Claire Lombardo’s debut novel is a family saga centering on the Sorensons.    Marilyn and David marry in their early 20’s, and while David begins medical school at The University of Iowa, Marilyn gives birth to the first of their four daughters.  They are loving, doting parents, yet somehow each of the daughters experience their own set of problems.  Wendy, the oldest, lost a husband and an unborn daughter, and seeks comfort drinking and picking up younger men.  Violet strives to be the perfect mother and wife, and the reader eventually discovers why.  Liza discovers she is pregnant while living with a man who is clinically depressed and Grace lies to her family, feels terrible about it, but can’t bring herself to tell them the truth.

If The Most Fun We Ever Had sounds like a soap opera, it’s because it is.  However, for me it was the right book to begin the summer with-easy to get into, good character development, a fast moving plot, and a lot of Chicago streets and landmarks that I recognized.