Published: April 20, 2019 by Simon Watson Publishing
Dates Read: April 17, – April 21, 2019
Genre/Category: Women’s Fiction / Women’s Humor
Read For: Free copy for Review / Marianne Hansen & KateRockBookTour
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4 stars
Do you like Chic-Lit? Well, this is chic-lit at its finest. A quirky new book about love, friendship, and starting over, truly some laugh out loud enjoyable reading.
Book synopsis: She’s about to go down the aisle again. But her ex-husband could end up much more than an objection. Grace just wants what’s best for her kids. Now happily engaged and ready to put single-mom life behind, Grace’s teaching role takes an interesting turn when an ex-student asks her for dating advice. But as she reconsiders the terrible example of her past love-related choices, Grace’s cheating ex pushes her for a second chance… Torn by the desire to give her children a sense of family, Grace fears she can’t trust her own advice. Did Grace make the right choice for her children, her love, and herself? Better Off Divorced is a heartfelt journey of women’s fiction.
Grace Harper, newly engaged, back to teaching, moving on with her life, and doing well. Now her cheater ex husband John is trying to push himself back into her life. Why? Because the loser doesn’t know how to live without having a woman take care of him, and when he gets dumped by the woman he ruined Grace’s life to be with, he decides Grace needs to give him a second chance. Let me tell you, I had no sympathy for John, and I really wanted to smack the sh*t out of him. (But I wouldn’t have, because hitting is bad.)
Poor Grace has enough going on in her life with her skeezy ex-husband to make for a pretty interesting novel, but it’s the side stories with her new fiancée Simon, her co-worker and reunion co-planner Sally and her 3 fairly well-adjusted sons that really take this story to a whole different level. Simon is just too good to be true, Sally is so needy and unsure of herself that she drives you nuts in the sweetest of ways and the boys, well they just cracked me up the entire time.
I found this book so whimsical and easy to read. So many books make you feel like you have been studying for a test, where you are left with your head hurting, your mind going a mile a minute, and you are trying to figure so many things out and keep so many things straight. Better Off Divorced did not make my head hurt. It was a cozy read where I felt totally relaxed and enjoyed every moment of the book. There were multiple times that I laughed out loud, or snickered, because I appreciated the snark, and I think Grace really deserved to give it. (Plus the Shakespeare insult cards were awesome, and if there is such a thing I am going to find them.). For me, the theme of this book was that men are idiots (well, certain men) and I think that anyone who has been in a failed relationship or has had a partner who has cheated will totally relate and enjoy this book. In the end, Grace gave some of the best relationship advice I’ve ever heard. Better off Divorced deserves a solid 4 stars. This one keeps your attention, keeps you laughing, and makes you hope that Marianne Hansen keeps writing.
Thank You so much to Marianne Hansen and KateRockBookTours for the free copy of Better Off Divorced for an unbiased and honest review.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Marianne Hansen is humor writer, wife, mother of 3 and purchaser of shoes. I have a JD from U of Iowa, an MA and a BA from BYU, but I’m still trying to convince my family I know what I’m talking about. When not writing or watching bad television, I can be found answering the question: “What would happen if I…”.
I spent the first half of my life in Connecticut. In high school, I was uprooted from my home and moved to Utah. I have been trying to move back East ever since. I’m starting to think it will be just as easy to change that goal to move to the Far East. I attended Brigham Young University and got a degree in English, realized I had no employable abilities and got an MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. The only full-time job I could get was in Yemen so I went to the University of Iowa law school.
Then I married a dentist. My husband fluctuates between being very lovable and being slightly neurotic. Sometimes, or often, I am the deciding factor on how that scale balances.
We ended up in Helena, Montana and now have three kids.
While in Helena, I became a member of the Montana bar, but my goal is to never practice law unless forced. Instead, I do my best to find the irony in the seriousness of life and put it into words. I’m doing my best to let people know it’s okay to live in suburbia while continually wondering how you got here.
You can contact her via FB and Instagram at
https://www.instagram.com/mariannehanr/
https://www.facebook.com/MarianneHansenR/
Better Off Divorced is available to purchase on Amazon via https://amzn.to/2KO6zqa
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