Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Best Laid Plans & Other Disasters (Review AND Giveaway!)

**This post contains affiliate links that I may make commission from. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

I'm behind! I know I just got back from vacation but I am already behind in life. So much for rest and relaxation. I basically feel like I've been dragged through a row of bushes at this point. This week is going to be all over the place as I play catch up with life.

Best Laid Plans & Other Disasters- Amy Rivers
A year after she is elected mayor of a prosperous Colorado city, Gwen's career and life are fully on track, all according to plan. So why is she in such a slump emotionally and physically? New conflicts keep boiling over in city government, and her earlier allies no longer support her. She and her boyfriend have an ideal relationship, which she finds inexplicably dissatisfying. Without telling her, he decides to take a new job that has him traveling out of state every week. Suddenly unexpected developments turn everything topsy-turvy, and Gwen is forced to re-examine her carefully-planned life. 

You maybe remember me reviewing another book by Amy Rivers called Wallflower Blooming at the very end of last year, so when I saw that there was a follow up, I jumped right on board! At the end of Wallflower Blooming, Gwen is elected mayor and she meets a guy and that kind of set the wheels for this book to be born.

For me, Gwen is SO hard to like, and that's probably because she's just everything I'm not. She's driven, she's bossy, she's popular, she's a go-getter. She's in a relationship with Jason which was a bit hard for me to get into at first because in the first book I got the impression Gwen was more of a "love 'em and leave 'em" type gal but relationship Gwen is what's being sold here. Things are going along swimmingly until Gwen finds herself on the verge of breaking up with Jason, being a mayor isn't as easy as she planned, former allies aren't playing along, she's feeling restless and moody, and of course there's a reason for it all- which is her own personal disaster. (And no, I'm not spoiling it though I'm certain you can guess what it is.)

The two books are certainly stand alone worthy but they are similar in that Val in the first one and Gwen in this one have complicated family history. Gwen struggles with her ability to navigate her new course because she doesn't have a terrific familial history and doesn't know if she can succeed without having a model to follow. It's a witty book (I won't go as far to call it funny, but there are moments where I had admittedly chuckled to myself), and I think a lot of female readers are going to be able to relate to it. It's a solid follow up to Wallflower Blooming, but I have to emphasize you do not need to read the first one to enjoy this one, but if you have read that one you'll enjoy visiting the characters from the book again.

Order your own copy of Best Laid Plans, but also visit the author's website, Facebook, and Twitter!

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2 comments:

Heather J @ TLC Book Tours said...

It certainly sounds like Gwen has a lot going on in her life! I'm glad you enjoyed catching up with her in this book. Thanks for being a part of the tour.

Gale said...

Hey, if you ever have another low entry giveaway, will you share it on my link list? (2nd linky down is the low entry one). I know it can be discouraging when you have something to give away and not many enter. http://suchfuntogive.blogspot.com/p/giveaway-link-ups.html