Review: By the Numbers by Jen Lancaster

By the Numbers

by Jen Lancaster

Publisher: NAL

Pages: 304

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  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 middle 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...

Kritters Thoughts:  I love Jen Lancaster.  I love her memoir style books.  After reading this book, I have read two out of the four fiction books that she has written and so far I am a fan of her fiction too!

Penny Sinclair is now a divorced mother of three children who have all left her in an empty nest.  They have all come home for the wedding of one of her daughters and when the gang gets back together - drama ensues!  Not only do the children return, but her ex husband returns with his new much younger lady.

I loved this book.  I loved how it included stories from the past in an interesting way, they were woven into the main story in just the right way.  

Jen Lancaster just knows how to write.  I like how she creates her characters and then how they interact, sometimes it feels so real that it makes me want to befriend or even kick some of them!  I love the predicaments that Jen Lancaster gets her characters in and out of.  

I need to move the other fiction by Jen Lancaster up my TBR pile!


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Berkley NAL.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.