Thank you Netgalley and DoubleDay for an ARC of Same As It Ever Was! Family dramas are my jam and The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo is my absolute favorite! I was thrilled to read Same As It Ever Was. It was a win in my book! Did it measure up to The Most Fun We Ever Had? No - but still a quality read.

10/10, no notes. Claire Lombardo is one of the best family drama novelists of our time. I was so enamored by her writing style I blew through this novel in no time. Lombardo stunningly renders motherhood and the surprises it regularly throws at you. She is now one of my absolute favorite authors. I will read anything she writes.

My last book of 2024 but my first review of 2025 and it’s magnificent! 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗔𝘀 𝗜𝘁 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗮𝘀 is a long book that must be savored. For all its depth and emotionality, it’s also witty and beautifully written.

If you’re a mother, daughter or wife, this book is for you. Told in alternating timelines, we meet Julia Ames, a fifty-seven year old wife and mother who reflects on her life upon a chance meeting with an old acquaintance.

This book dips into the intricacies of motherhood, intergenerational friendships, and the evolving nature of relationships. The engrossing narrative serves as a poignant reminder of how the past can shape the present. Julia’s fraught relationship with her mother and her often delicate relationship with her daughter Alma are brought into sharp relief with the upcoming wedding of her oldest son, Ben. The author’s writing is sharp and insightful:

“𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘫𝘰𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦’𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴. 𝘏𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯, 𝘢𝘴 𝘶𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘭, 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘮𝘦𝘥.”

Despite her desire for connection and happiness, Julia often repels the things she longs for, becoming her own worst enemy through self-sabotaging behavior.

This is a rich, powerfully crafted family drama that perfectly captures the intricacies of marriage and familiarly relationships. I was sad to say goodbye to these characters and can’t wait to read the author’s earlier novel, “The Most Fun We Ever Had”. This book is one of my top favorites of 2024. Five stars!!

“𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯’𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰, 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵; 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥; 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘯, 𝘱𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘪𝘵.”

Many thanks to Doubleday Books for the #gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Initially, I wasn't sure if this book was going to appeal to me or not. But once it clicked, it was smooth sailing. What I had to realize is this isn't a big story with big events. It's a story of life and all its beauty and ugliness.

Our main character, Julia is a woman who came from a very broken background. That upbringing seeps into everything in her current life and often clouds her judgement. When she meets her husband, she thinks it will all be smooth sailing from there but she's wrong. A person can't fix her issues, only she can try to do that.

This book chronicles bits and pieces of Julia's married life and how it all evolves and changes based on the things they go through together. I went from being apathetic about this story at the beginning to crying about the characters at the end. It was the perfect evolution. I had been drawn into their fictional lives and wanted only the best for them.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

Note-- I posted about Same As It Ever Was and Sandwich together--

Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo and Sandwich by Catherine Newman share similarities, and I read them back-to-back.

Both novels have female protagonists in their 50s who are transitioning to the next phase as their young adult children begin to establish their lives outside of the family home.
Both novels reflect on traumatic experiences of the past and the challenges of motherhood, including raising babies and parenting teenagers, and both novels thoughtfully portray long marriages and their depths.

Sandwich is much shorter at 240 pages, while Same As It Ever Was is 512 pages. Sandwich focuses on a week-long annual family vacation to Cape Cod and past reflections. Same As It Ever Was includes a greater scope of the main character’s life in the Chicago area and heavily

Both of these authors beautifully capture the rawness of being a mother, daughter, wife, and woman.

I didn't love Lombardo's debut (The Most Fun We Ever Had) as much as everyone else, which, coupled with the mixed reviews, tempered my expectations of Same As It Ever Was. But, I absolutely loved it from the very first page! It was an easy 5 stars and is my favorite book of 2024. This family drama centers around Julia, a woman in her mid-50’s who is married with an adult son and a teenage daughter. Her life is mostly stable, but she runs into an old friend (Helen) at the grocery store who reminds her of her past, a time when she felt extremely unmoored in her marriage, the kind of life she was living, and in her role as a mother to her young son. Lombardo captured both the struggles of early and teenage motherhood in a really affecting and humorous way. This story comes full circle in a way that hit me like a ton of bricks. It perfectly encapsulated the frustrations of women being in the weeds and longing for peace and solitude, but then progressing through life and realizing that, without all these people that put you in the weeds, what is your life? It made me stop and take stock of my own life. This is a perfect book for women in mid-life (which I am). Caveat that many readers find Julia unlikable, for me, it was clear that her childhood had shaped a lot of her insecurities and caused her to feel like she didn’t deserve the life and love she had, which made her more sympathetic.

This book is incredibly powerful.

At its heart, the narrative revolves around a damaged, self-centered mother and the strained, distant bond she shares with her daughter. It also delves into the story of a husband with a savior complex who falls for the emotionally underdeveloped daughter.
The pages of this book are filled with the protagonist’s relentless, depressing introspection but somehow that resonates with the reader.

I do respect the author’s courage to explore the inner workings of her characters' minds so thoroughly. It makes me wonder (and feel a bit sorrowful) about her own childhood, as I doubt such a deeply emotional and deprived story could be "fabricated" without the author having experienced some form of emotional neglect herself.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC which I read in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo!

A beautifully-told family drama with a bit of 'coming of age' sharing the background of the main character's journey. If you've ever struggled with your place as a mother, this one is going to make you feel understood. Loved this story!

This was a highly anticipated novel because I had absolutely loved Lombardo’s The Most Fun We Ever Had. I’ll admit that it was hard to set my expectations aside when I went into this one. Lombardo built a complex character for Julia. Beyond a family saga, this novel felt like a character study of piecing out everything that happened to make her the person she was and how being her impacted everything that happened. Julia wasn’t always easy to love. The length (500+ pages/18+hrs) allowed Lombardo to build up an affinity. I might not have realized that I had grown to care had it not been for the gut punch ending.

I did like seeing Julia at many different walks of life. I think a lot of people would be able to connect to at least one facet of Julia’s life whether it be her restlessness or her struggles identifying as a mom. I also did enjoy reading about Julia as a 57 year old, it’s not an age group a lot of novels I seem to get my hands on focus on. While I think the book could have been a not shorter, I think people who enjoy long character studies with some family drama would like this one.

It took me a while to get involved in Julia's life in this family story, especially when listening to the audio version. At some point, I did get involved in Julia's life as a wife, a mother, and a friend. I would have liked to see chapter headings with all the jumping around in time. It definitely took a while to get the family dynamics straight and figure out the time period and what was going on at the beginning of each chapter. I did end up liking the story, Julia, Mark, Helen, Ben and even Alma.

I'm going to ask you a question in all sincerity: if someone grows up believing in thier own monstrosity, in the tired details of obscurity and misdirection and something unidentified but wholly rotten, what is it she grows up to become? Do you know?

I started this book and was immediately turned off by the main character BUT I am so glad I stuck it out and continued reading because by the end of the book I needed some tissues. I really enjoyed this and found this so well written.

Beautiful story but a very literary feel. The story was well told but certain elements could have been edited out for length and story clarity.

I really enjoyed this book. At the same time, I think it is not for everyone.
Julia is a deeply flawed character. We first meet her on the cusp of being an empty nester. Her older son is about to get married and have a baby and her younger daughter is headed off to college soon.

The first half of the story especially focuses on Julia’s a friendship that Julia developed when her son was small with Helen, who filled a maternal role in her life at the time.

We quickly learn that in both timelines Julia struggles with mental health and that impacts her relationships with her family. She makes some questionable choices in the earlier timeline, but we surmise that things have resolved okay by the results in the current one.

As the story progresses, the current timeline moves forward while the past timeline moves backward. We learn more about how Julia met her husband, her relationship with her own parents and some other “deep dark secrets”.

Julia was not particularly likeable but I found myself rooting for her (even if it was rooting for her to make better choices!). As we learn more about her past we see how that has impacted her and it does a pretty good job of coming full circle at the end

I absolutely devoured The Most Fun We Ever Had and was thrilled to have gotten a copy of Same As It Ever Was. However, this was a DNF for me. Julia was an extremely unlikable character and I just couldn't resonate with her whatsoever. I felt that she was whiny and just out of touch with reality. I got through a good portion of the book and just felt like the plot wasn't going anywhere. I will gladly give her next novel a try but sadly this book just wasn't for me.

My favorite read of 2024. Claire Lombardo is simply a master of writing about marriage, vfamily, and being a woman. Unmatched on a sentence level and story level. I will read everything she ever writes.

I loved this book. I would recommend it but with two important caveats: 1. It’s LONG. I read it in both physical and audio format to speed up the process, but still a time commitment. 2. The FMC is borderline insufferable. Yes, we find out (albeit maybe a little too late) about her childhood and traumas that contribute to her poor decision making and overall personality as an adult, but that’s something you’d have to get past. That being said, the writing was some of the best I’ve read in a while. The last 6 pages especially. I absolutely love Claire Lombardo’s wit and the voice she puts to her characters. Each character was so well fleshed out. I love a multigenerational family saga, stories of motherhood, marriage and messy families.. so this was totally up my alley… and it may be up your alley as well if caveat 1 and 2 above don’t deter you.

This tale bounces back and forth from current time and then to the past. Julie is insecure i what she perceives she should be. Even her marriage to Mark is questioned in her mind. Her poor relationships with her single mother is full of doubts, anger and unknown.
Claire Lombardo does bring the conclusion to a very satisgying dening. She even gives one a glimpse of Julie's future as well as her family's.

This is a hard one to rate as I think I read too many deep literary drama's around the same time that were long and it brought me down a bit. I wanted to love this one but I felt such a deep dislike for the narrator Julie who it going through a bit of mid life crisis when she gets unexpected news from her son. This one discusses family dynamics, struggle of motherhood and marriage. Through out the book we get snip its of Julia's past that puts her present decisions in more context but while this normally helps bring the story together and elicits sympathy of understanding of the character I couldn't find it in this one. I disliked the main character that much that I just couldn't enjoy this one. I adored the Most Fun We Ever had and did think this one was well written so I Lombardo will continue to be a must read for me pending on which direction her next one takes me.