If We Lived Here by Lindsey J. Palmer

If We Lived Here 

By Lindsey J Palmer

Synopsis

The novel is an exploration of love, friendship, and the particular horrors of a NYC apartment hunt; as 30-something couple Emma and Nick take the plunge into cohabitation, they slowly stumble towards what it means to grow up, build a life together, and create a home that’s just right for them.

Author Lindsey J Palmer

After a childhood spent devouring every book and magazine I could get my hands on and dreaming up stories that took place along the Oregon Trail, I eventually left the suburbs of Boston to attend the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. As an English major and Benjamin Franklin Honors Scholar at Penn, I continued devouring every book and magazine I could get my hands on and dreaming up stories (most of which didn’t take place along the Oregon Trail).

Post-college, I shipped out to bucolic Vermont in order to teach creative writing and Pilates to high school students at a summer arts camp. There, I picked buckets of blueberries, ran across rolling hills, and realized I was not nearly mature enough to be teaching anyone much of anything.

And so I moved to Manhattan and broke into magazine publishing, starting at Glamour and eventually moving on to Redbook and then to Self, where I became Features Editor. I worked on stories about topics as diverse as sex, parenting, social activism, happiness and career, I interviewed the occasional V.I.P. (including Michelle Obama and both Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, a.k.a. Coach and Mrs. Taylor for those of you Friday Night Lights fans), and I gathered material for what would eventually become my debut novel, PRETTY IN INK.

After growing up a bit—moving to Brooklyn with my lovely boyfriend, learning to cook (sort of), and trying not to freak out about the occasional gray hair—I also decided I was finally ready to try my hand at teaching again. So I waved goodbye to magazines and began my Master’s of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. I took classes on Shakespeare and adolescent literature alike, and talked books with teenagers. Now I’ve joined NEST+m Upper School as the 12th grade English, A.P. Literature, and Creative Writing teacher, plus Yearbook advisor, where hopefully I’ll be a slightly more down-to-earth and slightly less clueless reincarnation of my favorite fictional teacher, Miss Jean Brody.

Cheers, Lindsey

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If We Lived Here 

By Lindsey J Palmer

Review by Heidi Lynn

First, I would like to thank Netgalley, Lindsey J Palmer, and Kensington Publishing Corporation for providing me this book so I may bring you this review.

 Emma Fiet and Nicolas O’Hare were looking for their dream house. The two had been dating for three years and wanted to live together. They saw a house that they absolutely loved via Craigslist. As a reader I could understand why Emma was so excited about this place! One catch-the land lady had a funny feeling about the couple not being married. However, she was going to take a chance on them. 

They had some really cute passages that I liked in the book. “Or a ball pit,“ he said.  “Like a Chuck E. Cheese’s?” “Exactly.” “What about a yoga nook?” “Or we could rent it out to a small family of immigrants.” “Or to a heavy metal band, for their practice space.”

“You could bathe an elephant in there,” Nick said. “But you kids wouldn’t try a stunt like that?”  Mrs. Caroline asked, her tone inscrutable. “You mean, would we locate an elephant in need of a bath, transport him, or her up to the stairs to this apartment and---“ “Of course not,” Emma said, cutting Nick off. “We’re very responsible.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see weather we’ll get our mancave-storage-space-nursery-ball-pit-heavy-metal-band-practiceroom.”

Emma was my favorite character in the book! She was like a kid in a candy store when it came for looking for apartments. She was the one whom decided that she and Nick should live together.

Nick did some stupid things that I just wanted to smack him. Poor Emma I thought while reading those passages.

After reading this book I am interested in reading more from this author.

If I Lived Here by Lindsey J. Palmer gets 4.5 out of  5 kisses from me.