Review: Best Laid Plans & Other Disasters by Amy Rivers

by Susan Roberts

January 2017; Wooden Pants Publishing; 9780692817803
ebook & print (236 pages); women's fiction
a free book was provided for this review

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.

We first met Gwen in Amy River's previous book Wallflower Blooming which introduced us to Gwen while highlighting her cousin Val's life and her work to help Gwen get elected as mayor.  Gwen is sure that once she reaches her goal of becoming mayor of a Colorado city, the path will be clear for her plans to be a future governor of Colorado.  That's before she is faced with a colleague who is trying to cause problems, a workload that is overwhelming and a boyfriend who no longer meets her expectations.  Her boyfriend, Jason, works for the same town and after conflict of interest charges keep getting brought up, he decides to take a job that has him traveling most of the time.  To top it all off, her cousin Val has an upcoming wedding and Gwen is the maid of honor and has all of the extra work involved with a wedding adding to her already strenuous workload. Then something happens that make Gwen question the importance of all of her other stressing problems and she has to make a decision on how to deal with the unexpected changes in her life.

I definitely enjoyed this book.  Despite some of the lighter moments, there are problems in this book that every working woman has to address.  I loved the main character, Gwen,  and her cousin Val and enjoyed their relationship with each other.  The reminded me of people that I know in my everyday life.  This one is a must-read.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  

Amy Rivers was born and raised in southern New Mexico and currently resides in Colorado with her husband and kids. She has a Master's degree with concentrations in Psychology and Politics, two topics she loves to incorporate into her personal essays and novels. Amy has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Nurses, Novelty Bride Magazine, ESME.com and Splice Today.

Buy Best Laid Plans & Other Disasters at Amazon

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling.  She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their grandson.  Susan reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook.

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