How to Be a Grown-up by Emma McLaughlin

How to Be a Grown-up Reviews

• 
  Elizabeth

  Another riveting story about a woman surprised by the sudden realization that she is married to a man with the emotional capacity of a four year-old. In the end, I'm sure she forgives him. I'll never know because I'm tossing this crap out the window.
• 
  Cathleen

  Another entry in the comic/drama micro-trend centering on a 40-ish woman juggling life demands with modern workplace drama, often while lacking current jargon and tech familiarity and dealing with much younger coworkers. It's a niche with a ready, eager audience and one that has yet to find a smart, funny voice. This, unfortunately, leaves that need unsatisfied but not for lack of trying.
  
  What feels like it should be a breezy read is rather a downer, and the romantic attachments aren't handled with any nuance. The men in Rory's life (of glaringly identifiable "types") seem included only to reassure both character and reader that she is still desirable at her age. However, her distractions with each show her as a woman with priorities out of sync.
  
  No one feels like a grown-up, and the tension between longing for the freedom of youth but knowing you have to press on is certainly relatable. Still, even as Rory has to compensate for her husband's cartoon childishness, there were plenty of times when I thought she, too, needed to act like an adult. The story purports to show her actualizing in that direction, and many readers will likely feel satisfied by the ending, but it doesn't cancel out questionable choices nor the way she's rewarded for them.
  
• 
  Jennifer

  
  
  I am a big fan of authors Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus' other books. So I was excited to see that they had a new book coming out.
  
  I would describe this book as Chick Lit. The narrator is 41 year old Rory. It was actually really nice to see a narrator this age, since most of the books that I read in this genre feature younger narrators.
  
  The book is divided into two parts with an epilogue.
  
  Rory is a stylist. She lives in New York City with her actor husband Blake and their two kids.
  
  I really liked this book, although I'm not a huge fan of the cover (just didn't find it catchy enough). The basic premise of the story is that Rory's husband Blake is no longer sure if he wants to be married. Plus Rory starts working for two spoiled rich twenty-somethings.
  
  I found the book to be funny and amusing. I enjoyed reading about the various supporting characters in this book. There were Rory's best friends Claire and Jessica who were always there for her. There were her two new young bosses Taylor and Kimmy who were so absurd it was hilarious. I really enjoyed Kathryn's antics (she was super influential in the industry and Rory wanted to stay on her good side). And the men Rory met were intriguing and charming (Josh and James). Plus Rory's kids Wynn and Maya were wonderful and the latter was so sweet.
  
  I liked getting to see so much of the posh world in NYC. I enjoyed the details of Rory's job. But it was also interesting to see how she dealt with being a working mom. And then add to that all of the troubles she was having with her husband. It made for a very engrossing story.
  
  I think that if you've liked these authors' other books then this is definitely a must-read! It was a compelling look at a forty-something trying to have it all. Very enjoyable read!
  
  
  
  
  
  Thanks to Atria books and edelweiss for allowing me to read this book.
• 
  Jenn Lynn

  This book should really be titled "How to be a Grown Up in NYC." The humorous part of "Nanny Diaries" was how ridiculous Mrs. X was. This time, we see Rory as a newly single parent navigating the same ridiculousness. I easily related to the family/mom parts: kids getting sick, kids getting messy, kids getting upset... But I couldn't relate at all to the outlandishness of Rory's job. In that aspect, this book was kind of annoying. I just wanted to shout, "You are intentionally involving yourself in unnecessary drama!" at the character. Some of the jargon surrounding Rory's job was above my head, too. I teach middle school so it's not like I couldn't use my context clues to figure it out, but it just didn't seem like this fun and breezy read should require that type of effort. At other times I found the way Rory talked to be really trite. "What the what?!" Does anyone say that anymore? Certainly no 40-year olds that I've ever met.
  
  This book was good for a light read, but I'm really glad I got it for free for review purposes. I wouldn't spend my hard-earned minimal Midwestern teacher salary on it.
• 
  Blake

  This cover looked fun and hey, it's summer so why not? NY Times best selling authors! A book about being a working mom! Ok.
  Just no. I hated almost everything about this book. The characters were all extremely unlikable, the careers over the top unrealistic, and just ew gross. The only thing that kept this from getting one star was that even though I hated it, I wanted to see how it ended. So I read the whole thing. And you know what? The ending sucked too.
• 
  Brigid Keely

  I picked up "How To Be A Grown-Up" from the "new releases" section of my library. The title intrigued me, then I saw it was by the writing team that wrote "The Nanny Diaries," which I enjoyed yonks ago. Their distinctive voice is very evident in this book, a breezy novel about a woman coming to terms with her changing relationships, responsibilities, and sense of self.
  
  There's apparently a specific group of "chick lit" books that travel the same path: a highly educated (often at a private arts university that their parents paid for) woman living in an expensive but too-small apartment in a nice part of New York is unfulfilled in her job, her marriage, and her parenting. She hates the changes age and pregnancy have wrought on her body and her husband doesn't appreciate her/is an abusive assbag but nobody (including her) notices. He vanishes/has an affair/leaves her abruptly and she's left to pick up the pieces of her life, restart or found her career, and take care of the kids as a newly single parent. They come from a place of privilege (high education with no student loans, live in a safe neighborhood in an expensive and cultured city, etc) but are "relatable" because unlike the other moms they run with they don't have huge apartments and nannies and haut couture. They have a close circle of sex & the city style girlfriends who have a mutual history that is referred to while being blandly interchangeable and largely unmemorable, and butt heads with other moms in their social circle who are catty entitled bitches who don't appreciate their Hot Dad husbands (unlike the protagonist who is totally not a catty bitch and would absolutely appreciate a Hot Dad husband who is also a good father and not an abusive assbag). Thrust into sudden near poverty, protagonist falls into a new job through chance/connections and becomes wildly good at it despite having to juggle parenting obligations and demands placed on them by adult family members, and they learn to love themselves again. There's often hot sex with a Hot Dad.
  
  "How to be a Grown-Up" breaks the mold in a few small ways: Protagonist Rory already has a skilled career she's built for herself that's been on hold for over a decade while her husband pursues HIS career dream (acting); her Hot Dad sex moments are with a dude who's hot and rich and... really sexually inept. Oof. Other than that, it seems pretty standard, although written in a light and breezy way. I finished the book in a few hours and will read other stuff by McLaughlin and Kraus if I come across it.
  
  One thing I wish they'd dug into more, that's lightly touched on, is how Rory has sacrificed her work, goals, skills, etc in support of her husband. Like, that's a big part of the book but it's not explicitly mentioned... or questioned. As soon as she's no longer playing Stay At Home Parent in support of former child star husband Blake and his career (and with the help of a pushy acquaintance with an ulterior motive) Rory is suddenly able to have a really viable career after an entire marriage of scrimping, saving, and barely getting by on his residual checks. The sheer gross UNFAIRNESS of this is barely questioned, which is a shame, because THAT is something VERY relatable... how many women married to men-- or long term partnered with men-- do the same thing? put their lives and goals and careers on hold to support and encourage men in their dreams? Putting them through medical school, dropping everything to allow them to get to gigs/rehearsals/auditions/etc, doing the vast majority of child care and work around the house? Rory harbors a bit of resentment toward Blake for not actually acting like a husband and father, a partner in her life, but there's no moment where she wakes up and goes yes, that's wrong, I deserve better. I mean, she talks about having been passive and waiting but not about being treated like shit, being emotionally abused for years by a dude who is, apparently, afraid that she'll be better than him?
  
  I get it, I get it. I expect too much from books. But it's such a common theme in books aimed at women: men are scum and that's just the way life is, lol, what do you expect? Also other women are bitches who'll think you're out to steal their hot husbands who they don't fully appreciate. Can we get more books where the husband's a jackass and the wife is all "oh well... huh. What a jackass, how did I not see that before, I'm feeling such relief. Time to move on." and then the rest of the book is them sorting their lives out and NOT immediately hooking up with a Hot Dad? Like for real, if something happened to my husband I would not jump on some other dude's dick for like... five years? No. I'd take the time to enjoy having an entire bed to myself and would probably stop shaving my chin or something. Imagine a life where you don't have to share your cookies, ladies. I just want more books with women being awesome and handling their shit and starting careers and it's not kickstarted by a man being a total abusive dillhole first.
  
  Also I want more fully realized friendships, and moms who become friends and support each other instead of being pitted against each other.
  
  Please?
  
  IDK, this was an ok book. The writing style is friendly and breezy, it's a fast and entertaining read if you don't think about it, and gender roles, too much.
  
  I keep thinking about this particular trope and how it'd play out so differently if it were set in a Midwestern trailer park instead of a park slope brownstone or a rent controlled apartment in manhattan, with someone not white, with someone who didn't have parents to pay off college tuition, with someone who actually DIDN'T have options and connections and secret hidden skills. I guess that wouldn't provide much escapism, though.
• 
  Shelleyrae at Book'd Out

  
  Rory McGovern is a part time freelance stylist, who lives in New York with her actor husband and two young children, but with her husband's star fading and residuals dwindling, Rory is forced to find full time work. Just as she lands a position with a start up webzine run by Millennials, her husband announces he needs some space, and Rory is suddenly the only grown-up at work and home.
  
  Rory often made me shake my head, both in empathy and disbelief. I could relate to the chaos of parenting, less so to the doormat aspects of her personality. Sadly most of the other characters were little more than stereotypes, from Rory's man child husband, and loopy mother in law, to bitchy colleague, and the hunky man about town love interest. I did like Claire though, and Josh of course, as I was meant to.
  
  Rory's experiences in the workplace are highly exaggerated, or at least I hope so. I certainly wouldn't stand for Taylor's snotty attitude, life is too short and I'm far too old (just a year older that Rory) to put up with that sort of crap. The highstrung, self absorbed Millennial staff are ripe targets for mocking however and McLaughlin and Kraus delight in poking fun at them, as well as the inane 'jargon' favoured by youth that actually have nothing to say.
  
  How To Be a Grown-Up was entertaining, but only mildly so. A quick read that demands little on a lazy summer's afternoon.
• 
  Farrah

  What a fun read! Humorous but heartfelt with great characters.
• 
  Peach

  Surprisingly, this was super cute.
  
  I've never read a book from either author, so I didn't exactly have any expectations going into this novel. However, lately when I've been starting adult novels, the first few pages are always dull and I have to force myself through them.
  
  Rory's life is pretty darn good. At least, for the most part. She's a forty-something wife to a washed-up actor, Blake, a mother to two darling children, Wynn and Maya, and a stylist from grand ol NYC. When her husband, Blake, a hit thang in the '90s, loses yet another acting gig to a younger, handsomer opponent, he closes in on himself. Can barely stand to be in the same room as his lovely, supportive wife or his angelic little children. Collective sob, everyone.
  
  
  
  So when Blake decides to back out of, um, their life together, Rory is struck-dumb. But instead of curling into a ball and sobbing, she appropriately jumps into action. She calls her agent, grabs her styling portfolio, and applies for a job at JueneBug, a high-corporate workplace filled with twenty-year olds who are developing a children's lifestyle line.
  
  Rory juggles her new job and motherhood fairly well but when Blake occasionally throws himself back into the situation, he mucks everything up. B-List Blake will saunter in with a corny gig, a reality show or whatever, say "Ciao" to one of their children, then begin the trash-talking. Few chapters later, he's on the outs again. Depressed. The gig fell through. Rory starts babying him. This continues for 99% of the whole novel.
  
  Rory's friends were somewhat shitty, too. Whenever she was trying to vent her problems to them, they were always rushing to disconnect their calls. Um, really.
  
  
  
  At her new job, Rory had a better time. At first, I had a bit of a hard time adjusting to her work experience. I thought it was a tad overdone. But Rory's team eventually grew on me. The people there were all cute and quirky and fun.
  
  Outside of Blake, Rory also had great taste in men. The only problem, they were all taken. Get yourself together, girl. Don't take someone else's man. How dirty is that? Rory tries to play it off, too, like, "OMG. We gotta stop. You're with so-so -" but she was never too serious about it.
  
  But Rory is a phenomenal mother. She went above and beyond for her children. Whereas, Blake obviously did not. Although, she displayed attributes of immaturity, I felt her compassion for her family outweighed that. The book also got a few LOLS out of me, too. Overall, it's a cute, fun, sweet read. Very Odd Mom Out meets Younger. Check it out!
• 
  Kristine

  Original review can be found at
  http://kristineandterri.blogspot.ca/2...
  
  ** I received an advanced readers copy from Atria Books via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! **
  
  I thought that this was a cute story about a woman starting over and her struggles to make things work. Everything from being a single parent to understanding the lingo and workings of a company and employers that are almost half her age.
  
  There were a few things that stopped me from loving the book and giving it a higher rating.
  
  I understand that the lingo and language of Rory's younger employers were meant to confuse her and in doing so be humorous to the reader but it was just plain confusing not to mention a little annoying. I also understand that I am not in that age demographic but do people actually use those words? I certainly have never heard of some of them.
  
  That brings me to my second thought. Although there were definitely humorous moments in the story I do feel like some attempts at humour fell flat leaving some awkward gaps in the flow of the story. I was really hoping for more laugh out loud moments than what I got.
  
  Don't get me wrong...even with the above points I thought it was an enjoyable book that was fun and easy to read. It provided me with a few good hours of solid entertainment and I look forward to reading more from these authors.
• 
  Sara Strand

  First, I have to tell you how much I related to this book. I feel like I am the super un-cool version of Rory. Rory is a mom to two kids, she's married, she's working, and she's in a bit of a rut. When her husband, Blake, finds himself unemployed it throws the family into a spin. Well, mostly just Rory because as with so many moms, she's basically the one holding the ship together all of the time and while Blake is focusing on what this means for HIM, it's Rory and her practical mind wondering how bills will get paid, what their financial future in general holds, and she needs him to sit down and figure this out with her.
  
  Except that he won't. In fact, his solution is for them to separate, leaving Rory holding the bills, house, children, and now her full time job at Jeunebug, a children's lifestyle website, all on her own. The problem with her new job is that it's almost immediately glaringly obvious that Rory is old. She's not the cool, hip mom. She's not the cool, hip twenty-something and her bosses are literally teenagers with a vision who speak a foreign language of lingo that Rory finds herself looking up on Wikipedia because she literally has no idea what they are talking about.
  
  So while her marriage is imploding, she's struggling with adapting to single mom status, and her job is a total challenge... she meets Josh. And Josh is everything that Blake is not, which is not at all the type Rory would have gone for back in the day when she was looking for a husband, but given the state of her marriage, she isn't sure she even knows what's best for herself anymore.
  
  Now, after I finished the book I had already ordered one for my friend who I know would absolutely, 100% get it and relate to it like I did. Then I read reviews and people are... people are dumb. I'm not the naive 20something I once was who freaked out over the first sign of trouble in my marriage because I've since learned that we ALL have these moments, it's just some of us are in denial and some pretend it doesn't happen because you're really something if you can pull off the perfect marriage. There is a part, fairly early on in the book, where Blake and Rory decide to give marriage counseling a try. She's looking at it like a very practical next step and he's looking at it like he's not sure if it can help but honestly how much worse can things be?
  
  Well.
  
  They pick easily the WORST counselor ever who says, "Couples therapy is traditionally a gateway drug to divorce. Why? Because people pay hundreds of dollars to have these polite useless conversations. Then they go home where I can't help them and tear each other apart. So in my process we dive into the blame." And that's when Rory finds out what Blake really thinks of her, she's judgmental and controlling. She gets rightfully upset, but for Blake's defense, Rory really isn't listening to what Blake needs, and neither one of them are able to understand and accept their shortcomings in the marriage.
  
  And holy moly can I absolutely, 100% relate. It's really rough to sit in that chair and listen to the person who said they love you rattle off a list of reasons why you aren't doing it for them anymore. And then you are supposed to take that criticism constructively and figure out how to turn the ship around without being angry and resentful.
  
  I'm just saying the real badass marriages you should be looking up to are the ones who have come out of marriage counseling and made it. Just saying.
  
  Anyways.
  
  This book is SO great. I absolutely loved it because I can relate to it and for everyone who says this is just a lame attempt at being funny, I beg to differ. I've been through it and my girl Rory and I? Twinsies. It's like I could have written this myself, except my story has a different ending than hers.
  
  *I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*
• 
  Angie

  I’ve read several of these two magnificent authors’ books before and loved each of those books as though they were an appendage. As conceited as this may sound, I just have to say this: I think these two women write books just for me. It’s like they instinctively understand what it is that makes me tick and what my reading preferences are. They create characters and real-life situations that are so relatable it sometimes hurt, while it can also make you laugh. Their writing, for me, is the same as snuggling up in my warmest, coziest, favorite winter coat. It’s familiar and comfortable, and the lives they create for these characters are unlike my own in many ways, but also so very familiar in others.
  
  With their books, it’s never a matter of liking or not liking the protagonist. She is just Rory and she makes a few poor decisions, but her heart is in the right place; which makes her recognizable as a mother and a wife who has to, like many, make the hard choices for her kids as well as her marriage, career, and herself.
  
  The character I absolutely despised in this story is Rory’s spineless, cowardly husband, Blake. Sadly, the world is full of Blakes, and even more heartbreaking is that I know a few women who are married to Blakes.
  
  In keeping with the times, the storyline also has a very modern feel to it as reference is made to current pop culture and familiar names, and I appreciated knowing exactly what was referred to.
  
  Overall, I can only say that in my opinion this book deserves a standing ovation. It was both heartrending and enlightening alongside Rory to discover what being a grown-up is all about. Definitely add this book to your to-read list. You won’t regret it.
  
• 
  Kelly

  I gave this two stars not because I didn't enjoy it, but because the writing at times bothered me. Definitely a classic chick-lit/beach read sort of book if you aren't looking to read something that will be a ton of commitment. I really liked Rory, but she was pretty much the ONLY fleshed out character in the entire book. There were just so many cardboard and static characters! Any time one of Rory's two friends were in a scene I never knew who they were because personality-wise they were pretty much indistinguishable save for a few parts. I also didn't like that the book ended with a romance scene. Like, Rory's whole arc is trying to be the best mom she can be despite the shitty position she's put in. I think she definitely deserved romance and I liked who she ends up with, but I feel having the final moment be romantic sort of cheapens Rory's character arc a little bit. That being said, this was still an enjoyable book! I usually read YA Fiction, so reading from the perspectives of older and more mature characters was actually a nice change of pace.
• 
  Cyndi

  Remember when you had the posters on your wall of that 'teen heart throb'? What if you married him? Might not be all hearts and roses. That's what our heroine discovers, the hard way. Now, she has to grow up, and fast. Good book. Set in NYC, which was cool.
• 
  Kate

  Review first published here (with a meatball recipe... it's relevant!):
  https://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wo...
  
  Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus are responsible for creating the one chick-lit character that I can still remember more than ten years after ‘meeting’ him. That character was Harvard Hottie, the romantic interest in The Nanny Diaries. I’d be hard pressed to name characters from any other book I read in 2002 so why did Harvard Hottie stay in my mind? Perhaps because my friends and I had code names for various boys at the time (TNA, The Barry St Boy…). The authors knew their audience and whilst I was not a nanny on Park Avenue in New York, there was enough in The Nanny Diaries to identify with.
  
  McLaughlin and Kraus still know their audience and more importantly, they know that their audience has grown-up. And that we worry about middle-aged things. And like they did in their previous books, they deliver the perfect balance of drama, glamour and humour in their latest, How to Be a Grown-up.
  
  In brief, it’s the story of Rory McGovern, a woman balancing her own career as a stylist with her husband’s (a B-grade actor), a crumbling marriage, her two kids and all the other crap that comes her way – science projects, karate lessons, getting the kids to school on time. Rory lands a job on a high-end lifestyle site for kids – only problem, ‘kids’ are running the show (they’re actually in their twenties but you know, Gen-Yers…).
  
  The laughs come primarily from poking fun at the Millennials-
  
  “The receptionist who buzzed me in was wearing a blazer over a chevron-patterned romper. Due to the Lena Dunham effect, thighs in the office has become commonplace. Girls of all sizes were now wearing things I once would have called panties to answer phones and populate spreadsheets.”
  
  and really, there’s no end to the entertainment in the antics of Gen-Y brats. Except of course laughing at our own #campold carry-on –
  
  “”…this is not that,” I said, feeling… like I had to apologize on behalf of the 1980s.”
  
  There’s also much delight in the digital-speak nonsense that Rory deals with in her workplace –
  
  “‘We don’t have a curator for the design vertical,’ Kimmy said to her cuticles. I sat forward. ‘That’s where I can add value.’ I handed her my resume, which, following their Googling of me, seemed like inviting her to an ice cream social after we’d 69’d.”
  
  as well as the ‘lifestyle’ for kids stuff, which is highly entertaining inflated ridiculousness. Rory doesn’t want $20,000 bed frames for her own kids, she just wants “…them to have everything I didn’t. Culture, diversity, food trucks.”
  
  3.5/5 Fun.
  
  I received my copy of How to Be a Grown-up from the publisher, Atria Books, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Janine

  How to Be a Grownup wasn't awful...it just also wasn't that great.
  
  For starters, I love the idea of having a character married to a child star/heart throb. however, while that fact should have played a much larger role in the basic story, it really only came up when it was convenient. and also, Rory's admitted obsession with Blake as a child/teen/human being made it seem incredibly unlikely that she would have ever formed a true enough relationship with him that they also got MARRIED one day. And, in fact, the story of how they really actually "met" and fell in love seemed to be a part of the story that was intensely glossed over, which wax annoying.
  
  Related to that, the dissolution of their marriage seemed to happen so suddenly, without any indication that there had been deep-rooted problems that it also didn't seem quite as believable. There were some other pieces related to their separation that did hit home and seem relatable, but I got the sense as the reader that he authors really brushed in broad strokes in some areas, just so they could send the message they were really after in others.
  
  There is also the element of work/family balance. and while I think Rory's struggle to balance her children with a sudden need to actually provide for her children in a way that she had never had to before was poignant, there was also MUCH more focus on the work aspect of it all. The New York setting only adds to that, since most other single parents don't have the benefit of on-hand nannies to pick up the slack.
  
  I did enjoy the story enough that I listened to the whole thing, and enjoyed the narration. there were just also a lot of really grating things about the plot and some of the characters that I just can't overlook.
• 
  Ellie

  “How to Be A Grown Up” is another book in the lately popular genre of “normal family breaks apart and woman has to scramble to create her own identity”.
  
  When Blake, the handsome movie star, leaves Rory with their two young children, she is at a loss for what to do. She is only a freelance designer for magazine pieces, with not enough work to keep her family afloat. When an opportunity appears, she snatches it. Rory is thrown into the world of twenty-somethings, strange slang, and ideas that she struggles to understand but somehow succeeds at.
  
  If you look past Rory’s highly uncommon and unlikely success at her job, you are left with a story of a sad, lonely forty-something struggling to create a life after her husband has left her on her own. She has to get back out into the dating scene and remember how to be confident, because why would she need to have a personality or confidence if she has her handsome husband?
  
  I really struggled with this book. It was boring, unbelievable, and the characters weren’t that engaging. I found it hard to care for them. An unenthusiastic two stars for this one.
• 
  Kelly

  The main character Rory McGovern doesn't have a clue what she is getting into when she is forced back into the full time job world. She is dealing with bosses who are 20 something, self absorbed and want everything done yesterday. On the home front, her marriage is in chaos, her kids need her and her husband picks this moment to need some space. The book shows a great dose of reality in juggling "life" and trying to figure it out. I loved that Rory is portrayed as vulnerable, funny, yet willing to put up with whatever it takes to get thru. The pace is quick, the story relatable and it's a fun read!
• 
  Alycia

  If you like these ladies' books, you will like this. Sometimes they try to hard to be clever and you know the characters supposedly would never read this kind of book, but it's good for an easy read.
• 
  Danielle

  A perfect end of a long weekend read. 3.5.
• 
  Trinia

  It took me a few years to get to this book but I am glad I finally did. It was not a life changing book, but it was entertaining, although frustrating at times. I enjoyed the MC, Rory, even though sometimes I felt she was a glutton for punishment. The ending left me satisfied and glad I pushed through and finished. Good writing, just not a lot of sparkle.
  
• 
  Emily Miller

  I almost never give books less than 3 stars. But shit this book was tough. I don't even know how I got through it. Listen, I knew it was going to be chick-lit and mindless. I love a good beach read every once in a while and I loved the nanny diaries. But this was brutal. I'm so disappointed. Rory is one dimensional and sells herself so short. We need less. More strong female characters.
• 
  Kathryn Laceby

  Originally reviewed at
  Novel Escapes
  
  There were many parts of How to be a grown up that I was immediately drawn to. The Rory that was the mother was endearing and natural and her alternating between so loving with her kids and wanted to throttle them was an honest portrayal of motherhood (at least from my own perspective!). I also liked that the authors gave a voice to both stay at home parents and working parents, gave us an idea of both their existences and at one point even said the world would not function in today’s society without having both. (We really need to stop beating ourselves up!).
  
  I found the relationship between Rory and her husband really frustrating though. I never really got a good feel for them loving each other in the past and his selfishness was so infuriating I wasn’t sure why she didn’t just lose her mind at every turn. He just removed himself from his marriage and fatherhood with zero explanation and didn’t get any repercussions to speak of- not a single person gave him a hard time or tried to get him to come back to his kids or even call them with a cause. I would have liked his mother to step up and make him be responsible at least.
  
  Rory picks herself up and re-inserts herself back into a career (luckily she’s a very strong creative business person and found a niche to create financial stability). I loved her job and all the descriptions of her work but she seems to go back to the working world without so much as a blink- it’s as if she’s completely unfazed by her husband’s desertion? I found their separation emotionless.
  
  The kids were perfect- I’ve always found Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin can portray children well so I found myself promptly rooting for them to come out of the fray as unscathed as possible.
  I always enjoy novels by these authors but there were some questions for me as the emotions seemed to be lacking.
  
  Thank you to Atria Books for our review copy. All opinions are our own.
  
• 
  Karen

  Yes, thats a 5!! Well, its summer and I needed to laugh out loud! This fantastic new novel by the infamous authors of The Nanny Diaries was the perfect remedy! Rory McGovern is a stay at home mom in NYC. She married the man of her dreams, literally. Blake Turner was her crush poster on the wall (child actor!) and her secret college - I am watching you but never in 4 years never find the right time to approach - crush!! Post college they meet in NYC and they have a real connection and she is not quite as shy and he is quite that gorgeous up close. They have an adorable, needy 4 year old little girl and a 10 year old boy that is just on the cusp of thinking girls are not completely yucky. Unfortunately, the couple struggles financially. Blake's acting career is in a slump and Rory has not freelanced her set design skill much in years. Blake's solution is to revert to his childhood withdrawal syndrome, one of which Rory knew nothing about. Through humor (and I mean crack up, laughing out loud with the whole family staring - who is that woman in the kitchen?!) and heartfelt not so fictionalized storyline, Rory finds the strength and wisdom to overcome her fears, reboot her career and lean on some pretty awesome friends that are right there with a helping hand, babysitting services and shot of tequila. And while you're busy thoroughly laughing it starts to sink in that this is not so far fetched, that not all married couples stay together no matter how sincere their intentions are or were. I loved Rory and even her off the wall twentysomething boss Taylor who makes her life miserable. Once again these two fabulous friends and authors have hit the jackpot. Can't wait to see who stars in the film! Thanks Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus! #happysummer #unputdownable #laughoutloud #reading
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  Ruth

  Rory is a forty year old who finds that she desperately needs a job since things are not going well with her actor husband's career. She joins a company and ends up with a boss whose is so young the ink is barely dry on her MBA diploma. Once at the top of her field, she finds that her boss looks down on what she feels are archaic ways of doing business.
  
  At the same time, things are not going well for Rory in her marriage and she is finding it difficult to keep all the balls of her life up in the air at the same time. This has been a familiar theme in many stories in recent times. The big question in her grown-up world, is whether she will be able to figure out how to catch the all the balls that are streaking towards the ground at the speed of light.
  
  Although I kept reading this story until the end, I did not find anything particularly interesting or redeeming about this story. The Nanny Diaries was a better story. With so many books to read, I would not recommend that you choose this one to spend time reading.