‘Nice to Come Home To’ a new take on chick lit
The characters are too shallow, to the point of almost being insulting to women, and the plots are usually predictable, with the goal being to land a man.
“Nice to Come Home To” by Rebecca Flowers isn’t your average chick lit. Yes it does fall into some of the traps of the genre, but for the most part it sets itself apart from other books in the same vein.
Prudence Whistler, at 36, has been fired from her job and dumped by her boyfriend. Her girlfriends have all had babies, and even her gay best friend is tying the knot. Pru finds herself very far away from her carefully crafted five-year plan, which would have had her married with children by now.
Pru fully has embraced the societal expectations put on women, and having not met them, she feels empty and lost. As she struggles to find her way, she discovers an abundance of support around her and almost accidentally finds herself feeling content.
So maybe plans were overrated. They never worked out as you thought they would, anyway.
Of course, nothing is easy, and Pru has a lot of ups and downs. Every time she thinks she’s back on her feet the rug gets pulled out from under her. But that’s life, isn’t it?
“Nice to Come Home To,” now out in paperback, does incorporate the typical chick lit staples of the gay best friend and the desperation of a single woman in her 30s. However, the book moves past those pitfalls as Flowers develops characters readers really can relate to — seriously.
Pru is just coming in to her own, she may not realize it, but the reader does. Flowers explores her journey with wit and charm, and ultimately illustrates that you can’t always plan your own happy ending.
