Contributor: Allie
Best Supporting Role by Sue Margolis – July 1, 2015. You can always count on this British author for a good laugh! Sarah Green has had a tough life, being married to a gambling addict. Things get even worse when he dies, leaving her alone with two children – and penniless. But she manages to start over by getting a steady job and a boyfriend who’s an account. After her aunt dies and leaves her a lingerie company, Sarah begins to question the prudent choices she’s made. When a handsome actor/contractor catches her eye, she wonders if she should break free from the shackles of her safe life and take some chances – like perhaps competing in a lingerie competition.
I’ve still Got It…I Just Can’t Remember Where I Put It by Jenna McCarthy – July 1, 2015. Humor writer Jenna McCarthy has a knack for telling it how it is. Her bluntness would be offensive, if it weren’t so accurate and funny. In her new memoir, she tackles the worries many forty-something women have – and claims to have all the answers. She’s discovered the key to middle-aged happiness with the cures for muffin tops, persistent exhaustion, and failing eyesight. She also promises to put the spark back in your marriage. I’m skeptical of her claims, but willing to go along on her fun ride. “A middle-age manifesto filled with hilarious misadventure, humiliating confessions, and occasional (hot) flashes of genius
Summer with My Sisters by Holly Chamberlin – July 1, 2015. Poppy Higgins was enjoying her life in Boston, the big city she always dreamed of conquering, when she learns that her father’s died. Poppy has to return home, to the small seaside town of Yorktide, ME. Now that her teenage sisters are left without anyone to care for them, Poppy must step in – which means letting go of her big city dreams. The sisters aren’t close, due to the differences in their ages and Poppy’s infrequent visits over the years. As Poppy tries to rebuild bridges with her siblings, she struggles with her own resentment of her new and unwanted responsibilities. After she meets Evie, a resident of Yorktide who’s dealing with her own loss, she begins to awaken to the truth about her family.
Maybe in Another Life: A Novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid – July7, 2015. This author wrote one of my favorite books of last summer, After I Do, so I’m super excited about this novel. In this story, Reid tackles some of the questions we’ve all asked ourselves. Is anything meant to be? How much of our lives our predestined? And do we have soul mates? At twenty-nine, Hannah Martin is a little lost. Since graduating from college she’s lived in six different cities, working a series of dead-end jobs. Determined to get her act together, she returns to her hometown of LA and moves in with her best friend Gabby. In a bar one night, she runs into her high school boyfriend, Ethan. When Gabby tells her it’s time to go, Ethan offers to give Hannah a ride. What does she choose? Reid gives us two versions, ala the movie Sliding Doors. But which of Hannah’s choices is the real story?
The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes – July 7, 2013. After recovering from a mysterious life threatening illness, Stella Sweeny is trying to get her life back on track. Stella’s months in the hospital were hard on her husband and children – as well as her sister, whom she worked for before becoming sick. Stella is confused and having trouble figuring out what she was like before she was sick and who she is now. Then she discovers that her doctor has written a bestselling memoir about her illness – and it sounds eerily similar to Stella’s story. Needless to say, things get very complicated between Stella and her doctor – even more so when Stella decides to move to New York City and write her own story.
The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E. Reichert – July 21, 2015. Lou is the successful chef and proprietor of a popular French restaurant in Milwaukee. One morning she catches her fiancé in a very compromising position, but she can’t take the time to mourn her relationship because she has a business to run. The night of her discovery, Lou produces some truly awful food and, unfortunately, there’s a food critic in the restaurant. Al, a British transplant, is a critic who’s made a name for himself by being very, very mean and, sadly, Lou’s made it easy for him. After reading the scathing review, Lou ends up in a bar, where she meets Al. She has no idea that he’s a restaurant critic, nor does he realize Lou’s the chef whose career he just ruined. After Lou declares that they can’t talk about work, they end up “doing the town.” Soon they’re in a relationship…one that’s a revelation away from falling apart! A charming love story that’s reminiscent of You’ve Got Mail.
How to be a Gown-up: a Novel by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus – July 28, 2015. Rory McGovern lived a very comfortable life with her husband Blake and their children, and never thought she’d have to worry about money. Then Blake loses his dream job and decides he “needs a break” from all responsibility, including his wife and children. In her forties, Rory finds herself working for two young women, fresh out of business school. Their get-rich idea is to launch a high-end lifestyle site for children, despite the fact that neither of them is a mother. And the novice young businesswomen have venture capitalists lining up to invest. Rory struggles in a highly digital and impersonal workplace that’s full of self-centered millennials who think they have it all figured out. Rory doesn’t have it figured out either. She can’t decipher a text and has no idea how to save her marriage. All she’s certain of is that she will do whatever it takes to support her children – because that’s what a grown-up does.
If I Could Turn Back Time by Beth Harbison – July 28, 2015. Ms. Harbison always has the best book titles! This novel is based on the old adage, “If I knew then, what I know now…” Ramie Phillips is a successful businesswoman who rubs shoulders with the rich and famous. But at thirty seven, she wonders if she’s made the wrong choices. After taking a swan dive from a luxurious yacht off the Florida coast, she wakes up in her teenage bedroom, as an eighteen-year-old excited about her future. Yet, Ramie already knows what the future holds, unless of course, she decides to take a different path.
