Same as It Never Was

The sudden news that her father and his second wife are killed in a car crash stuns Olivia, but then she gets hit with even more shocking newstheyve named her guardian of her three-year-old half-sister Celia.

Olivia may not be the introspective type, but she knows enough to recognize that shes one of the least maternal women in the world, and she tries desperately to explain this to Dennis Klein, the executor of her fathers will. She wont do it. She cant do it. She doesnt really know Celia and doesnt particularly want to.

But when Dennis quietly says, "Its the right thing to do," Olivia realizes for the first time in her life that there are duties you cant just shrug off. On Christmas Eve, she moves into her dead fathers mansion and faces the terrifying reality of becoming an instant parent. Her mothers insistence that she come along to help only increases both Olivias despair and her responsibilities.

The girl who only wanted freedom and solitude becomes the head of a large household. Through all the expected pitfalls and surprising joys of learning to care for a young child, Olivia never loses her acid tongue or her sense of humor, but she does gain an appreciation of her own innate decencysomething shes kept hidden from everyone, even herself, up till now. And when she finds herself torn between the two men who love her, she comes to realize that decency matters between the sheets as well as in the nursery.

Written in strong, humorous prose, Same As It Never Was captures the privileged world of the west side of Los Angeles and the triumphant joy of sacrificing freedom for the love of your family and a future with the right guy.