Title: Trophy Life
Author: Lea Geller
Publication Date: April 9, 2019
Genre: Contemporary
Number of Pages: 364
Summary: From Goodreads: “For the last ten years, Agnes Parsons’s biggest challenge has been juggling yoga classes and lunch dates. Her Santa Monica house staff takes care of everything, leaving Agnes to focus on her trophy-wife responsibilities: look perfect, adore her older husband, and wear terribly expensive (if uncomfortable) underwear.
When her husband disappears, leaving Agnes and their infant daughter with no money, no home, and no staff, she is forced to move across the country, where she lands a job teaching at an all-boys boarding school in the Bronx. So long, organic quinoa bowls and sunshine-filled California life. Hello, processed food, pest-infested house, and twelve-year-old-boy humor—all day, every day.
But it’s in this place of second chances (and giant bugs), where Agnes is unexpectedly forced to take care of herself and her daughter, where she finds out the kind of woman she can be. Ultimately, she has to decide if she prefers the woman and mother she has become…or the trophy life she left behind.
Authentic and sharply witty, Trophy Life is proof that granny panties and mom coats might not be the answer to everything; they’re simply comfortable (if slightly unattractive) reminders of what happens when one life ends…and real life begins.”
Review: I received an ARC of this book from Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
I requested this book from Net Galley because it sounded like a funny, feel-good story, which is something that I’m always in the mood for. When I decided to finally pick it up, I was instantly hooked on the story, and I couldn’t stop reading it. I’m happy to say that this book had a lot more depth than I was expecting, and that it had a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, and that I enjoyed every page of it.
The reason why I liked this book so much is that I fell in love with the main character. I found Agnes Parsons to be a lot of fun, and I enjoyed reading about her journey to discover herself again after everything fell apart around her. She had a lot of moments that made me laugh-out-loud, especially when she discovered processed baby snacks. I also liked that she genuinely cared about the boys in her classes and that she wanted them to succeed and to get through middle-school unharmed. I liked her character development, and I enjoyed reading about her transition from Santa Monica trophy wife to a single mom trying to get by and forge her own path.
I also liked the supporting characters in this book. Beeks is an amazing friend, and I loved how supportive she was of Agnes, and how she helped Agnes realize what it is she had to do. I also genuinely laughed at a lot of the phone conversations between the two characters, which made the book so much more enjoyable. Stacy Figgs, the teacher who lives next door, is another character that I liked; I enjoyed her Christmas sweaters, and I liked watching her grow along with Agnes throughout the story. I wasn’t a huge fan of Jack, I found him to be way too controlling, and he said a few things to Agnes that I would not have been able to forgive. Finally, I liked the boys in Agnes’s class because they had genuine problems and fears that they were trying to sort through.
The other thing that I enjoyed about this book is that it takes place at a middle school. I think middle school is the perfect setting for this book because Agnes and the boys are both going through big changes. Agnes is adjusting from having everything she could ever want to surviving pay cheque to pay cheque and the boys are dealing with transitioning from being kids to being teenagers.
This book was somewhat predictable in the sense that I knew what Agnes was going to decide to do very early on. Fortunately, I don’t have any problems with predictable books because I enjoy finding out how the character is going to get to the ending that I predicted. In this case, I enjoyed going on this journey with Agnes and I spent the whole book rooting for her to make the right decision.
Overall, I found this book to be fun and heartwarming. I liked the characters, the friendships, and the setting. I enjoyed reading about Agnes’s journey of rediscovering herself, and I recommend this book to anyone looking for a funny, fast-paced read.
Rating: 4/5 Stars!