Claire Lombardo knocks it out of the ballpark again. Same As It Ever Was explores marriage, motherhood, families and friendship. It is a long book. Take the time to savor it. It takes some time to get into it but you will not be let down!

This is a beautiful, real look at a woman in mid-life. We jump between time periods where we see choices she made and later in life the consequences from those choices. This felt relatable to me - the friendships, the relationship with her husband and children but especially so because of the age of her kids. We are about to send ours off to college this fall as well. I sobbed describing to my husband the last chapter of the book - launching adult children is not for the faint of heart. I’ve reread that last chapter a couple of times now - it’s stunning. The main character, Julia, is flawed and so real.

I recently finished 𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘄𝗶𝗰𝗵 by Catherine Newmanand I’m in the midst of reading 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗜𝗻 by Joyce Maynard and I feel these three books are perfect examples of my favorite type to read - honest, real characters that find beauty in the ordinary. Moms with older children, navigating their new roles. Beautiful writing and glimpses of my own current reality or what’s to come soon.

I resisted this one at first as I really need a push at times to pick up a book that's 500+ pages. But honestly? I got to the end of this one and wasn't quite done with the characters, which shocked me. My heart broke and stretched with this story, and there are parts of Julia as a character that hit me and resonated much more than I would have expected. This one snuck up on me and then burrowed deep inside.

Love this author and was so excited to see a new release from her. Sucked in to the story and loved the characters. Read it in two days, didn't want it to end.

What an emotional ride and family drama! It captures so much about the nature of relationships. There are disappointments, regrets and challenges that will hit close to home in a midlife gamble. The rocky relationships are definitely real life cause & effects, so the dynamics are not plot driven but character driven.
Julia and Mark have shared a privileged lifestyle, but now she is feeling uneasy, like she is facing derailment. One adult child is getting married and the other is graduating. You will see a typical teenager wreck her mother's world. As she tries to piece together her place in life, she meets a friend from the past. With all that going on, her mother is a hard to love woman.
You are guaranteed to cheer with her and cry. Her life is a tumultuous landslide of disappointments. She has suffered a traumatic childhood that she references frequently. If you enjoyed "The Most Fun We Ever Had" then you will love this one. It is so long coming in at 512 pages. It took me a long time to get through it, but I have swapped it out a few times for different. Coming back to it is worth the ride.
Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Julia is preparing to celebrate her husband Mark’s 30th birthday. Her oldest son, Ben, drops a bomb that he and his girlfriend are pregnant and they're getting married. Her daughter, Alma, is in that horrible stage of teenage angst, meaning she hates her mother with a passion.
Julia has fought depression her entire life. Her saving grace has been the constant love of her husband, but at one time it was the close friendship she struck up with a total stranger, Helen. She sees Helen in the grocery store after many years. The gamut of emotions Julia feels are slowly unwrapped and displayed to us as we watch her ponder the past, question many decisions she’s made, and discern why she’s never truly ever been happy.
Still waters run deep, and Julia’s formative years explain a lot about her depression. Her story is terribly sad at times, quirky and quick-witted at others. The talent of an author to create a fictitious person with so much depth and feeling is an impressive art. Claire has breathed life into Julia, and we are standing right beside her as she’s growing up. So much is relatable, and her emotions become our emotions. This, to me, is the true art of an excellent author. I look forward to discovering more of Claire’s worlds that, for now, are still in her creative mind.
Thanks so much to Doubleday Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is June 18, 2024.

Julia Ames finally feels like she's got a handle on her life at age 57. So of course, things go off the rails. immediately. Her teenaged daughter is getting ready to go to college, her mid-twenties son drops a bombshell and her mother comes back into her life to shake things up. All of this lends to Julia revisiting the past and a time in her life where she felt similarly off-balance.

This started a little slow for me, but once it grabbed hold, it did not let out. The characters are beautiful and well-written and the story itself will strike a chord with readers in a variety of ways. Definitely not a thriller, but will still keep you reading long past bedtime as you try to unravel Julia's past and present.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Available June 18, 2024.

I was left feeling a little disappointed with this book. I read all of it, all 500+ pages, but I found myself getting lost and/or losing interest along the way. Bouncing between the past and the present started to feel a little tedious after a while. I also found the main character to be rather unlikeable and frustrating. I think she really could have benefited from some therapy somewhere along the way.

I think this book will be popular with readers, especially those who liked the author’s first book, but it did not feel as strong as the first one to me.

Like Lombardo's first book, this is a long, family saga with lots of dysfunction. This book just wasn't as strong or engaging. I never felt connected to the family and the relationships. There's lots worthy of discussion in this book but I don't know if the time it took to read this 500+ page novel will be worth it for many readers

A wonderful new novel by Claire Lombardo! This is an excellent book club pick to examine familial relationships and mid-life crises.

Julia is a middle-aged mother and has a relatively peaceful life with her family. When drama from her past and familial drama both surge at once, Julia has to find a way to balance her past with her present. Or risk destroying her future.

Wonderful!

Claire Lombardo has a skill for capturing the nuances of real life and developing characters that are painfully relatable. This winding, meditative road through Julia's life could be that of any 50-something woman, wife, mother, human. Family, friendships, love, support are the things that hold humanity together and it is how we treat those things that shapes who we are. So many painful truths are revealed in this story that readers who lost themselves in The Most Fun We Ever Had will relish this one as well.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This domestic drama focuses on a middle aged woman, Julia, who is a daughter, mother, wife, and friend. The author treats us to an inside look into the life of Julia and her family, as it grows and matures, through Julia's eyes watching the minor successes and perceived huge struggles of her flock as they grow up.

This is a beautifully written, well paced story of life's frustrations that all mothers face at some point in time, those who seek something more, and believe that everyone else has the key to finding it. A thought provoking read about the realities of navigating marriage, family, parenting, and friendships.

We won't mention the many times I picked this one back up to continue with it as I thought it was a bit too long but worthy of a read.

I should call my mom.

This was my first encounter with Lombardo, and I absolutely loved it. She writes with such sharp emotional intelligence. I usually feel like it's lazy to refer to a story as feeling "real," but I make an exception for this book: it just felt so real! I'll be recommending this book to anyone who appreciates a character-driven story or enjoys reading about dysfunctional families. (Has there ever been a book about a functional family?)

Don't be intimidated by the length of this book. Once you break through the beginning, you'll be eager to spend as much time as possible with this lovable but complex cast of characters.

Things that Bothered Me:
▪️long, slow, boring
▪️didn’t love the female lead character, actually heartily disliked her and her insipid husband
▪️so tired of “surprise” pregnancy trope - I’d love to see a fiction writer brave enough to use the word ‘abortion’ (thank you, Ann Patchett)
▪️constant switching of time lines was frustrating, and abrupt at times
▪️wealthy privileged white people story, got tiresome, wish she’d dug harder, deeper, and earlier in book into lead’s childhood
▪️no plot, thin characters, for 500 PAGES
▪️ending did NOT redeem book for me

like many, I was really looking forward to this follow up to Claire Lombardo's first book. it's long and spans a 20-year period of Julia's life, her struggles with motherhood, marriage, suburban life, class conflict etc. living in Chicago, I definitely felt really connected to this story and read the whole thing in a weekend. it didn't hit all the same beloved notes as The Most Fun We Ever Had, but definitely worth the read.

Same As It Ever Was is a gorgeously-written exploration of marriage and motherhood and a must-read for fans of Lombardo's first book, The Most Fun We Ever Had. The narrative is insightful and emotional. It inspires readers to engage in self-reflection and to pay attention to the small-but-impactful moments they experience each day.

I was a bit worried that Same As It Ever Was would be a bit of a slog. 500+ pages of family and relational drama? But once I got into the book, I was totally hooked. I thought the narrative form (flipping between past and present) was very effective, and it really worked to build understanding of how this family (especially Julia) came to be who and what they were. And Julia. Oh Julia. This is not an always "likable" main character, but it is a woman whose emotions and relationships were rendered with such care that I could relate to her even as many of her formative experiences were very different from my own. But in the smaller and ongoing aspects of life, I often felt that feeling of "yes, exactly, that's how it feels." At its heart, this is a novel about motherhood and marriage and expectations (both exceeded and dashed). The writing was terrific, particularly in terms of character development and dialogue. It is a book I will continue to think about and will definitely recommend to bookstore patrons who are looking for a meaty story of family.

Turns out, I love a messy family saga. This book was full of imperfect people who I really grew to appreciate, though some took longer than others 👀 There was so much nuance to each familial relationship.
The writing style is beautiful and engaging, but did I *enjoy* reading this book? Did I love the 500 pages of heartache? Yeah, I guess I did.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for the advance copy!

Claire Lombardo does it again! She is the queen of writing flawed, sprawling, loveable family stories. By the end of this book, I felt like I was a part of Julia's family and I was so sad to say goodbye to them. Read this book if you want to settle in and really get to know and love a character. Excellent! I cannot recommend it enough!

Julia Ames, 57 is happily married with two young adult children living a privileged life in her upscale town. That's how her life looks on the outside but, Julia has a past that has had a profound affect on how Julia sees the world and carries herself in it. While reading this book, I felt as if Julia were a real person. She is deeply flawed but also very relatable.
I really enjoyed reading a novel about a woman in late middle age that is not just a stereotype. This story is so much more than domestic fiction. I highly recommend it.