Book Review

Friday FINALLY! I don’t know about you, but I am completely done in from this week!

Where I am, we have this extra little holiday on Monday called Family Day. Which means, a long weekend for me and I couldn’t be happier about it. I think I have a mean case of the January blahs, so I am looking forward to lots of reading, Netflix and wine. Not necessarily in that order.

Today, I have How to Be a Grown-Up for you all. It’s by the gals who wrote The Nanny Diaries (LOVED that book so much), and it’s part of a recent book haul. It came out a few years ago, and I paid only $6 for my paperback. A great bargain!

How to Be a Grown-Up (Release Date: July 28th, 2015)

From bestselling authors Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus comes a timely novel about a forty-something wife and mother thrust back into the workforce, where she finds herself at the mercy of a boss half her age.

Rory McGovern is entering the ostensible prime of her life when her husband, Blake, loses his dream job and announces he feels like taking a break from being a husband and father. Rory was already spread thin and now, without warning, she is single-parenting two kids, juggling their science projects, flu season, and pajama days, while coming to terms with her disintegrating marriage. And without Blake, her only hope is to accept a full-time position working for two full-time twenty-somethings.

A day out of b-school, these girls think they know it all and have been given the millions from venture capitalists to back up their delusion that the future of digital media is a high-end lifestyle site for kids! (Not that anyone who works there has any, or knows the first thing about actual children.) Can Rory learn to decipher her bosses lingo, texts that read like license plates, and arbitrary mandates? And is there any hope of saving her marriage? With her family hanging by a thread, Rory must adapt to this hyper-digitized, over-glamorized, narcissistic world of millennials whatever it takes.

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My Thoughts…

While this was no Nanny Diaries, it was still a pretty entertaining book, apart from the “newly single mom – trying to figure it out – thrown into modern life” trope that is a bit tired. I mean, I get it, it’s relatable for some readers, but it seems like most Women’s Fiction is either about single 30 somethings worrying about marriage, or 40 somethings having their marriages fall apart. When done properly, these books are very entertaining, however I feel like women my age are becoming caricatures.

Anyway, this isn’t a feminist rant about chick-lit, it’s a book review, so let’s get to the reviewing part lol.

Rory is a great character. She’s funny, self-deprecating, and generally, a good person all around. So when her life starts falling apart, there is quite a lot of humor, witty dialogue and many scenarios that leave you gob-smacked. Her bosses or one in particular, are so over the top it’s mind-boggling.

The writing is greay, as expected from previous novels by these authors, and overall, I found the book entertaining and fun. It provides the necessary escapism that we all need from time to time.

If you are looking for a light read, with some feels, and genuine laugh out load moments, then this is a good book for you.

Rating… B+

Have a great weekend!