‘Here, Home, Hope’ a tale of midlife crisis

People handle milestone birthdays in different ways — some embrace the advancement of age with joy and some simply dread getting older.

In Kaira Rouda's dazzling debut novel, “Here, Home, Hope,” a midlife crisis brings a group of friends to a turning point.

The story centers around Kelly Mills Johnson, a suburban wife who has become a bit dissatisfied as her 40th birthday nears. Her adoring husband, Patrick, is a successful and supportive attorney, has a thriving career and love for golf, and her two young sons are active and away at camp for the summer. This leaves Kelly with a lot of time on her hands, trying to figure out how to overcome what she perceives as being her midlife crisis.

Her two best friends appear to have perfect lives — wealthy husbands, interesting careers — and although she has the same type of life homewise, Kelly decides to try to be more like them in the career department.

When her Realtor friend Charlotte suggests that perhaps Kelly would be good at home-staging (the process of getting a home presentable for selling purposes), Kelly decides to expand on her love of interior decorating and give it a try. But before she can even get started, life intervenes with the appearance of her other friend Kathryn who pleads with Kelly to help her with her anorexic teenage daughter Melanie.

Kelly soon has her hands full as she tries to tackle many subjects — her start-up business, her family, her friends and their problems. But in the midst of juggling everything, she comes to realize what's important in life and that maybe her life isn’t quite so bad after all.

Rouda has created a realistic and charming story about a phase in life that nearly all women go through, and she delivers the saga with gentle humor, wise encouragement and heart-touching warmth.