A Very Typical Family

Sierra Godfrey is the author of A Very Typical Family, a light, summertime read to take your mind off your troubles. The main character is Natalie Walker who lives in Boston with her best friend, is going out with her best friend's brother, and just lost the promotion she thought she deserved to her best friend's brother. She gets a letter from a lawyer stating her mother had died. Her mother left the family mansion in Santa Cruz, California to her three children on the condition they all gather at the house before 3 months is up. Now that she is out of a job and she is unhappy with her significant other for taking her job away from her, she decides to grab her cat and drive across the country to California to see the siblings she hasn't seen in ten years. Ten years earlier, while their unreliable mother was away from home, Natalie called the police while her older siblings were having a party because her sister hit her head really hard. The party was busted and her older siblings were sentenced to jail for providing drugs to other kids. Natalie feels guilt about that and assumes her siblings hate her. The story was entertaining and emotional and funny in spots. The only thing that didn't ring true for me was Natalie's boyfriend, the brother of her best friend, insisted on marrying her after she said no, after he took her job, after he complained about her habits and her cat and her personality. Why would he want to marry someone who annoys him that much? Natalie dodged a bullet there.