An edition of Same As It Never Was (2003)

Same As It Never Was

A Novel

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Last edited by ImportBot
April 17, 2024 | History
An edition of Same As It Never Was (2003)

Same As It Never Was

A Novel

  • 2 Want to read

Olivia Martin, the twenty-one-year-old narrator of Claire Scovell LaZebnik’s first novel, Same As It Never Was, drinks, swears, drives fast cars, and is, as she would put it, most definitely not a warm and fuzzy kind of person. And why should she be? She has an unpleasant rich father and an annoyingly clingy mother—their divorce may have freed them from each other, but it didn’t free her from them. The only good thing about Olivia’s life right now is that she’s escaped to college where she thinks she may be falling for the sexy young section leader of her English literature class.

The sudden news that her father and his second wife are killed in a car crash stuns Olivia, but then she gets hit with even more shocking news—they’ve named her guardian of her three-year-old half-sister Celia.

Olivia may not be the introspective type, but she knows enough to recognize that she’s one of the least maternal women in the world, and she tries desperately to explain this to Dennis Klein, the executor of her father’s will. She won’t do it. She can’t do it. She doesn’t really know Celia and doesn’t particularly want to.

But when Dennis quietly says, "It’s the right thing to do," Olivia realizes for the first time in her life that there are duties you can’t just shrug off. On Christmas Eve, she moves into her dead father’s mansion and faces the terrifying reality of becoming an instant parent. Her mother’s insistence that she come along to help only increases both Olivia’s despair and her responsibilities.

The girl who only wanted freedom and solitude becomes the head of a large household. Through all the expected pitfalls and surprising joys of learning to care for a young child, Olivia never loses her acid tongue or her sense of humor, but she does gain an appreciation of her own innate decency—something she’s kept hidden from everyone, even herself, up till now. And when she finds herself torn between the two men who love her, she comes to realize that decency matters between the sheets as well as in the nursery.

Written in strong, humorous prose, Same As It Never Was captures the privileged world of the west side of Los Angeles and the triumphant joy of sacrificing freedom for the love of your family and a future with the right guy.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
352

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Same As It Never Was
Same As It Never Was: A Novel
July 1, 2004, St. Martin's Griffin, Griffin
Paperback in English
Cover of: Same As It Never Was
Same As It Never Was
2003, St. Martin's Press
Hardcover in English - 1st ed.

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Book Details


First Sentence

""Do you think she'll be there?" was my mother's first question when she got in the car."

Classifications

Library of Congress
PS3612.A98S26 2004

The Physical Object

Format
Paperback
Number of pages
352
Dimensions
8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
Weight
12 ounces

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL9313761M
Internet Archive
sameasiteverwasn0000laze
ISBN 10
0312312504
ISBN 13
9780312312503
OCLC/WorldCat
56602852
Library Thing
209422
Goodreads
277784

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History

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April 17, 2024 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
April 17, 2024 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
December 6, 2019 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
January 10, 2019 Edited by Mary White Synopsis
December 10, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page