If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Year: 2010
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

From the well-loved author of Knitting Under the Influence and The Smart One and the Pretty One comes a new novel about a young single mother trying to move out of her family's shadow.

Rickie left home a long time ago-so how is it that at the age of twenty-five, she's living with her parents again, and sleeping in the bedroom of her childhood home?

At least one thing has changed since high school: She now has a very sweet but frequently challenging son named Noah, who attends the same tony private LA school she herself attended. Rickie fit in fine when she was a student, but now her age and tattoos make her stand out from all the blond Stepford moms, who are desperate to know why someone so young-and so unmarried-has a kid in first grade.

Already on the defensive, Rickie goes into full mother-tigress mode when her small and unathletic son tells her that the gym teacher is out to get him. She storms the principal's office, only to discover that Andrew Fulton, the coach, is no dumb jock. As her friendship with Andrew develops, Rickie finds herself questioning her assumptions-about motherhood, being a grown-up, and falling in love.

From Publishers Weekly

In LaZebnik's breezy reminder that it's never too late to become a responsible parent (after The Smart One and the Pretty One), Rickie Allen, attached to her tattoos, piercings, and punky dyed hair, is terrified of becoming a suburban soccer mom. Still, this spoiled slacker sees no problem in sponging off her wealthy L.A. parents after her trip to adulthood takes a U-turn when she gets pregnant at 18, drops out of Berkeley, and gets ditched by her biology student boyfriend. By the time Rickie's 25, Noah is enrolled at the exclusive Fenwick School, where Rickie meets coach Andrew Fulton, and soon it's a matter of opposites attracting and Rickie learning to do some growing up. Although a little too feel-good fuzzy, LaZebnik's peek at Rickie's struggles to break free of her shortsighted youthful self-righteousness is zany and sweet.
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From Booklist

Obnoxious, self-deluded, entitled, and angry, single-mom Rickie neither works nor really takes care of her child. Instead, she lives at home with her wealthy parents and complains about being asked to take the dog for a walk. In true chick-lit fashion, Rickies redemption begins by falling for a man she at first hates, her sons P.E. teacher. Its rare in chick lit to find a protagonist so clearly in the wrong that shes almost unlikableusually, the lead character is flawed but in a bumbling, charming way. However, as Rickie starts to grow up, she becomes a little more likable, and by the end, readers will find themselves cheering for her and her son to find their happy ending. An enjoyable beach read from an author (The Smart One and the Pretty One, 2008) who has more to say about motherhood and maturity than is usually found in the genre. --Marta Segal Block