Elizabeth the First Wife

June 3, 2013
The breezy style of Dolan's Helen of Pasadena here carries over to Elizabeth Lancaster, a Shakespeare teacher at Pasadena Community College. Although her father is a Nobel Prize winner, her mother is an obsessive organizer, one sister is married to a California gubernatorial candidate, and another sister is a physician, Elizabeth is content with her lifeâuntil her ex-husband, now a famous movie star, walks into her classroom. FX Fahey, hired to do live theater at the Ashland Oregon Shakespeare Festival, wants to hire Elizabeth as his literary advisor. She accepts the offer and takes her teenaged niece along as her intern. The Ashland scene clearly shows the rift between classical Shakespeare and Hollywood when the director wants full nudity in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Elizabeth, desperate to save face, manages some modification in the production which, unfortunately, isn't enough to prevent her entire family from entering the fray. Dolan, a Pasadena resident, knows her territory as she writes of gifted children, obsessions with clothing, food, and public image. But Elizabeth comes off more like Bridget Jones than an adult Shakespearean professor. In spite of the snarky style the pace lags, and the one-dimensional characters and feel-good Hollywood ending make this standard airport fare.

Starred review from May 1, 2013

Dolan's sophomore effort (after Helen of Pasadena) is a charmingly funny and effortless read. Elizabeth Lancaster is happy with her life as an English professor at a community college in Pasadena, CA. Though her overachieving family includes a Nobel laureate father, a sister who's pursuing a cure for cancer, and another sister who is helping her congressman husband move on to bigger and better things, Elizabeth likes where she's landed. At least she thought she did. Then FX Fahey, a hunky Hollywood movie star and her ex-husband, arrives on her doorstep and throws her for a loop. It took Elizabeth years to get over FX, but his offer of a job helping to stage A Midsummer Night's Dream may just suck her back in. Joining FX in Ashland, OR, is only the first hurdle. Once on site, Elizabeth discovers that things aren't going to be as easy as FX predicted. When complications spark a visit from the entire Lancaster clan to town, not to mention the man with whom Elizabeth has been skyping all summer, our heroine is torn between fight and flight. VERDICT This novel owes its success to the wonderfully developed cast of characters, especially Elizabeth, a fully grounded adult who deals gracefully with life (no chick-lit slapstick clutziness here). Fans of Katie Fforde and Jill Mansell will find much to like here.--Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI

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