We All Live Here

“Yes, maybe this is a family. With all its mad history and chaos, heartbreaks, stupid jokes, ridiculous triumphs, and distinct lack of Noguchi coffee-tables, maybe this is my family.”

We All Live Here is a warm and lighthearted novel about the bonds of family from bestselling author JoJo Moyes.

It’s barely been eighteen months since Lila’s husband moved in with his much younger mistress (just weeks after the publication of her debut nonfiction book offering advice on how to build a strong marriage), followed by her beloved mother’s tragic death in a traffic accident, leaving Lila trying to keep it all together for the sake of her two daughters. But with writers block, recalcitrant plumbing, a grieving stepfather, dwindling show more finances, a dog that wont stop barking, and the unexpected appearance of her estranged biological father, Lila is barely hanging on.

A character driven novel, I was quickly invested in Lila’s struggle to reclaim her equilibrium in the wake of betrayal and loss. She easily earned my sympathy while navigating the needs of her family and herself, despite her mistakes. I enjoyed Lila’s conversations with her best friend, and the romantic subplot that has Lila torn between affable landscape gardener Jensen, and suave single dad, Gabriel.

With warring elderly fathers, a rebellious teen, and a guileless eight year old under one roof, Lila’s family dynamic is complicated. Plus there is her ex and his newly pregnant partner, whom Lila regularly has to face at the school gate to factor in. Moyes effortlessly communicates the daily chaos, compromises, and caring, familiar to every family. I liked the various strong-willed personalities of the main characters, and their interactions with one another.

I found We All Live Here to be well paced for a novel with close to 500 pages. Exploring the themes of heartbreak, longing, regret, forgiveness, and redemption, the serious moments are well balanced with humour. There aren’t really any surprises in the story but the author’s observations about what it means to be a family are witty and thoughtful.

An engaging read, We All Live Here is an amusing and satisfying domestic drama. show less

What a page-turner! I loved this beautifully written, engrossing family drama. All the characters were believable and realistic and I found myself caring about them. The plot kept moving forward as the story developed, and it had me reading just one more chapter to find out what would happen next.

Main character Lila Kennedy was just like someone who could be a friend: complex, funny, and flawed. She feels pressured in writing her second book while navigating her life as a freshly separated wife and mother. Her two daughters are dealing with the loss of their father as he leaves them all to be with his new (and newly pregnant) girlfriend. Lila’s widowed stepfather moves in after Lila’s mother died, and then her long-estranged father show more returns from Hollywood and charms everyone despite being flakey and needy.

I highly recommend this heartwarming story of a fractured family that includes a sweet romance, mistakes that are forgiven, and complicated relationships that are restored. show less

This wasn’t my favorite Jojo Moyes book because I had trouble liking the main character, Lila Kennedy. She was superficially sympathetic: her husband Dan shocked her by announcing he was leaving and then took up with a hot young single mom at their kids school. To top it off, this woman was now pregnant, and Lila had to endure the looks and whispers every day when she dropped off and picked up her daughter Violet.

Her other daughter, Celie, is going through her teenage years - not fun for any mom, and she doesn’t confide in Lila.

Meanwhile, in Lila’s house, which is a money sinkhole that always needs work, she not only had to contend with her two kids, but with her stepfather Bill who moved in after Lila’s mother died, and her show more real father Gene who decided to reappear on the scene after years of absence and “get to know” everyone.

Celie, Violet, Gene, and Bill are all more appealing than Lila. She is supremely self-absorbed - inattentive to, and unappreciative of all the people in her life who try to care for her. She vacillates between too unassertive and too manipulative. I was not a fan. In fact, her self-centered husband seemed to fit her much better than her fathers and the considerate and kind gardener who took an interest in her and helped whenever he could, no matter how poorly she treated him.

On the positive side, there was much to like about this novel *outside* of the character of Lila. show less

It didn't matter to me that I knew where this story was going! The chaos of being a single mother with two daughters, an ex-husband with a pregnant girlfriend, a grieving stepfather who's gradually moving in, and her missing father finally showing up just makes for a lot of angst and laughs! So enjoyable!

Lila is trying to manage much too much: a house that needs too much, a stepfather who has moved in, a larger-than-life estranged father who has moved in, a complicated love life, and two recalcitrant daughters. And of course, not enough money. At times this novel was annoying, and I wanted to shake Lila up to smarten up. However, the good humor and comedy kept me reading, and I was rewarded by a most satisfying resolution.

3.5 JoJo's latest - like Jodi Picoult, I find it hard for subsequent books to match up to early ones I loved. This makes for a pleasant and sometimes funny book with characters you can invest in, but without the weighty issues or emotional wallop of Me Before You. Lila has come through a year of crisis: her husband of 15 years left her for another school mum, she is left with their old money pit house, a high-strung dog and 2 daughters: Violet, 9 and Celie 15. His departure also gutted her career achievement: a best-selling book on how to stay married/engaged in your marriage overtime. Now she is floundering about what to write next - her agent is bugging her for all the 'sexy times' of being single again, to write a rebound to Rebuild, show more but that is the furthest thing from her mind. She also lost her mother to a horrible accident within the same year. Her stepfather, Bill has moved in to help with the girls and alleviate his own grief and he is a prince among men, truly a father her whole lfe after her own actor Dad, Gene took off when she was little. Lila's life feels like high drama all the time. Just when she thinks she is at her breaking point, Gene walks back into her life. Of course he is down on his luck and needs a place to stay. The scenes of enmity between Gene and Bill are quite funny - they have the Odd Couple Felix/Oscar dynamic going. Meanwhile Lila is just trying to keep her head above water on all fronts. Through Bill she meets Jensen, a landscape architect helping to plan a memorial garden for her mother. Through the school pick-up scene, she meets Gabriel, a handsome, bereaved single Dad, an architect, and a smooth operator. Lila does in fact have some 'sexy times' but writing about them causes even more chaos and grief. Things come to a crescendo like Love, Actually - at the school production. Drama onstage and in the audience! Lots of life lessons along the way as the family learns to trust again and claim each other in chaotic and unconventional configurations. Thanks to Libro for an ALC. show less

*well-written, easy to read
*strong character development
*sweet and emotional from cover to cover
*highly recommend