The Joke’s on Me

A spunky comedian returns home to her big sister and first love after striking out in Hollywood in Boris’s appealing slice-of-life latest (after The Kitchen Brigade). After 36-year-old Frankie Goldberg loses her house to a mudslide, and with no acting gigs lined up, she drives cross-country to stay at her mother Sylvia’s bed-and-breakfast in Woodstock, N.Y. There, Frankie clashes with Jude, her married hippie older sister, and the gossipy locals. The sisters’ frosty relationship begins to thaw when Frankie helps Jude convert Sylvia’s inn into a new age retreat, and confronts her guilt for leaving Jude to place Sylvia in a nursing home. With her family ties on the mend, Frankie yearns for stability. Then her high school crush Joey Mazzarella, a former pro baseball pitcher who now coaches minor league, asks her out to dinner, and she contends with her insecurities while considering a possible romance. Boris strikes an upbeat tone with cheeky dialogue, and evokes a palatable sense of place. Readers of women’s fiction will appreciate this thoughtful story. (Self-published)