Easily Amused by Karen McQuestion

There's so many reasons I liked this book before I even read the first page. I discovered Karen McQuestion from her first book A Scattered Life when I checked it out at the library. I love that she's from Wisconsin and writes novels set in Wisconsin.

Easily Amused is set in Wisconsin, where 29 year old Lola Watson has settled in her new home, inherited from her great-aunt May. Lola has her dream job a writer at a small parenting magazine, a home of her own and is ready for the next steps in her life: finding a great guy to settle down with and start a family. Except Lola isn't dating anyone, and she's turning 30 soon, in fact her birthday is the same day her younger sister Mindy chose for her wedding day. Mindy thinks that fact is a riot and in her conniving way, also wants to exploit that fact for her own amusement. You get a real sense of the aggravation and rivalry between the sisters right away. Lola and her best friend Piper, decide to fabricate a story for Lola's date for the wedding and the story is off and running from there. Out of almost a dream comes Ryan Moriarty, handsome, charming, and classically dashing in the "knight on a white horse" fashion. Even more perfect is he happens to live in her new neighborhood, another cast of characters adding to the layers of the story in this book. Lola has several neighbors and all of them are attentive and available at seemingly at a moment's notice! Lola isn't used to this kind of intrusion on her life. She wanted to move into this neighborhood and blend in and keep to herself. As the novel unfolds, she begins to realize, one by one, how important these people are. They aren't just nosy neighbors after all!
Also adding to the story is Lola's best friend Hubert, who moves in with her after a bad break-up. Lola, Hubert and Piper have all been friends since their school days. He's a great layer to the story as he finds her neighbors one by one, and sees them as genuine people right away, not as the nosy that Lola finds them to be.
Easily Amused is a comfy read, with just enough layers to be light and but still thought provoking. Its the third book I've read by Karen McQuestion and they've all been comfy and they drew me in right away where I didn't want to put the book down. I related to Lola well, remembering when many of my friends started getting married and starting families, when I myself was still dating dud after dud. I live in a great neighborhood as well with attentive and friendly neighbors. I wanted to tell Lola to embrace her neighbors because they are such an asset to a neighborhood. Lola's just a solid character I wanted to root for from the first page and I was pleased how Karen wrapped up the novel by the last page.
I also love Karen's story as a writer. Her first book, A Scattered Life, was self-published as a Kindle e-book and readers soon saw the same thing I have - A GREAT WRITER! She's since published five books with AmazonEncore and resides in Hartland, WI. Her website is www.karenmcquestion.com.
I've also reviewed A Scattered Life  on my goodreads account: www.goodreads.com/wlcgrad.
I've read Easily Amused, A Scattered Life and Life On Hold by checking them all out at my local library in Madison, WI.