HOUSEMOMS

Three women who find themselves working in the same college town in the Midwest try to succeed at building new lives.

Gina Marie Ferragamo left high school before graduation to begin working when her mother died. Low on education but highly organized and motivated, she's made a living as a housemother for a no-full-nudity strip club in New Jersey—until she witnesses a mob execution and is whisked away into witness protection, where she becomes Janelle Smith, housemom for a sorority at Eli Whitney University. Cecelia Elspeth Bondurant Barclay is an extremely wealthy, extremely pragmatic woman who dedicates herself to her charity, helping the homeless and turning a blind eye to her husband’s indiscretions because he's such a good father to their daughter. That life comes crashing down when he absconds with $50 million from CeCe's charity—funded by her own inheritance—and disappears. CeCe meets Janelle at a coffee shop and finds herself with a job as a housemom to another sorority. Her daughter, Hayden Elspeth Bondurant Barclay, lives in the same town and has made a stand against her parents’ money; she's supporting herself through working at that same coffee shop and more risqué pursuits. Author Lancaster has written a bouncy book that follows her characters' thoughts, dreams, hopes, and despairs as they set up new versions of their lives. However, the novel feels more like three fragmented stories—it's an intriguing and compelling tale with complex characters, but the storylines don’t overlap much and peter out much more quickly than readers might expect.

A look at the sisterhood formed in sororities that extends to those who work in, and around, them.