By The Numbers

By: Jen Lancaster

Narrated by: Allyson Ryan

The New York Times bestselling author of The Best of Enemies serves up a hilarious new novel of the “sandwich generation.”

Actuary Penny Sinclair has a head for business, and she always makes rational decisions. Knowing that 60% of spouses cheat and 50% of marriages end in divorce, she wasn’t too surprised when her husband had an affair. (That he did so with a woman their daughter’s age? Well, that part did sting a bit.) She just made sure she got everything in the divorce, including their lovely old Victorian house. And as soon as her younger daughter has her hipster-fabulous wedding in the backyard, she’s trading it in for a condo in downtown Chicago...

Well within the average market time in her area, Penny gets an offer on the house. But then life happens. Her children, her parents and her ex come flying back to the nest, all in need of Penny’s emotional—and financial—support. Spread thin, Penny becomes the poster child for the “sandwich generation,” when all she really wanted to do was make managing director, buy a white couch, and maybe go on a Match.com date...

Critic reviews

PRAISE FOR TWISTED SISTERS

“Jen Lancaster mixes sibling rivalry, reality television and body swapping…hilarious.”—HoustonPress.com

“The Real World meets Freaky Friday.”—Rainy Day Ramblings

“Sure to appeal to fans of Helen Fielding, Emily Giffin, Sophie Kinsella, and Jennifer Weiner, Twisted Sisters is Jen Lancaster at her funniest and most, well, twisted.”—Starpulse.com

HERE I GO AGAIN

“This is the only book in twenty years that made me wipe my eyes. Jen Lancaster’s like a modern-day, bawdy Erma Bombeck....I couldn’t put it down!”—Lisa Lampanelli, New York Post

“Entertaining, humorous, and well written, and the characters are perfection.”—Examiner.com

“Mean Girls meets Back to the Future…scathingly witty and lots of fun.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

IF YOU WERE HERE

“A perfect summer read.”—USA Today

“Witty and hilarious.”—People (3½ stars out of 4)

“Bitter may well be the new black, but If You Were Here is the new funny.”—New York Times Bestselling Author Joshilyn Jackson

LOVE LOVE LOVE The Story - Narrator....ehhhh

Jen Lancaster does it again! I loved this story! Rooted for several characters and I wanted to know more before it ended. The only short fall was the narrator. At several points she sounded drunk or suffering from a head cold. It detracted slightly from the story.

Best Lancaster Book of fiction

I love Jen Lancaster's non-fiction. Her fiction? Not until now, and I'm glad I didn't give up. Truly the best one - by far.

The Narrator Ruined This Book

The flat narration and the terrible pronunciation of numerous words was so off-putting, I'm actually reviewing this book only 3/4ths of the way through it because I don't know if I can take it anymore. I've read lots of Jen Lancaster books (listened to them as audiobooks) and usually enjoy them much more. It is hard for me to pick apart the flat narration from the story that seems to be taking a long time to (re)build up.

This book needed a better audio editor to pick up on the terrible pronunciation of "capiche," "hosta," and "conch" among others.

Narrator is bland, slow. Story is good.

I preordered this from Audible without a second thought because I have come to rely on Jen Lancaster for fun, funny and sweet summer reading with equal doses of snark and love. The key to her particular written voice is the pacing and phrasing of her sentences - it's what makes her side splitting funny versus cute. So....the narrator here, Allyson Ryan just wasn't right for Lancaster's tone. Not even a little bit. Ms Ryan is flat, slow and almost a monotone for chapter after chapter. Even in sections where Lancaster readers KNOW that she would be indignant with a designer shoe lover's outrage...there's a disconnect from the words and intention vs the dull, sleepy recitation by the narrator.

The story itself was cute and not Jen's best, but a definite light, summer read with a set of current themes a lot of us can relate to. I wanted to thump the spoiled brats, Kelsey and Jessica every single page and then I realized that was because I really want to thump my girlfriend's daughter.I loved Caroline so much! As always, we can depend on a happy dog in the Lancaster books. Next book though needs a new narrator!!!

Disappointing

I was actually excited to read a book about an actuary but I just couldn’t get invested in any of these characters. The dialogue was stilted and the characters were shallow. Just ugh!