From The Star-Ledger (nj.com), by Fran Wood, Books Editor:

“Thirtysomething Frankie has spent the past 15 years in Hollywood, first trying to make it as an actress, then as a stand-up comic, both efforts yielding little success. When a mudslide destroys the home of the actress who employs her as an assistant, Frankie returns home to Woodstock and her mother’s B&B — only to find her much-older sister Jude running the place as a new-age retreat and her mother, now deteriorated by dementia, in a nursing home.

Having vowed to stay for a year, Frankie signs on for Jude’s enterprise. It isn’t easy. Jude is as mercurial as ever, full of grandiose ideas that she expects Frankie to execute. Frankie is happy to be reunited with her beloved nephew, Ethan, a high school senior who is balking at the prospect of college. And Joe Mazzarella, the “star of (Frankie’s) teenage fantasies” and now divorced from his former-cheerleader wife, is still irresistible.

If, as the adage goes, the better human beings are those who can laugh at themselves, count Frankie Goldberg in. Author Laurie Boris has provided her story’s narrator with wry, insightful observations that punctuate every scene — some of it sentimental, some indignant, all self-effacing — adding up to a highly readable debut novel.”

From Chronogram Magazine:

“In this endearing debut novel, a California refugee in crisis returns to Woodstock to find the family home where her mother once ran a respectable inn infested by nude yoginis. Worse yet, true love lurks. Boris’s long strange trip to the home front is moving and fun.“

From WriteMeg.com:

“Laurie Boris’ The Joke’s On Me is a funny, sweet and realistic story showcasing the love of one family — and the idea that it’s never too late to start over. What really sold me on the novel was Jude and Frankie’s relationship, which felt honest and raw. Though never dramatic, Boris offers readers tender conversations between the women that defy the age gap between them. At the heart of it all, there’s love.” (read full review)