Guest Book Review: Manic Mondays

By Connie Fischer

Catherine is at the top of her game. At age 36, she is the Marketing Director of her own business, Marketing Matrix, based in London. Married to her hunky husband, James, who works with her, she is also the loving mother of their baby daughter, Madeleine. They are proud of the beautiful home they have and enjoy their co-workers and friends. Working long hours, she has been able to do it all and is quite proud of herself. Until one Monday morning in August, that is. Catherine arrived at the office as usual only to be met with James sitting in her office. Out of nowhere, he tells her that they need a break - a trial separation. Completely flummoxed, she tries to talk with him to find out what the problem is and where it all came from. Determined to be a complete jerk, James simply sneers at her, shows her the hot new car he has purchased and his new girlfriend - the office cleaner! Uncertain that she can continue as she has, Catherine decides to appoint another Director and leave the running of the business to James.

Catherine packs up Madeleine and moves some distance away where she can have time to heal from her pain and decide what she wants to do next. She loves spending time with Madeleine and plays with her for hours every day. but soon realizes that she is in a blue funk. Her parents encourage her to spend time with them, but Catherine feels like she needs time to herself.

Soon, Catherine realizes how difficult it is to cope with being the only caregiver for her daughter as James has not visited her. While she is frugal with her expenses, she wonders how long her funds will last her. Should she get a job and if so, what does she want to do?

She finally applies for a very dynamic position with a very large global marketing company. After some tough interviews, she is offered the job. Now, she is back to getting Madeleine in day care and making sure she is happy and settled. However, when an emergency with Madeleine shows her that many men still look down on working mothers choosing their children over their job, Catherine reaches a decision that changes a lot of things for her.

Manic Mondays is broken up where most of the chapters start on a Monday. Many of these Mondays are days that seem to test Catherine in one way or another. However, she is one tough cookie and seeing her question herself only to prove she can handle being a single mother is a journey that many women face every day. But don’t think this is a totally, sad and downer kind of story. No-No-No! There’s some great humor and some really wonderful characters in the story as well. Don’t miss them!

I enjoyed this debut novel from Michaela Weaver and feel that she has a great future as an author ahead of her. I’m looking forward to reading more of her books.

A huge thanks to Candy Jar Books for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Connie Fischer is a retired office manager from NASA. Loved books from the time she could read. Spent childhood summers in her front yard tree reading Nancy Drew books and biographies. Loves historical and contemporary romance novels, chick lit and anything British. Is a reviewer for the blog, bookworm2bookworm. Her goal for 2014 on Goodreads is to read and review 100 books and she's way ahead of schedule. Lived in Paris, France for a number of years. Living now in southwest Florida. Ahhh...life is good!