Book Review & Giveaway: Ladies' Night

By Gail Allison

**Giveaway is closed**

She was the goddess of lifestyle blogging, and Grace Stanton thought she had it all. A flair for decorating, an eye for photography, and a charming blog with deeply dedicated followers were the cornerstones of her peaking career. Her husband was as devoted to her business as he was to her…until Grace caught her husband…um…devoting himself to her assistant in his sports car one night. After unceremoniously drowning the sports car, Grace stormed out of her house in a rage and moved back in with her mother. While doing some damage control on her blog (apparently when a celebrity decides to wash her husbands car in their swimming pool, it makes the news), Grace comes to realize that she had maybe handed over too much to her husband. The beloved blog that she had tended as carefully as a bonsai tree had been hastily handed over to her assistant (by none other than her darling husband and business manager), and Grace has been left out in the cold.

While attending her court-mandated therapy sessions, Grace meets some other folks, all of whom seem to have been cheated on or betrayed in some way. But when their therapist starts acting strangely, the group is forced to work together to figure out not only what’s going on with their therapist, but to all work together to come to terms with their own losses and new beginnings.

Let me start off by saying that I love Mary Kay Andrews’ books. Love them. For me, they’re the perfect summer read. Ladies’ Night manages to combine romance, a tiny bit of mystery, and a rollicking good time to become a book that I’m already looking forward to picking back up and re-reading. I wanted to be in those therapy sessions with those women! I wanted to follow Grace’s blog!!! Every character in this book was multifaceted (yes, even the cheating husband) and absolutely interesting. When Grace was redecorating the beach house, I could see it in my mind's eye. The descriptions were spot-on: not too wordy, but just enough detail so I could see everything exactly the way Ms. Andrews wanted me to. The novel follows Grace through her self-discovery and empowerment and left me feeling so excited for her that I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next. There was even one part when I had to take a moment, put the book aside, and say to my husband, “I didn’t think this book could get better. It just did.”

Besides the wonderful and engaging characters, the plotline of this book keeps moving at a fantastic pace. It never picks up so fast that you turn a page wondering what just happened, and it never drags so much that you start skimming just to find some action. I absolutely adored this book, and it completely reminded me of why I love Mary Kay Andrews’ writing. Grab this book, mix up a margarita, and park yourself on a blanket in a sunny spot. You won’t regret it.

Thanks to Tandem Literary for the book in exchange for an honest review. For a lucky US reader, they are giving away a copy of the book along with an event kit that includes:

•FOUR copies of the Ladies' Night discussion guide
•A set of FOUR Mary Kay Andrews bookmarks
•FOUR complete sets of 3 Ladies' Night recipe cards
•A set of FOUR Ladies' Night drink coasters
•A set of FOUR Ladies' Night plastic cups
•A set of FOUR festive drink umbrellas
•One bottle of Ladies' Night custom nail polish
•Four packets of zinna seeds specially branded with Ladies' Night graphics

How to win:
Please tell us where you'd go for a vacation with your closest girlfriends.

One entry per person.

Please include your e-mail address or another way to reach you if you win. Entries without contact information will NOT be counted.

US only. Giveaway ends July 14th at midnight EST.

More by Mary Kay Andrews: