Lately I’ve been interested in suburban-set fiction and romance. Whether it’s too many years of seeing mostly small towns and big cities, or some sort of desire to see people “like me,” I’m not sure. Mommies Behaving Badly is about a couple with three young children who move from Queens, New York to the Portland, Oregon area, experiencing life changes and fall out from their decision. While I thought parts of it were interesting and entertaining, I also thought it was a bit of a disjointed in its approach. Was it supposed to be a realistic portrayal of marriage and family, or an over-the-top Mommy Lit book about famous people doing extraordinary things? It has a foot in each camp, which gives it something of an identity crisis.

Ruby Dixon is on the verge of several life changes. She’s a thirty-something category romance writer living in Queens, with three kids and a handsome, go-getter husband who works for a television network. Feeling some ennui with her writing career, Ruby decides to step out of the romance box and write an edgy Women’s Fiction/Chick Lit book titled Chocolate in the Morning. Ruby’s heroine (based somewhat on her younger self) is a hip, stylish woman cutting a swath through Manhattan. To Ruby’s surprise, the book generates quite a bit of interest among publishers. Suddenly she finds herself with a fat advance and a more demanding and rewarding writing career.

Meanwhile, Ruby’s husband Jack is offered a promotion which will take the family to Portland. Fed up with the hassles and expenses of New York living, Ruby agrees to the move. As the timing coincides with the holidays and a new book deadline, family life becomes chaotic. Their arrival in Portland brings more adjustments; people are different, and life is different. Jack finds that employees at his station seem to move slowly and resist any sort of change. Ruby has run-ins with a militant PTA president. But they also have a larger home with an ample yard for their kids, and with time Ruby finds friends to whom she can relate. The children seem happier than they’ve been in years.

But the personal and professional stresses take their toll on Ruby and Jack’s marriage. His business trips to Dallas become more frequent, and he begins an affair with a colleague. Burdened with more book deadlines and tours, it takes Ruby a while to realize what’s going on. As she deals with the complications of marriage, parenting, skyrocketing professional success, and the attentions of another attractive man, Ruby has to step back and do some hard thinking about what she wants in life.

This is one of those books that starts off better than it ends up. When the book begins, Ruby is both accessible and believable as a mother and a wife. Her issues are recognizable to anyone who has juggled jobs, parenting, and marriage – and tried to find personal time in the middle of it all. I kept thinking I’d met Ruby, or at times had been Ruby. Jack is perhaps even more familiar. You might be married to him, or related to him. His struggles with his own identity are nearly universal. Most of the book is written in Ruby’s point of view, but there are occasional chapters written from Jack’s, and they are among the best of the book.

Ruby’s voice works well initially. She goes about her days with what she calls her “can do!” attitude, and her complaints about her stresses and misfortunes are wry without being whiny. For the most part, I liked her. That said, this book definitely suffers from bad-title-itis. When you read “Mommies Behaving Badly,” you probably think of a crew of errant moms on some sort of spring break bender, complete with strip clubs, flashing boobs, and an over-indulgence in alcohol. Maybe even a convenience store hold-up. While Ruby makes one choice that reflects rather poorly on her character, it really isn’t the focus of the book, and it’s mostly a private thing. If anyone behaves badly here, it’s Jack. Or should I say Daddy?

The larger flaw of the book is that it can’t seem to decide whether it’s realistic or not. It starts out so firmly grounded in every-woman land that I really thought it would continue on that path. But Ruby’s amazing success is really hard to believe. Granted, her book is fictional, but its basic description sounds like any of the mass of Chick Lit novels published since Bridget Jones’s Diary. And if her meteoric popularity is hard to believe, her fling with a handsome British actor is even more so.

And what of the suburbs? At first I thought they’d end up maligned, and that Ruby would run back to New York at first opportunity. It doesn’t work out that way, and Ruby and Jack come to appreciate what Portland has to offer. And though I’ve never even been there myself, I have to admit that the author paints a pretty picture.

Though the book ended up at just above average for me, there are definitely some parts of it that are worth reading. I’d be willing to give Roz Bailey another shot – even if her book wasn’t really about Mommies Behaving Badly.