All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown

Published by

Sarah Ann

on

October 11, 2010

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything is the 1st book by Janelle Brown. Its book cover is deceiving, because the story in this one is a train wreck.

Janice Miller is married to the owner or CEO of a major pharmaceutical company. On the day it goes public, he leaves her high and dry.

At the same time, Janice’s older daughter Margaret gets dumped by her Hollywood boyfriend shortly after her startup company goes bankrupt. Then, Janice’s younger daughter Lizzie is labeled the school slut.

Janice and her daughters band together during this time of tragedy, and eventually realize what they must do to get their lives back on track.

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything couldn’t be farther from a happy, bubbly, humorous chick-lit novel. It found it horrifying, and I empathized with the characters when they dug themselves further into their respective holes before managing to climb back out.

Janice gets involved in heavy drugs. Margaret takes on a series of humbling, mortifying, humbling jobs—still unable to accept the fact her boyfriend broke things off. Also, Lizzie is facing problems related to her promiscuity.

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything is interesting, to say the least, but it does have its slow moments. The beginning of this book is very fetching, and I love the quote in chapter one about how Janice views her marriage:

She imagines their marriage as a pendulum: They have grazed the bottom and are poised at the beginning of an upswing.

There’s something poetic about those lines.

I also liked how the first chapter of All We Ever Wanted Was Everything was similar to the first chapter of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. To prepare for her husband’s big celebration party, Janice heads out to buy flowers and dinner fixings with a fresh outlook on life.

This book certainly sounds relatable on paper, but you know what? It wasn’t.

Everyone goes through trials, tribulations, and hard times at some point in their lives. But this one was difficult to endure, because it’s difficult to relate and empathize with people who are already rich to begin with. The problems these women faced in this book seemed easily fixable, especially the financial ones.

If times are tough, do you really need to pay for a manicure? Do you really need all that crystal? How could I possibly empathize?

Maybe I didn’t like the plot of All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, but I liked Janelle Brown’s writing style. Makes me curious to see if her other books are written the same way.

Other books by Janelle Brown include:

What did you think about this book, did you like it?

Last Updated on January 19, 2026 by Sarah Ann

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