Lucy Mathers Goes Back To Work
by Julie Butterfield
Amazon US / UK / AU / CA
Lucy Mathers was once the golden girl of Simcock & Bright. Four years later, she’s a stay at home mum with two adorable children, has swapped her Louboutins for rabbit slippers and spends her day making crustless sandwiches and colour co-ordinated lunches instead of signing up high profile clients.
When her husband is suddenly made redundant, there is panic in the Mathers’ household. With a mortgage the size of the national debt and a credit card balance that’s in danger of toppling, Lucy reluctantly decides she must return to work. So she digs out her old power suits from the back of the wardrobe and leaves Will to become a house husband. But sitting in Lucy’s old office is Grant Cassidy, suave, handsome and ruthless and with no intention of letting Lucy walk back into the number one job.
At home, despite his breezy declaration that swapping boardroom battles for toddler groups would be a doddle, Will’s belief that parental issues could be solved with forward planning and a spreadsheet soon falls by the wayside.
With both Will and Lucy struggling to adapt, could their previously happy marriage be developing some cracks?
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
Of course, the result of her hard work was that when Will arrived home his children were bathed, content and happy to cuddle him on the settee in adorable, sleepy mode, while Lucy escaped to the kitchen, holding onto the kitchen work surface for support and drinking wine straight from the bottle.
Sliding the shoes out of the box, she laid them reverently on the floor before pulling off her woolly socks and wriggling her toes in anticipation. Her foot disappeared into the shiny red leather, stopping halfway down. Frowning she slipped the shoe off and checked to see if she had left some tissue tucked into the toe. Nothing. Putting the shoe back on the floor she pushed a little harder, squeezing her toes together and grunting until her foot was finally forced in. She gasped in pain. Oh my God, she thought, it was like a scene from Cinderella, and she must be one of the ugly sisters because this was far from the perfect fit.
Harry had chocolate smeared in his baby curls and Emily had a hole in her woolen tights that she had made larger by stuffing toys inside and using as an impromptu storage space until she could hardly walk for the huge collection of random objects that stuck to one side of her leg like a hideous growth.
Her bag had been emptied of toddler paraphernalia such as the odd sock, baby wipes, a rather crusty bib, Harry’s favourite book, and Emily’s crayons. Before the arrival of her children, Lucy’s bag had been a shrine to lipsticks and perfume along with scented tissues and always a spare pair of tights and it gave her a small thrill to look inside now and see that she had gone full circle.
My Review:
I gleefully giggle-snorted my way through this delightfully amusing tale of Lucy Mathers, a competitive business professional attempting to recoup her mojo after a four-year hiatus for childrearing. There were multiple challenges awaiting Lucy, the first being that her entire wardrobe appeared to have shrunk while in the closet – I myself have had that happen as well so I was in total sympathy with her plight. Her harried accountant husband, Will, was taking on the home front while between jobs. Will’s struggle was just as great, although his wardrobe was no longer of consequence his small children did not seem to respect his spreadsheet timetables organized with accompanying phone alarms, which were hopelessly abandoned during the first week.
The engaging storylines and insightful writing were riotously comical and cleverly penned while evoking sharp and mirth-filled visuals that kept me with a near-constant smirk and frequently laughing aloud. Julie Butterfield must be a hoot at parties. I would most likely fall at her feet while looking up at her in total adoration if ever I were lucky enough to find myself in her company.
Julie Butterfield belongs to the rather large group of ‘always wanted to write’ authors who finally found the time to sit down and put pen to paper – or rather fingers to keyboard.
She wrote her first book purely for pleasure and was very surprised to discover that so many people enjoyed the story and wanted more, so she decided to carry on writing!
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