This book is an example of when someone else’s missteps send them into a perfect storm of catastrophes, and you can’t help but sit on the sidelines and chuckle all the while.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this story. The characters were great and easy to relate to. Very funny yet thought provoking.

Thus book was so different and unique! I’m not sure what I really took away from it, but it was worth reading!

Our Lady of the Prairie was a head scratcher. This is not my usual genre personally so I kind of kept waiting for the real drama that was not a denial of the consequences of the narrator's own actions... but it never came. There's a sense of place but it feels a bit unreal because it's all so incidental to her midlife crisis... despite the plot not being for me though, the writing itself was full of skill.

There are so many books out lately having to do with 'Little House on the Prairie', that a reader could be forgiven for thinking this was one of those books. But it isn't. Not by a long shot!

None of the characters seemed particularly likable to me and the narrative is a bit disjointed, jumping from one 'story' to another. Phillipa seems like a spoiled brat to tell the truth and it seems suspicious that she just can't wait to confess her affair to her husband as though the excitement of the telling is part of the attraction.

I have to admit part of my dislike for the book was the constant spouting of liberal views. And I kept waiting for the 'blisteringly funny' parts of the book. This wasn't a bad book - so I'll give it 3 stars. It just isn't a book for me.

Although I liked parts of this book -- and the parts I liked, I liked a lot -- ultimately I think there was just too much going on here. I think I would have really liked a version of this book that focused on the dissolution of Phillipa's marriage, her affair, and uncovering the secrets of her mother-in-law's past and her husband's family. But the past secrets were only ever resolved in an extended fantasy sequence, and then the author also threw in mental illness, the 2004 presidential election, abortion, the Amish, a tornado (which I almost forgot about until just now!), a near plane crash, and a relationship/friendship with a strange townie. The book was too long, yet at the same time I had to go back at times because I felt like I'd missed something. And Phillipa could have solved a lot of her problems by not renting a run-down house with no heat in the middle of nowhere.

From the description, I thought I would really enjoy this book, but it was really kind of a trainwreck. I'm the same age as the protagonist Philippa, so it seemed like the kind of "hen lit" that I've aged into, and it was billed as a funny book. But it was rather depressing instead. Philippa is all over the map with her relationships, her family, and what she wants out of life -- fairly typical mid-life crisis, I guess -- but reading about how she copes with all of this got me down after a while.

There were also very long chapters that didn't really flow -- I think a good editor would have helped -- because I spent considerable time re-reading certain parts to figure out whether I had missed something that would indicate why things went in a certain direction. (The author refers in the acknowledgements to it being a much larger book in the works for 14 years, and that shows -- I think large chunks of it were just taken out, without adding in the transitions that would guide the plot along.)

Maybe some would enjoy this, but given that I'm the perfect demographic for this and it felt so off the mark, I'm not sure what the audience is for this book.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very lighthearted book about serious topics. Sex, desire, aging, family, marriage, politics, parenting, natural disasters, it’s all in here. The writing is quite clever. But perhaps the tone is a bit too light to truly connect the reader emotionally to the characters and their struggles.

Thank you Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for an advanced read in exchange for this review. One thing I've learned is I am not going to like every book. That does not mean it is a bad book. It just means it was not for me. This is how Our Lady of the Prairie is for me. I could not get into this book, and I tried multiple times. I found myself struggling to finish a page. I wish I could pinpoint exactly why, but I am unsure. Perhaps the story seemed dull to me. Sorry. On to the next read.

Phillipa Maakestad is having a mid-life crisis and she takes us on a ride that's often wacky and weird, but keeps your attention, for the most part. While teaching a semester at a college in Ohio, Phillipa seems to fall madly in love with Lucius, a history professor with three marriages and divorces under his belt. Right after starting the affair, Phillipa confesses all to her husband and their marriage slowly unravels, in the middle of all kinds of other activities (marriage, death, birth, etc.).
In Our Lady of the Prairie, Thisbe Nissen introduces us to what seems to be a unique cast of characters and we gradually get to know many of them throughout the course of the book. Much is based in Iowa, during the George Bush re-election time period, and that added an interesting element to the book. The book is written in a stream of consciousness style and the author often goes off on tangents, which are sometimes interesting and other times distracting. Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an advance copy of the book.

So this is a creative mix of following this theatre professor through the upheaval of a year or so of her life, including her failing marriage to another theatre professor, her often very ill adult daughter, the drama of the daughter's upcoming marriage, meeting a new lover who is also in academia, interacting with the Amish community and other locals, and her mysterious and cranky mother in law. It's a cornucopia of all sorts of characters!

Because I am an academician, the academic angle is especially interesting to me and some of it is puzzling but it's also interesting. All of this is set against the mystery of the mother in law's possible past in world war two France, as well as the 2004 US presidential election. The election provides lots of funny and not so funny commentary that is quite timely given the 2016 election craziness.

It's an enjoyable read. I found the flashback bits to the mother in law's possible past a bit lengthy but otherwise it's interesting and well written and full of interesting characters and human emotions and interactions, and lots of family and midlife issues.

A solid four stars.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Thisbe Nissen for the opportunity to read and review this novel!

This is the story of Phillipa - a middle-aged woman who works with her husband in the theater department at the University of Iowa. They raised a troubled daughter, Ginny, who finally after some electric shock treatments is beginning to move on with her own life. They have had to deal with a crotchety mother-in-law, whom Phillipa thinks may be a Nazi collaborator. When Phillipa goes to Ohio for a semester to teach, she falls in love with Lucius. She goes back to Iowa and basically blows up her life. How she picks up the pieces of that life and forms it into something new is the premise of this book. Set in the time before the 2004 presidential election, there are a lot of strong left-leaning political and religious themes. But no matter which side of the aisle you vote, this is a book about finally claiming your life the way you want it.

Told with wit, this is a thought-provoking read with great characters.

I enjoyed this less than Nissen's previous work, but liked the main character and the humor used throughout the book.

I tried but I just couldn't find my footing in this novel. I felt like I was dropped in in the middle at the start of the book and things never improved. Phillipa wasn't unappealing but I truly did not understand her. Moreover, the spanking incident was just weird. Unusually for me, I put it down, read some reviews and then went back to it, thinking that perhaps I was mistaken but no, I wasn't missing something- it wasn't for me. I DNF. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This might speak to others but I found it disjointed.

The title of the book, OUR LADY OF THE PRARIE, is the same as the name of a church in Iowa where the protagonist, Phillipa, lives. The title also could be a sarcastic description of Phil as she seems to be the stereotypical female martyr, a woman who gives up everything for the sake of others. We all know the type. Phil takes care of everyone, her daughter, her husband, her students at U of I, her mother-in-law all while keeping everyone at arm's length.

Phil met her husband, Michael, when she was a grad student in theater. They married and she was granted, through some very odd practice, a job in the theater department. Michael's job was split off to include Phil, much like the rib, Adam gave to create Eve. The couple has a child who is difficult from the very start and their lives revolve around their teaching responsibilities and trying to get their daughter, Ginny, through life. Ginny makes it, with much intervention. They all make it until Phil meets an Ed Harris look alike at the University of Ohio and falls madly and lustfully in love.

The story that follows is long and full of a combination of angst and laughter, the laughter coming from the reader's perspective. Phil really tries so hard to make people happy. But why then does she, at the age of fifty, decide to throw it all away for another man? This is the eternal question all long-married adults must face in fiction, films, and real life.

Ginny is a huge challenge. Her problems are not amusing from a parental point of view. Those of us who have children know the terror of watching our children, even into their twenties, suffering from any pain, heartache, or threat to their well being. I was on the edge with Phil over Ginny but did often lose my patience. Ginny is lucky to have Phil for a mom.

This wild ride of life with Phil from Iowa to Ohio and even to an interlude in France is an exciting novel from a writer who has carefully crafted her work over many years. I wish this work much success!

Thank you, NetGalley, the author, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an e-ARC of this novel with a publication date of January 23, 2018.

In the opening pages of Our Lady of the Prairie the author throws a whole lot at you – and it escalates from there. Phillipa Maakestad is due to drift into contented late-middle age. She has a career as a professor teaching musical theatre, a stable marriage and her daughter has found equilibrium – and a fiancé – after years of psychiatric problems. Then Phillipa starts an affair, leaves her husband and throws everything into disarray.

What follows is a romp through Midwestern life against the backdrop of the Bush/Kerry election. We see the effect on Phillipa’s husband, of course, and her evolving relationship with her daughter, Ginny, as well as getting a sense of the wider community – as she leaves her middle-class enclave and hangs out in bars and motels. In true musical theatre fashion, there are dramatic set pieces and reversals (invariably when she meets up with her lover, Lucius, you know they are not going to enjoy the uninterrupted intimacy they crave).

I liked the humour and the quirky characters, the odd vignettes (there’s a whole chapter where the narrator imagines/dreams a backstory for her difficult and enigmatic mother-in-law in Vichy France, which also happens to be Lucius’ area of academic expertise) and the willingness to answer questions you never dared to ask. (How do you cope if you have a heavy period while swathed in layers of white tulle on your wedding day? Read on and find out.)

But beneath the frenetic pace, there is a shrewd restraint. There are elements of the story that are left open, leaving the characters room to grow, and the reader space to reflect. Is Phillipa’s affair a reaction to her sudden liberation from caring for a seriously ill daughter, is it a perimenopause-induced rush of hypersexuality, or is it true love?

There is a sense of almost tipping into chaos in this book which mirrors Phillipa’s life, but the author does a great job of keeping the plates spinning while you hold your breath. This is an energetic, earthy, audacious novel asking us about the relationship between happiness, stability, and taking risks to pursue the life you want.

This is patchy work, at its best a compelling and amusing account of weathering the storm, literally and figuratively. But at its worst it’s a rambling and repetitive story of a mid-life crisis larded with mental illness, a long fantasy of Nazi occupation (with loose ends - why did Bernadette give herself to a no hope German if she was so shrewd?) and just far too much minutiae and introspection. Thisbe. Nissen has a sharp sense of humor and a compelling voice, but this tale of late love and family reconciliation could have used a second editorial pass, even if it’s currently shorter than its original 800 page length.

This wonderful quirky, funny, and ambitious novel was a surprise delight from author Thisbe Niseen. The protagonist, Phillipa Maakestad, is a rich and truly human character. Nissen’s writing made me feel like she was a friend confiding in me her deepest secrets, all tinged with laugh out loud wit. She is one of my favorite characters of recent memory, and I was sad to turn the last page and say goodbye to her.

The story whirls around Phillipa’s family; the husband she just started cheating on, the daughter who survived years of eating disorders and drug using who is about to get married to an Amish man; the mother in law or may or may not have been a Nazi, the new lover who is kind and sexy but you know may not last. Phillipa is a musical theatre professor in the middle of nowhere Iowa, which is an amazing job for a character, but the novel centers around her personal life, which is fraught while she seems to be going through a mid-life crisis.

As I started this book, it felt that maybe it wasn’t for me. I can certainly see older readers seeing themselves in the characters and how lives can veer off during their fifties or older, but nevertheless I was still hooked and found it hard to put the book down. It was a joyful and fast read, one that left me with a full heart and a smile on my face.

My thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

There is a lot to love about this novel, but, ultimately, I found it frustrating. Nissen does a great job capturing the voice of a middle aged woman who unexpectedly falls in love while she is a visiting professor, throwing her whole life into upheaval. She is a rather unlikable, annoying narrator who is aware of her own selfishness, but she is also quite amusing and admirable at times.

There are several subplots that work--her complicated relationship with her daughter, her unmoored status in a small Amish town, and her struggle to trust in a life with her new lover. There are also several parts that don't work, including a long extended section in which she envisions the life of her mother-in-law as a young woman in Nazi Germany, and a stupid plot line involving a hickey, of all things.