Jennifer Archer

Contemporary

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If your mother is anything like mine, she conceived immaculately.

I mean, really. Who wants to think about her parents doing, well, that?

Our children maturing and even considering doing it? Let's not go there, shall we?

CiCi Dupree not only has to think about, but come face to face with the reality of both in Jennifer Archer's humorous, well-written, and memorable "Sandwiched."

Forty-ish child-and-family counselor CiCi Dupree has been divorced a year. Still a bit adrift, she noshes soothing pastries rather than accepting the fact her now buff ex is content in the arms of the sexy 20-something who literally was the girl next door.

CiCi's 70-plus mother Belle moves in with CiCi bearing a "cooking implement" looking suspiciously as if it came from an adult store. And CiCi's straight-arrow teenage daughter Erin tests her own wings and her mother's patience as she sows some mild oats.

The real pressure starts cooking when CiCi selects a steamy romance to engage the interest of the book club she leads at the local senior center. Inspired by the novel, club members begin feeling alive again, and elder anarchy reigns as attraction sizzles among some center residents.

When a couple adult children of book club members sue CiCi for corrupting the morals of their parents, news of the lawsuit goes national in a Jerry Springer sort of way and all heck breaks loose.

"Sandwiched" is one of the most entertaining "midlife" books I've read -- definitely not whiny or dark. There are happy endings and new beginnings for all, but along the way we laugh as we recognize our own foibles in the story, groan in empathic embarrassment, and just feel good about what we're reading.

And Jennifer Archer's a smart writer. She shows us the differences in CiCi's, Erin's, and Belle's generational viewpoints without falling prey to the hack device of having them react disrespectfully to one another.

Instead, Archer succeeds in communicating each woman's thoughts and concerns using simple techniques: First person narrative for CiCi; narrative and e-mails for Erin's view; and sweet letters speaking of past and present from the widowed Belle to her beloved Harry.

I'm hoping Jennifer Archer will write a real version of the steamy faux romance novel featured in "Sandwiched;" I so love a tawdry historical featuring a lusty ship's captain.

More likely, she'll gift us with more entertaining, top-shelf novels like "Sandwiched." So recommend it to your book club, then...

Buy the book.

Visit www.jenniferarcher.net to learn about Archer's newest, "The Me I Used to Be," available now, and an eclectic bunch of other stuff.

Next Week's Review and AuthorView: "Dark Desires," by Eve Silver.