Lucinda Trout is a reported for a local New York City television show. She lands a story in Midwestern Prairie City. When Lucinda returns to the Big Apple, she finds the rolling plains are calling her to return.
In search of a simple life, Lucinda proposes a year-long assignment in Prairie City. When the boss approves, Lucinda packs up and heads toward greener pastures.
Life in Prairie City takes adjustment, as Lucinda quickly finds. She falls for Mason Clay and soon moves with him to an isolated farmhouse. Lucinda’s real life is far from the stories she tapes for The Quality of Life Report.
Meghan Daum’s second novel starts with a Bridget Jones-style tone. However, the mood shifts when Mason’s troubles take center stage and push the book down a more serious path.
The Quality of Life Report is a good story, but it tries to be everything for all readers. Parts are fun and light. Parts are deep and dark. Daum just doesn’t guide the transition well. Lucinda appears two-dimensional. Her valid faults with Mason are introduced but not fully explored.
Daum’s novel could have taken one very solid path. Instead she meanders down several. Thus, The Quality of Life Report fails to standout on this bookshelf.
