Review: California Dreaming
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 15, 2012
In the best of all possible worlds, SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES would be required reading for any woman conflicted between her small-town and big-city self.  It would be required reading for any man who has let his sweetheart escape, and for anyone who just loves a good story.  JoMarie Lodge is a versatile writer, musical as in "she'd hear the bustling and laughter of students past and present, hear whispers of secrets shared and promises broken," or clever "Everyone said he was a wonderful weatherman, attractive in a meteorological sort of way.  Unfortunately, his precipitation didn't supply the chemical reaction she wanted in a lover, so they were friends and nothing more."  Ms. Lodge's comprehensive style, the way she leaves no stone unturned in the depiction of a character, reminds one of Leo Tolstoy or Jonathan Franzen.  In SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES she weaves a tale with flesh-and-blood characters, a plot that locks into place and a setting nostalgic yet real.