Review: Maggie's Turn

Hello everyone! Welcome to my stop on the Maggie's Turn blog tour. Read on to learn more about this book and my thoughts on it.

Title: Maggie's Turn

Author: Deanna Lynn Sletten

Publisher: Createspace

Published: August 5, 2013

Format: Paperback

Pages: 246

Source: Received a free copy in exchange 

for an honest review

My Rating: 4 Stars

Synopsis:

Maggie Harrison is a devoted wife and mother, always putting the needs of her family ahead of her own. Then, one day, without planning to, she drives away, leaving behind an indifferent husband and two sulking teenagers. Maggie goes off on a quest of self-exploration, enjoying adventures, meeting new people, and rediscovering her passions. For the first time in years, she dreams about what she wants out of life, and she realizes that her deteriorating marriage can no longer continue as it is. Can she and Andrew repair their floundering relationship, or is their marriage over?

Andrew Harrison likes his life to be in perfect order. He enjoys his work and status in the community, leaving Maggie to take care of everything at home. He knows his marriage isn't perfect, but after twenty-three years and two kids, whose marriage is? When Maggie leaves without a word, he is forced to start paying more attention to his home life and his almost grown children, and he begins to do a little self-exploration of his own. Slowly, he begins to understand what drove Maggie away, and how important she is in his life. Is it too late to resolve their differences and save their marriage? Or will Andrew lose Maggie forever?

Melissa's Musings:

This book was easy to read. I felt for Maggie, and definitely understood her sense of wanderlust. I think everyone has a bit of that need to wander off and escape life's problems. There's no better way to think through things than on a road trip. I've never been on one, but reading this story made me want to take one. I thoroughly enjoyed Maggie's connection to Bob Seger's music and appreciated that she let the music take her away, quite literally.

Maggie has a lot to deal with, being that her husband cheated on her and just wants to sweep it under the rug. My gut reaction to Andrew was that he was a condescending, arrogant, controlling jerk. And while he did have some improvement throughout the book, I can't honestly say that he won me over at the end. I think he had it too easy, and his apologies were bit too rehearsed for my taste. 

I did appreciate that the story broached the subject of Andrew's affair and Maggie's leaving from both the parents and kid's views. I know from personal experience that it's no fun and no one usually asks the kids when a parent leaves, for whatever reason. Discussing the kid's feelings helped Maggie to realize what's important.

There's also a neat theme of Maggie meeting several people who also have some variation of Bob in their names. This was a neat quirk of the book which was done well. Subtle, yet cohesive. There were certain friendships that i was rooting for, but didn't happen, but that's okay.

I'd recommend this one to anyone who wants to travel or reminisce about times long ago.