Book Review: "SAHM I Am" by Meredith Efken

Quite possibly the best book I've read this year...

I have the tendency when I find a really good book to drop everything and just read it. Sometimes this means staying up til 2am finishing a (non school related) book. For example, when the last Harry Potter book came out, all I did for 2 days straight minus 2 hours for church was read. (It was well worth it btw). Why am I talking about reading times? Well today at 2:00pm I started reading "SAHM I Am". I finished it at 5:07pm. I read a 325 page book in 3 hours. Even THAT is a record for me. It shows how good a book it was.

SAHMs are Stay At Home Moms. Of course I am not one, but I will prally be one in the future (check back with me in about 8 years). However, even with that I totally enjoyed this book. It is written in email format, with a group of women who are members of a email mailing list for SAHMs. The book focuses on 5 women who bond together, in a chat outside of the email list, and the moderator of the list who is dealing with issues with her younger sister. The women are real and very relatable with hilarious and heartwarming situations. My favorite character is Dulcie and the funniest part in the book for me involved a romance novel inspired love letter. I laughed and laughed at her reaction. Another thing I liked is that the 5 women are not afraid to speak their mind and they let us know that they are annoyed with Rosalyn and the way that she comes off across in her moderator posts. But the reader finds out why she acts the way she does so it's understandable, but for a while yes, this reader agreed with the 5 women. I enjoyed the sarcastic emails that would follow showing how the characters would feel after a Roslayn post. It made the books feel more real. I am really looking foward to the next book. In the meantime here's the prequel of SAHM I Am called "Bedtime Battles" that was posted as an online serial on eharlequin.com. Very funny stuff.

The fact that there are no chapters in this book made it very hard to put down, as there is no stopping point. You just want to keep reading and reading. You really feel as if you are a part of the list as a lurker. However even with all the different storylines going around, you never feel lost. I hope that next time if I become a SAHM I am able to find a email group or something akin to this so I can find the same friendships and bond like these women do.

SAHM I Am by Meredith Efken is published by Steeple Hill (2005)