen Lancaster's. I wish I could write as well as she does.

This is her first foray into fiction. At least that's what the book says. But I have to say, it felt more autobiographical than fiction. It's still the fantastic and hilarious writing we've come to expect from Jen, either way.

Jen and her lead character, Mia, are admirers of John Hughes. When Mia and her husband Mac (who sounds an awful lot like Fletch, Jen's real-life hubby) go looking for a house, they head to the subu...more

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Apr 21, 2012 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, chick-lit, fiction, signed-copy

Mac and Mia are tired of the graffiti artist thugs in the neighborhood in which they rent their house. They decide it's time to take the plunge and buy a house in the Chicago suburbs. And not just any suburb in Chicago - they want to move to the suburb that John Hughes used for his movies' settings. They look at several homes but can't find their dream house. Instead they buy a fixer-upper that will test their home improvement knowledge and their marriage.

I love Jen Lancaster. Because I've read...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Jessica rated it 1 of 5 stars

Do not read this book if you haven't ever purchased a house or watched a whole lot of HGTV. The real-estate lingo got old REAL fast, and this is coming from someone who HAS recently bought a house.

Also, don't read this book if you'll be distracted by the fact that it's supposed to be a "novel." Maybe some of the plot is fictionalized, but the main characters of "Mia" and "Mac" are very thinly disguised versions of "Jen" and "Fletch". Even the poor suckers who are friends with these "characters"...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Teena in Toronto rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is the sixth book I've read by this author. I like her writing style ... it's funny and sarcastic. My one complaint about her style has always been her use of footnotes. I find them distracting having to look down then back up to find my spot. Just include them in the paragraph.

This is her first fiction ... the rest of have been memoirs of her life. Lancaster may as well have just kept real names as they are so similar ... I could definitely hear Lancaster's voice. Mia is really Jen; Mac is...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Megan rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was an enjoyable book and I'd recommend it - for reading or listening. The main reason I gave it 3 instead of 4 stars is because right as I started this (and it took me awhile to finish because I was listening mostly on my 1/2 hour drive home from work), I had just finished Lancaster's Bitter is the New Black. I feel like Mia, the main character is just a variation of Lancaster herself. This isn't a bad thing, but it was just a little too much Jen/Mia in a short amount of time.
The pretense...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Anne Marsh rated it 3 of 5 stars

I love Jen Lancaster-- I really do. Her BITTER IS THE NEW BLACK is the first trade paperback I ever impulse-purchased from Borders and I never regretted it. She's made me howl with laughter while commuting (which has the added advantage of your seat mate inching over to give you more space). But this book... I'm just not sure how I feel about it. IF YOU WERE HERE is supposed to be a novel. It reads, however, like another of Jen's memoirs (which is not a bad thing). It certainly has Jen's tradema...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Karen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm sorry. I wanted to like this book. I really did. But how long it took me to get through it is a testament to the contrary. The author has great skill in transcribing her character's thoughts into narration. the "thinking process" felt true and accurate. However, when it comes to what goes on inside our heads--the minute to minute, hour to hour drone--I think most of it ought to be left to the thinker. Frankly, I was not at all engaged with the main character, thus her internal conversations...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Kimi rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

Jen Lancaster usually writes humorous memoirs about her life with her husband and dogs, her family and friends. This is her first foray into writing fiction. Turns out it is a thinly-disguised story about her life with her husband and dogs, her family and friends. To be fair, I haven't read any of her other books and they are supposed to be quite good, or at least some of them are. She wrote Bitter is the New Black and My Fair Lazy, along with a few others. Her style of writing would work better...more Jen Lancaster usually writes humorous memoirs about her life with her husband and dogs, her family and friends. This is her first foray into writing fiction. Turns out it is a thinly-disguised story about her life with her husband and dogs, her family and friends. To be fair, I haven't read any of her other books and they are supposed to be quite good, or at least some of them are. She wrote Bitter is the New Black and My Fair Lazy, along with a few others. Her style of writing would work better in memoirs. Fiction needs a much stronger plot.

It started off okay in a lightweight summer beach read sort of way. Mia, a writer of teenage Amish romance novels, and her husband Mac are fed up with their city neighborhood and go looking in the Chicago suburbs for a house to buy, one that they can use the skills they learned from watching HGTV. Mia finds the perfect house, one used in the movie Sixteen Candles, a film by John Hughes whose films she adores. She grew up longing to live in the homes she saw in his films. The house turns out to be more work than they thought it would be.

The book is filled with pop culture references and sarcastic asides (mostly in footnotes) which are funny sometimes although I wonder how many of them most readers would get. There are many references to HGTV programs and John Hughes movies but also to the movie Mean Girls and Stephenie Meyers and Mr. T and Charles in Charge and so on and so on, so many that the weight of them was just too much for the weak plot that it eventually fell in on itself, just like the floor did in the book under the weight of the dropped toilet.

Things I liked about it: It really was funny in parts. It's also exciting in a way when you "get" a cultural reference. Makes me feel like part of a club or something.

Things I did not like about it: The thin plot combined with the overuse of footnotes and pop culture and too much cutesiness (the landlord was a trust-fund 20-something named Vienna Hyatt) got to be too much for me. Another issue for me was the excessive profanity.

Would I recommend it? No, not really.

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May 14, 2011 Rebekah ODell rated it 3 of 5 stars

I love, love, love Jen Lancaster! Such a Pretty Fat is the first book I ever laughed out loud at in my whole life. She’s just one of those writers whom I will always read whether or not I’m interested in the book at face value. But I was nervous when I heard she was writing her first novel and making the jump to fiction. (Perhaps it’s just book snobbery — if it’s a memoir, it’s okay if I read it. If it’s a novel, then I really am reading chick lit.)

I was pleasantly surprised with If You Were Her...more

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Aug 13, 2011 Wicked Lil Pixie (Natasha) rated it 3 of 5 stars

If you grew up in the 1970′s and 1980′s you know the impact John Hughes made. From National Lampoon to Home Alone, Uncle Buck to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, everyone has got a favorite John Hughes movie. You probably still stop what you are doing to watch The Breakfast Club or Pretty in Pink. You also wish Sam chose Duckie and not douche rocket Blane. I could go on for days. Apparently so can Jen Lancaster in her first foray into fiction.

Mia makes a living writing Amish Zombie novels and after som...more If you grew up in the 1970′s and 1980′s you know the impact John Hughes made. From National Lampoon to Home Alone, Uncle Buck to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, everyone has got a favorite John Hughes movie. You probably still stop what you are doing to watch The Breakfast Club or Pretty in Pink. You also wish Sam chose Duckie and not douche rocket Blane. I could go on for days. Apparently so can Jen Lancaster in her first foray into fiction.

Mia makes a living writing Amish Zombie novels and after some “issues” with a gang, it’s time to move from the big City. Mia grew up loving John Hughes movies and has always wanted to live in the suburb were most of his movies were made. Mia and her husband Mac embark on an epic (swear) journey to find the perfect house, but they end up settling…..for Jake Ryan’s house. Said house hasn’t been touched since Sixteen Candles and Mia is convinced all their HGTV viewing will help them DIY the shit out of the house.

If You Were Here is Jen Lancaster’s fiction debut, but make no mistake she is still fall out funny. I did some very unladylike snorts whilst reading and one scene in particular (bathtub reading scene) made me cry, I could picture it happening. It’s also very bittersweet, Mia has a habit of going to place flowers on John Hughes grave and letting him know what’s been going on in her life.

There’s also nods to Mrs. Lancaster’s real life for example Mia’s dogs Duckie (Loki), Daisy (Maisy), etc. So you know Mia is all sorts of Jen and Mac is a little bit of Fletch (Mrs. Lancaster’s husband) things we’ve loved in her memoirs. But rest assured, the writing style is exactly the same, right down to the footnotes.

While I loved the book, I wasn’t a fan of the ending. I felt it came really fast and was wrapped up a bit too neatly for my taste. Especially when we’ve been through issue after issue, and bam there’s the end. On a side note, I had no idea Holmes on Homes aired in the US. There also wasn’t very much momentum, at some points the book dragged for me.

That said, it was cute but I think I like Mrs. Lancaster’s memoirs a bit better. If you’ve never read Mrs Lancaster’s memoirs, you’ll love this book. But if you’ve read the memoirs, you’ll wish she had actually bought the house and told the story instead of the fictionalized version.

Now pardon me, I feel the need to watch Sixteen Candles.(less)

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Aug 11, 2011 Tami rated it 4 of 5 stars

Followers of Ms. Lancaster's blog will recognize the story as a thinly disguised, but humorously exaggerated, retelling of the author's experience with a crumbling rental house, gang-related neighbors, and the trials of purchasing her first home.

Mac and Mia purchase their dream home - a "fixer-upper" - intending to save money by doing the renovations themselves. Soon they are dealing with AWOL contractors, rising stacks of bills, dwindling funds, complaining neighbors and a much larger/lengthi...more

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Jul 27, 2012 Shannon rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've really enjoyed most of Jen Lancaster's books, although as previous reviewers have mentioned, her schtick is starting to wear thin for me. It still took me a long time to get started on this book because it was clear from the beginning that the characters are just very, very loosely fictionalized versions of Jen and Fletch (at least, the Jen and Fletch we know through her memoirs). I find the constant whining about problems with her insanely expensive house on her blog annoying to the point...more

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Nov 16, 2011 Laura Gurrin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

I totally love Jen Lancaster's non-fiction - and there were definitely parts of this book which made me laugh out loud, or read them aloud (to myself, I'll note; they were that good). It was a good read and a good story and I don't feel I wasted my time. But.

The great thing about Jen Lancaster's non-fiction is that you are getting a real person - for better or worse, and sometimes she's more worse - but she's robustly *real*, and that's apparent in her writing. She writes about herself openly a...more

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Sep 16, 2011 Melinda VanLone rated it 3 of 5 stars

Let me start by saying I'm a huge Jen Lancaster fan. I love her memoires, and I think if I met her in person she'd be my kind of people. I love her wit, and her voice. Her blog never ceases to amuse me. So when I picked up her first try at fiction, I fully expected to love it. I really wanted to. This morning, however, I'm putting it down and walking away. I've read a little over half, and then skipped to the last two chapters so I'd have some closure. Let me explain why.

The first third felt a l...more Let me start by saying I'm a huge Jen Lancaster fan. I love her memoires, and I think if I met her in person she'd be my kind of people. I love her wit, and her voice. Her blog never ceases to amuse me. So when I picked up her first try at fiction, I fully expected to love it. I really wanted to. This morning, however, I'm putting it down and walking away. I've read a little over half, and then skipped to the last two chapters so I'd have some closure. Let me explain why.

The first third felt a little slow. It didn't have the same pace that her memoirs usually do. Add the fact that if you've read the memoirs then you know her so well that you can't separate the real Jen from the characters in the book...they ARE her, and her family and friends. So it reads like any other memoir up to a point. But...doesn't. I don't know why it's falling flat for me, I kept looking to see why and I can't explain it. Somewhere around a third of the way it starts to pick up a bit more. They buy a Money Pit and from there on the pacing and tension builds. Unfortunately for me, the tension built so much that I found myself getting completely stressed out! I suddenly realized I was more stressed after reading her book, instead of less, and decid ed to walk away. For some readers, this is a GOOD thing, I realize. It's a good writer that can evoke that kind of emotion in the reader. If you've ever renovated, or bought an older house, or had a horrible landlord...you will probably find a soulmate in this book. If you can separate yourself from the cascade of missteps so that you don't have nightmares from it, you'll probably like this book. If you're even contemplating buying an older fixer upper, you NEED to buy this.

I don't want to leave the impression that this is a bad story. I think it's a decent story. I just got so tense reading it that I don't want to finish it. I have the same reaction to full horror novels, so take what I'm saying here with a grain of salt :-)

So, if you like Jen Lancaster, give this a shot but try to separate what you know of her from the story and read it with an open mind. You'll probably enjoy it. Unless you are like me and get too tense ;-).
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May 21, 2012 CB rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Three stars for the novel, but a solid five stars for the audio version. So an average of four stars.

The narrator was PERFECT for the material, and Lancaster's footnotes were incorporated seamlessly into the story, thus saving me from the usual footnote fatigue that develops when reading Lancaster.

Like the other reviewers who show up on the Goodreads first page for this book, I enjoy Jen Lancaster's voice. I've read most of her memoirs, and will probably continue to read them.

And like other re...more Three stars for the novel, but a solid five stars for the audio version. So an average of four stars.

The narrator was PERFECT for the material, and Lancaster's footnotes were incorporated seamlessly into the story, thus saving me from the usual footnote fatigue that develops when reading Lancaster.

Like the other reviewers who show up on the Goodreads first page for this book, I enjoy Jen Lancaster's voice. I've read most of her memoirs, and will probably continue to read them.

And like other reviewers have noted: fiction, alas, is not her forte. Description, character action, character arcs - not on display at their finest here.

What does work is Lancaster's trademark snark aimed at people beyond her close circle, and Lancaster's ability to find the absurd and to laugh at herself (Mia is SO her, right down to her aversion of nudity and her conservative political values.)

Some of the events that happen to Mia and her husband Fletch - I mean, Mac - are right out of Lancaster's memoirs and blog. And she doesn't try hard to hide it. As others have noted, she substitutes Daisy for Maisy, Lancaster's real life pitbull, and Tracey for Stacey, Jen's -- I mean, Mia's -- best friend who is also a writer. And like her blog and memoirs, that stuff is humorous and rings true.

But when Lancaster steps outside the familiar and adds fictional embellishment, it stops ringing true and becomes transparent and absurd. Case in point: Jen's mortal enemy Vienna Hyatt (get it? get it? Spoiled heiress named after a European city and a hotel chain? Subtlety is not Lancaster's strong suit.) Nor is Hollywood satire in Lancaster's wheelhouse. For satire to work, it has to be grounded in reality - and what Lancaster depicts ain't nowhere near that state, even for LaLaLand.

One gets the feeling that Lancaster wanted to do a memoir about home renovation, figured out the material was too thin, and decided to turn into a novel by tacking on the Hollywood stuff at the end - which made the last 1/4 of the book feel schizophrenic. Nor did the book seem to have a proper ending. It kinda sputtered to the finish line: first there was the ending to the home renovation story, then the resolution to the Hollywood story, and finally an epilogue.

But there were some genuinely funny moments along the way to the end, and the audio book narrator was so pitch perfect that I had a hard time stopping the book when I needed to.

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Aug 23, 2011 Lindy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: chicago

I don't know why I still read each Jen Lancaster book. I have next to nothing in common with her, and she tends to be quite annoying in her neuroses, and yet I inevitably find myself with a copy of her newest book in hand - not even having remembered reserving it from the library. It's a strange phenomenon. Anyway, I doubt I will like this much better than the previous books, but here goes...

Update: Oh, Jen Lancaster, you were hovering so close to 4 stars. This book was actually quite amusing. N...more

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Aug 17, 2011 Ingrid rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-reads, 2011-summer, audio, fiction, chick-lit

I don't want to blast Jen Lancaster out of the water, but I found this book tedious, self-indulgent, and unoriginal. Why did I keep listening after the first two chapters? I was hoping it would get better. I was encouraged by the John Hughes references and wanted to find out what would happen with it. I hate not finishing books I start. I am trying to hit 52 books this year and can't put down a book because it's not my taste. Which this isn't.

I don't like books with an excess of fleeting pop cul...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Kelli rated it 2 of 5 stars

I didn't understand this book. My friend clued me in that it was fiction and not another of Jen's usual memoirs, but then I started it only to discover it was written exactly like her memoirs. So I guess her real life wasn't currently interesting enough to warrant another book?

I love Jen's other books. Her style and voice are hilarious and I truly enjoy my time spent with her during her escapades in "culturing up" or "meeting" her neighbors. And you get more of that same thing with her fictiona...more

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Aug 24, 2011 Kara rated it 4 of 5 stars

“If You Were Here” is the first novel written by Jen Lancaster after five absolutely hysterical memoirs. Jen has made it clear via her blog, Jennsylvania.com, her choice to write this as a novel was based on how boring her life has become now that she and her husband have become normal people. And the fact that she does not want to be sued by people she might write about.

This is the story of Mia and Mac. They are living in a rental house in the city. When they decide to purchase the house the l...more “If You Were Here” is the first novel written by Jen Lancaster after five absolutely hysterical memoirs. Jen has made it clear via her blog, Jennsylvania.com, her choice to write this as a novel was based on how boring her life has become now that she and her husband have become normal people. And the fact that she does not want to be sued by people she might write about.

This is the story of Mia and Mac. They are living in a rental house in the city. When they decide to purchase the house the landlady blocks all attempts. Thanks to a battle between Mac and the neighborhood gang members, Mia, Mac, the dogs, and all the cats decide to move to the suburbs. They set out to buy a house in Mia’s dream neighborhood. The novel follows them through the searching process until eventually they find a home to settle in. Mia, Mac, and the pets move into their new home and slowly realize they have purchased the money pit, their landlady is out for revenge, the neighbors are hell-bent on making their lives miserable, and Mia has a book to finish.

Being a huge Jen fan I was both looking forward to this novel and dreading it. What would it be about? Would it be nearly as funny? Why can’t she simply keep being a jerk for my entertainment? Kidding about that last part. Sort of.

Since I was not sure how I felt about the novel it took me a few months to finally pick it up. When I started reading it I felt like I was reading about Jen and Fletch again. For anyone who has read the memoirs, this novel honestly reads like she wrote a farfetched story about their home buying experience and then did a find/replace all command to replace Jen with Mia and Fletch with Mac. She even went so far as to rename her Pitbull Maisy, Daisy. This and the fact that Jen never gave character descriptions for any of her characters was very distracting for the first forth of the book.

In the first few chapters, Mia feels the need to explain that she is a nice person until she is pushed. This is different from the Jen we know from her memoirs. The pains at which Jen goes to convince the reader Mia is not Jen via this detail was annoying. A simple description of how Mia physically differs from Jen would have set the two of them apart and would have gone a long way to remind the fan reader this is not another memoir.

I am not certain when it happened but near the half way marker I noticed I really was enjoying the book. I don’t know that I was ever able to read “Mia” and not think “Jen” and I know I wasn’t able to read “Mac” and not think “Fletch” but the humor was able to get me through this book.

I did laugh out loud like I did with all of Jen’s other work.

I did find the situations Mai got herself into outrageous and that is very Jen.

Reflecting on this book as a fan of Jen’s, I give it 4 stars. I really liked it.

I can’t help but wonder what I would have thought if I didn’t know Jen’s work so well. Not having an image of any of the characters would probably drive me out of my mind.

I recommend this to all Jen Lancaster fans. If you don’t know Jen, I recommend you pick up Bitter is The New Black right away! You will not be disappointed. (less)

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Dec 08, 2012 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

If You Were Here is an outrageous, fun read and one that taught me more than I ever knew (or wanted to know) about John Hughes movies. Somehow, I managed to miss that part of teenybopperhood, and never was inclined to see the films discussed ad nauseum.

It made for a good story concept, though.

While the first half of the book could easily pass as standard Jen Lancaster memoirs, with names changed so that it could be classified as "fiction", once the ball got rolling, the story came into its own....more

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Mar 19, 2011 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: comedy

Hilarious! Down to earth! And is a great novel! That is all I have to say...

Quick synopsis! Mia and her husband Mac love their current home... except for two things their landlord -- a wannabe Paris Hilton -- and the fact that they are suddenly in a war with a gangbanger neighbor who just happens to tag their garage! So amidst all odds, they decide to move after trying to buy their current home. So they spend weeks and weeks looking for a home... viola they find one... but boy is it a doozy! Th...more

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Jul 09, 2011 Kate Maxwell rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: looking to laugh out loud

Shelves: chic-lit, contemp, humorous

First off, I do have to mention that you need to know a little about John Hughes and his movies, particularly ‘Sixteen Candles.’ The only reason I mention this is because it plays such a prominent part of the story. I loved the humor in this book, as it is quite over-the-top! Suspending reality helps to enjoy this story….as it is a story of home renovation gone WAY wrong!

Mia and Mac are tired of living in the city limits of Chicago, as they do not feel safe in the home they are renting from soci...more

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About Jen Lancaster

Jen Lancaster is the author of her own memoirs including: as Bitter is the New Black, Bright Lights, Big Ass, Such A Pretty Fat, Pretty in Plaid, My Fair Lazy, and the newest: Jeneration X.

She has also dabbled with fiction in her first book, If You Were Here.

More about Jen Lancaster...

Books by Jen Lancaster

Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest To Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, Or Why Pie is Not The Answer

Pretty in Plaid: A Life, a Witch, and a Wardrobe, or, the Wonder Years Before the Condescending, Egomanical, Self-Centered Smart-Ass Phase

My Fair Lazy: One Reality Television Addict's Attempt to Discover If Not Being A Dumb Ass Is the New Black, or, a Culture-Up Manifesto

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