Jen Lancaster’s latest novel Here I Go Again is a comical sketch about karma and second chances. In high school, Lissy Ryder was head cheerleader, prom queen, a bully and a mega-bitch. Twenty years later, her personality hasn’t changed a bit and she still basks in the glory days. But things take a turn for the worse when her credit cards become maxed out, she is fired from her PR job and her husband leaves her — all in the same day. She is left with no other option but to move back in with her parents.

When she receives an invitation in the mail for her 20th high school reunion, and she learns that most of the classmates she picked on back-in-the-day are now super-successful, Lissy plans to use the event as an opportunity to launch her own PR business. She soon learns that old grudges don’t die easy. Fortunately one of her former classmates is willing to help Lissy change the past, but it requires a bit of experimental magic.

Here I Go Again is chick-lit at its finest. At first I had a really hard time getting into the book. It is written in first person narration from the point of view of a self-absorbed, obnoxious woman who generally speaks in slang. Let’s just say, I found her voice to be very annoying at first, and had to put the book down for a while. We all probably know women like Lissy, and her style of narration didn’t really bring back the fondest memories.

I will say the story has a strong character arc, and about half-way through I actually started to like Lissy and cheer her on. Also, the book has many cultural references to the 80s and early-90s, and the title of the book is actually a tribute to the band Whitesnake. However, some of the cultural references to the 2000s were actually lost on me, probably because I don’t watch television. Maybe I still live in the early-90s myself.

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Disclosure Statement: This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club, but the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.