Rating: 3 stars

Violet Parry is a middle-aged Hollywood Hills homemaker with an adorable toddler and a coldly mannered, successful rock band manager husband. Sally Parry, Violet's sister-in-law, is a high strung, narcissistic diabetic with a shopping addiction, phenomenal debt, and an ambitious drive to marry a future celebrity. When new men enter their respective lives, things become more complicated than either of them ever imagined.

This One Is Mine has all the trappings of Desperate Housewives gone horribly awry. Dysfunctional marriages converge with heroin addled, poetry spewing musicians. Developmentally challenged sportscasters face off against delusional, cough syrup swilling store clerks. Fifteen year old groupies meet Def Leppard. Tiny tots and California sinkholes become close acquaintances. This is a book about the social equivalent of a twenty-car pile-up crossed with a train wreck.

It's safe to say that This One Is Mine is chicklit, although somewhat warped chicklit that parodies the culture of the rich and fabulous. I can appreciate that. It's a reasonably enjoyable book from a leisure perspective, and a respectable choice for a day on the beach or a long soak in the tub. It's easy to digest and relatively short compared to many of the chicklit novels on the market today.

Semple has done a fair job of building the personas of her characters. It's not difficult to form a mental image of them, and imagine their mannerisms and how they interact. Although This One Is Mine is comprised of dual story arches, they successfully parallel and ultimately converge. As well, the name dropping and cliche stereotypes are decently balanced with unusual characters and unexpected scenarios.

With that said, I do have various issues with This One Is Mine. My first gripe is that by the end of the book, I felt as though Sally's story arch served the primary function of fleshing out Violet's story, which constitutes not much more than a short story or novella on its own. While the characters were generally well-developed, there are secondary characters who are provided only minimal context. It could be argued that their background is relatively unimportant as they are only present for brief segments of the book, but the lack of contextual development for these characters tends to make their appearance and interaction both jarring and slightly confusing. Equally disruptive is the abrupt absence of primary characters, often with only the barest of explanations. I was also confused by a scene in which Violet is ushered into Sally's recovery room at an abortion clinic, with no real explanation as to why Violet was even at that clinic, much less why the staff would make such an egregious breach of patient confidentiality.

Semple's background is in writing for various award-winning television sitcoms. Throughout This One Is Mine, the wit is evident and serves her well. However, she seems to be at a disadvantage in this work - her first novel - as the writing is really better adapted to a medium meant to be digested in 30 minute chunks. This One Is Mine does demonstrate a clear ability to write well, but there is still notable room for improvement if Semple intends to create a strong portfolio for herself in the realm of printed fiction. While I was somewhat underwhelmed by this novel, I am very interested in seeing the progress and development of Semple's writing in her future novels.
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Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (December 4, 2008)
ISBN-10: 031603116X
ISBN-13: 978-0316031165