Pretty in Plaid: A Life, a Witch, and a Wardrobe, or, the Wonder Years Before the Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smart-Ass Phase,   ISBN:9780451226808

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If you can imagine, Jen Lancaster only gets better with each book. You will find yourself laughing out loud and nodding along with the stories Jen tells about her life in the 80's and 90's in this book. I can't recommend it highly enough!

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Jen Lancaster keeps her humorous bit alive with her third novel, Pretty In Plaid. Lancaster takes readers on the ultimate flashback in time, traveling back through the `80s and `90s and revealing her journey to show just how she got to where she is now. I enjoyed reading about the disastrous birthday dinner when Lancaster was eight and realized how to eat a lobster, her Greek years in college and how she struggled to fit in, and how she came to meet her future husband, Fletch.
Pretty in Plaid was a fun read, mainly because I was learning even more about one of my favorite authors. I like how Lancaster lets readers into her life, and her humor and honesty through each saga keeps me laughing throughout the novel. I do have to be honest and say this wasn't my favorite novel from Jen Lancaster; it just didn't give me the same pull as the others I have read. I think maybe because there was not really a "true" plot, it was just basically story-telling and I wasn't sure where the story would stop. Still an entertaining read and I would recommend to all chick lit fans, just not a personal favorite of mine.

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I had read all four of Jen Lancaster's books and occasionally read her blog. I think she's funny and I'm amused by her sense of humor, however, I did not love this. It felt forced; like she was reaching to think of funny things to talk about. I still chuckled at some points, but its definitely not her best book ("Bitter" is). I will probably continue to read her books, but I certainly won't be paying $25 for a brand new hardcover. Next time I'll buy it used or wait for it to come out in paperback.

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I have over time become a huge fan of Jen Lancaster. Her humor is definitely sarcastic and may not be for everyone, but it's definitely worth a try.

In this book, she details her life through school and her early jobs - revisiting the 80s - how fun!

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Having been in a reading slump after weeks of books that just could not catch my interest or were so badly written, so depressing, so off-putting I was using them as kindling in the fireplace, I remembered Jen Lancaster had put out Pretty in Plaid. Normally I shy from "pre-quels" as they are never as good as the original stories you fell in love with - can we say Star Wars? I finished a book for the first time in 3 weeks and ENJOYED IT!!! Yea me - yea Jen! Wonder if this is what guys with the little blue pill feel like? Sorry.... I digress.

This book is a nice walk.... jog... no, it's a stumble through Jen's childhood into teen angst and many years of college (really Jen? how many years? Party much? LOL) as she finds her way to the book where we all made her acquaintence for the first time. If you are from the generation before Jen's or the one after ours, then you probably won't care for her story or her voice much. However, for those of us born in the early '70's (or so) Mrs. Lancaster's journey rings true on many levels, for many reasons. Not the least of which is the burning need to fit into a size 6 Jordache jeans with no panty lines and making our mothers understand that spending the same for a pair of said jeans as she spent on two week's worth of groceries was not unreasonable. Her European trip as a junior was a SCREAM! Oh and thank you for reminding me of the awful first car - the Toyota Tercel and it's evil GM twin, the Geo Prizm. I love that we now have a glimpse of the real reasons Jen is who she is.

Granted, parts of this book aren't quite as funny as her previous efforts and in fact there are sections that do feel rushed and stretched, but heck, no author is perfect and when you have multiple books out, there will always been one that isn't as good as the rest. Hopefully her next one will be focused again on the present which is where her current observations on life and people are their snarkiest and thus funniest.