This is a smarter book than I had anticipated. The heroine is smarter, her friends are smarter, even her put-downs are smarter. It is also a love story, of a daughter for her mother. An appreciation of the influence parents and background had for her. And how she has adapted them into her life. It's a shame that this book may be swept under the rug and ignored in favor of other books that receive more publicity. A real sleeper.

...sharing what she knows. Sara Gran does us all the huge favor of neither overreaching for a grand universal plot nor underestimating the validity of what she clearly knows from her own experience and imagination. She's unapologetic as a young woman from the big city writing about growing up, about family, about change and adaptation and cycles-- and breaking those cycles. Her narrator is brave, independent to a fault, and refreshingly aware of the limitations of her own knowledge and experience.
This is a really solid first novel and does not have that awful cutesy show-offy self-consciously "quirky" quality that books about cool young women too often do. Gran is a much more level-headed writer than that. I'm looking forward to her future work.

I loved this novel! I "gobbled it up" in a day, thoroughly engrossed in Mary's life. The humor is subtle, the intense emotions ring true, and it's an easy and satisfying read. I enjoyed spending time with this contempoary heroine who's honest, realistic, a bit of a smartass, and quite likeable!