Reviewer: Sandy
I received a review copy
Summary:
Wanda Julienne was the perfect employee. Until she had a baby.
Wanda, a thirtysomething single mother, would love to spend more time with her newborn daughter, and maybe even rekindle the flame she once had with her baby’s father. Instead, she’s stuck fighting discrimination and harassment at her horrid job.
After maternity leave, Wanda returns to her financial analyst position and finds her world turned upside down. Suddenly, everything she does seems wrong—at least in the eyes of management. Add in a dose of sexual harassment, and Wanda, who can’t afford to lose her job, is trapped.
At home, the situation isn’t much brighter. Wanda struggles to balance her baby’s needs and her tough work schedule. Her best friend, Galina, and the ex-boyfriend Wanda never thought would return, Max, offer support, but the attention only suffocates her.
Wanda turns her back and isolates herself, submerged in a downward spiral, until Galina suggests a way out—but the exit won’t be without drastic consequences.
A novel of the glass ceiling: one working mother’s story of fighting sexual harassment, employment discrimination, workplace bullying and sexism so that she finally has time for her baby—and a chance at love.
Review:
It was happening right in front of her but since it didn’t affect her, she didn’t see it. Returning to work with Elodie’s suicide still fresh on her mind, Wanda finds her client’s funds crumbling. Thomas was left handling her funds while on leave but obviously he was incompetent and inexperienced as he couldn’t even follow the directions that she left for him. Frustrated at the work that lies ahead plus having to deal with returning to work; Wanda knows it will take months to get her funds out of the red. With no time to breathe, Wanda is told her portfolio is being expanded, with no mention of any benefits to compensate the additional work, Wanda is frustrated. Wanda is going in all directions. She knew returning after her maturity leave would be hard but something else is different now at work. While at home with her baby, Wanda’s thoughts wander back to work and when she is at work her demands become unachievable. Too much is happening at work as management demands immediate results in her client’s funds, the new expanding job responsibilities in her portfolio are not in tune with what Wanda desires and Wanda is having a hard time adjusting to the pressures from her peers. There are advancements within the company, those only going to certain individuals who sport the label Mr. before their names. There is harassment and pressure, this tension is set upon the other gender who works with the organization. Wanda is feeling the blunt of it now, her eyes are open and she doesn’t know how to react and/or whether if she should. If that isn’t enough to handle, her baby’s father has returned and she doesn’t want that drama in her life now. She doesn’t need someone to feel sorry for her but she feels that she should really tell him that Nelly is his daughter.
Sexual harassment in the workplace does happen and Wanda experiences it firsthand. You can play along with them as they utter their “cute” comments to you, you can ignore them, you can confront them, you can turn them in or you can quit. There are other many other scenarios that you can do but those are the ones that occurred in the office that I worked at. There are many things to consider and Wanda had friends who were attorneys, so she was able to get some legal counsel during her ordeal. I have worked for attorney so watching this novel unfold was interesting and I enjoyed this legal aspect of it. Watching Wanda’s life change, good and bad, is part of life and I enjoyed the author’s portrayal of that. I was not fond of the way that Wanda treated Max, Nelly’s father. There were times, I wanted to reach inside the novel and shake Wanda- a good shaking or screaming at her for acting the way she did.
4 stars
Thanks for taking the time to read and review my novel!