From the publisher:
Perfect for fans of Maria Semple and Jennifer Weiner, this smart and witty debut novel follows Ramona through the forty-eight hours after her life has been upended by the discovery of her husband’s affair and an approaching Category Four hurricane.
Ramona’s got a bratty boss, a toddler teetering through toilet training, a critical mom who doesn’t mind sharing, and oops—a cheating husband. That’s how a Category Four hurricane bearing down on her life in Savannah becomes just another item on her to-do list. In the next forty-eight hours she’ll add a neighborhood child and the class guinea pig named Clarence Thomas to her entourage as she struggles to evacuate town.
Ignoring the persistent glow of her minivan’s check engine light, Ramona navigates police check points, bathroom emergencies, demands from her boss, and torrential downpours while fielding calls and apology texts from her cheating husband and longing for the days when her life was like a Prince song, full of sexy creativity and joy.
Thoroughly entertaining and completely relatable, None of This Would Have Happened if Prince Were Alive is the hilarious, heartwarming story of a woman up to her elbows in calamities and about to drive off the brink of the rest of her life.
https://amzn.to/3vL0r7z
Ramona catches her husband cheating, setting off a chain of events that culminates with a Category 4 hurricane. Savannah is under hurricane watch, but Ramona has more than the storm on her mind; her daughter is struggling with potty training, her son needs to take care of the class guinea pig during the storm, the sixteen-year-old boy next door is living alone, and her mother refuses to leave her ramshackle waterfront home. Things get even more complicated when Ramona throws her husband out, piles her kids plus the teen next door into her minivan, and takes off for safer ground. Her mom refuses to go, but says she will evacuate with a friend. Ramona hits the road and doesn’t mind stopping for food and mini-golf, but then finds out her mother has decided to stay put; she piles everyone back in the car and heads back into the eye of the storm. Meanwhile, her husband’s fling keeps calling, he keeps texting apologies, and her boss/best friend ignores her advice and has an affair with the expected results. It’s all too much and in Prusa’s hands, too funny. Caring for her kids and her mom puts Ramona squarely in the sandwich generation, but Ramona manages to handle it all with aplomb while providing cultural touchstones along the way.
Verdict: Family drama has never been so much fun! Readers who enjoy books by Maria Semple, Jennifer Weiner, and Laurie Gelman should enjoy this debut.
©Library Journal, 2022
11/2022 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF PRINCE WERE ALIVE by Carolyn Prusa. Atria Books (November 8, 2022) ISBN: 978-1982188863. 336p.
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