Friday, 8 January 2016

Goddess of Suburbia by Stephanie Kepke (Romance, 9/10E, short 'n' sweet review)

 August 2015, Book Trope, 218 pages, Paperback, Review copy 

Content: some strong adult romance scenes

Book summary
When pillar of the community and PTA mom, Max, allowed her husband, Nick, to record a sex video of them on his cell phone, she thought of it as simply a way to keep Nick interested and entertained during his frequent business trips. But suddenly, Max is trending everywhere—her video lighting up the blogosphere and Twitter, thanks to the fact that she’s a genuine, imperfect woman. Now the paparazzi are chronicling her every move; her daughter wants to disown her; and her marriage has completely fallen apart. Just as things can't get any more chaotic, Max's college boyfriend, shows up two decades after he broke her heart. Now Max must learn to stop going through the motions of her life on auto-pilot and start living authentically, or risk forever being a suburban lemming running towards the cliff of old age.

Nayu's thoughts
This book is about a funny ordinary life which is easy to relate to. I've thankfully never been subjected to the evil of sexting, but the myriad of thoughts and feelings which Max endures are ones I can relate to for other instances in my life. She is a normal woman whose voice is funny which helps during the hard times. It was hard how most jumped to conclusions about the situations, and scary how much she was hounded by the press. I had no clue how it would all end, so I got surprised along with Max as unexpected allies rallied round to help her cope with the intense invasion of her privacy.

I think the humour helps highlight a modern phenomenon which seems to be on the rise. I think that no matter what you'd like to do, there are some private things you shouldn't share using technology because if it should ever be made public the consequences would be long lasting. On the plus side there is life after the scandal for Max, not quite what she imagined but one where she is a lot stronger and knows who she can trust, which surprised me as a reader. 

Find out more on Stephanie's website

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