Regan is a psychotherapist but can't seem to make her mother happy, nor can she get past the sibling rilvary with her sister Geri. Regan has spent her entire life in the background of her two sisters, Mary Mac and Geri. Her blue-collar worker parents can't help but take note of the sibling rivalry, but they constantly defer first to Geri with Mary Mac running a close second. Regan has other aspirations and buries herself in school and books to work her way up into a white collar profession.
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A serious student the only way she sees out of her neighborhood is education. She loves her sisters from a distance. Mary Mac, the eldest of the trio falls in love in high school and marries her sweetheart as soon as she graduates. Regan calls it a shot gun wedding and is mortified when Mary Mac has six stair-step children. Her younger sister Geri, is a sought after hair stylist a profession and the twinkle in her parents eye. A role she has had since she and Regan were kids. Regan feels the rivalry started when she won the coveted last piece of ham for her brown paper bag sack lunch. Something that Geri has never gotten over. Geri uses her anger to gather sympathy from her folks and berets every move Regan makes.
Regan earns her Ph.D and is a practicing psychotherapist in her early thirties. Her parents barely offer congratulations before turning their attention back to Geri. Regan focuses on her career and while she would love a husband, her surfer boyfriend Boyd is not going to cut it. He has aspirations for becoming a professional surfer but Regan doesn't see his goals as pertinent to her life plan and she ends things.
Her post graduate boyfriend Sebastian is not as fine, nor is he as interesting as the pretty surfer boy but his degree in business and professional goals are more in line with what Regan requires. Her family loves the surfer and refuse to take down his pictures located throughout their home. They give Sebastian a hard time and show Regan no sympathy for dropping the man they want for her.
Regan gets an opportunity to work on Push, a cable show, helping people to find their center and stop abusing themselves with toxic people and situations. She loves her job but wants more money. When the cable show is purchased by a major network Regan sees it as a good thing. Her salary increases and she gets some extra perks (clothing allowance). The new bosses make the show less personal having loftier goals of exploiting guests in exchange for higher ratings.
Regan's co-worker Deva, a new age guru whom Regan loathes initially form a friendship once the show goes network Regan is able to work through some of her family issues with Deva's help.
She learns that she like many of the people she helps on the show is a stalker. Sebastian has checked out on the relationship. She has few girlfriends to confide in and Deva becomes her confidant.
With Deva's help, Regan and Geri finally have a real conversation, the first in years and sans sarcasm. Boyd and Regan reconnect (he did make it to the professional level of surfing) and it looks like Regan will get the man she never stopped loving. Regan even decides to go into therapy for herself to see why and how she hurts people. She knows that hurting people, hurt people and she is tired of ending relationships with people and decides to invest in herself for the sake of sanity and authenticity.
Best part of story, including ending:
I liked the humorous tone and Regan's efforts to stay afloat in a dysfunctional family.
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene was when Regan and Deva talked on the beach and decide to become friends.
Opinion about the main character:
I disliked that Regan chased Sebastian to the ends of the earth, he didn't want her.
