Book Review: "Play It Again SAHM" by Meredith Efken

I read this book in 3 hours!

It's time to rejoin the SAHM email group and it looks like Rosalyn is back in charge but as a changed person! Instead of her former condescending self, a new women who is trying to be a better person is back. Joining her are the rest of the SAHM group including Dulcie, Zelia, Jocelyn, Paige, etc. New to the group are Iona and Hannah, both with personalities that take the group by surprise. This time the group faces issues such as grad school advisors that won't help, dealing with adoptive children who have emotional problems, being a working mom and having a stay at home husband and trying to find out what the perfect birthday party is. To top it off, the group decides they are going to meet for the first time at a get together. It's never a dull moment being a SAHM!

If you have been a loyal reader of this blog from the beginning, then you know what a HUGE fan I am of Meredith Efken's SAHM series. I was so excited when I heard there was going to be a third book in the series. This is probably my absolute favorite set of books to read. I read this book during the 24 Hour Readathon during the 3-5am hour. I knew that this was going to be toughest stretch of the Read-a-thon so I went with something I knew was going to keep me awake due to laughing. Did I make the best choice ever. I nearly died with laughter throughout this book. The women in here are so realistic. It's amazing how we can know their personalities just through their forum post, chats, emails and IMs. This book introduces two new characters to the mix: Hannah, a 19 year conservative mom and Iona, a creative poetry loving mom. They both add their unique personalities to the group. Iona, while initially coming off as a bit eccentric, finds that she fits easily into the group while Hannah, seems to keep putting up walls that drive the other women away from her.

Throughout the book, I found myself totally siding with the women and the decisions they made. There are plenty of serious issues discusses in the book but they are handled in a light hearted way and that email format is just so easy to read. There are no chapter breaks so it's incredibly hard to put the book down. As I said, this is one of the funniest series of books I have ever read. The scene where I just died laughing was the chatroom scene where someone forgets to private chat one of their messages. Just the way it was all handled, I had to literally put the book down, laugh for about 5 minutes before I could resume reading. It was like that throughout the book. This is one of the few series where I have found absolutely nothing wrong with the book.

I'm sad that with this book, the series comes to a close but everything is tied up very nicely. It's great to see how all of the characters have grown and changed since the first book. I really feel like I'm a part of their SAHM group and I would love to find a group of women like this next time. This series is one of my absolute favorites and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Whether you are a mom or not, chick lit fan or reader of emails, you will enjoy this book. VERY HIGHLY recommended.

Play It Again SAHM by Meredith Efken is published by Steeple Hill (2009)