Review: All We Ever Wanted Was Everything

Title: All We Ever Wanted Was Everything

Author: Janelle Brown

Author's Website: http://www.janellebrown.com/

Pages: 401

Goodreads Description: When Paul Miller’s pharmaceutical company goes public, making his family IPO millionaires, his wife, Janice, is sure this is the windfall she’s been waiting years for — until she learns, via messengered letter, that her husband is divorcing her (for her tennis partner!) and cutting her out of the new fortune. Meanwhile, four hundred miles south in Los Angeles, the Millers' older daughter, Margaret, has been dumped by her newly famous actor boyfriend and left in the lurch by an investor who promised to revive her fledgling postfeminist magazine. Sliding toward bankruptcy and dogged by creditors, she flees for home where her younger sister Lizzie, 14, is struggling with problems of her own. Formerly chubby, Lizzie has been enjoying her newfound popularity until some bathroom graffiti alerts her to the fact that she’s become the school slut.

The three Miller women retreat behind the walls of their Georgian colonial to wage battle with divorce lawyers, debt collectors, drug-dealing pool boys, mean girls, country-club ladies, their own demons, and one another, and in the process they become achingly sympathetic characters we can’t help but root for—even as the world they live in epitomizes everything wrong with the American Dream. Exhilarating, addictive, and superbly accomplished, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything is an original, utterly modern addition to the genre of suburban fiction.

This book was recommended to me by one of my best friends.  It isn't my typical type of book to read.  I think the cover alone made me want to read it.  Who doesn't love sundaes! 

This book was enjoyable, but it was one that I could easily put down.  Even with all of the family drama -- drugs, alcohol, sex, divorce, & etc.  The story starts off really fast, but before you know it your halfway through the book and there hasn't been any real movement within the story.  Even at the end, I had that "that was it" feeling.  I guess I'm just used to fast-paced, full of action books.

The book was well-written, though.  The author does an especially good job of devoting one chapter per character in a rotating format.  I've read several books that have tried to do this and failed, but it worked for this book.

The characters were well-developed, but only somewhat interesting.  Even though you can relate to some of the problems each character is going through, it is really hard to like any of them.  They are all self-indulgent and very stereotypical.  

Overall, it was an alright book.  I think others who like books about family drama would enjoy it more than I did.  Therefore, I would recommend this book under the right circumstances. 

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