Sue Margolis (1955–2017)

What a delightful tale about a grandmom who is forced (somewhat) to keep the two grandkids when their parents accept a mission to treat people from a disaster across the planet. Grandma is not yet comfortable with widowhood, but rediscovers her spunk when the know-it-all expert on child-rearing and the most outspoken of the school's parents takes her to task. Enter an attractive widower who knows how to bide his time and woo this lady and we have a woman who is bustling to get it all done in show more the 24 hour day. The kids act up, of course, and grandma has to fix it with the school and the other parents. It is a speedy read and a treat. My thanks to the author and the Penguin First to Read program for a complimentary copy. show less

I’m a big fan of Sue Margolis and have every book she has ever written since Neurotica in 1998. So, I was really happy to see that she has written a new book after a two year absence. It was worth the wait.
The book starts with Greg and Sophie going to visit a couple’s counselor to try to repair their fracturing marriage. Little things like Greg buying a Sherman tank, his constant inability to do anything around the house (including plunging the toilet he stops up on a regular basis), and show more a lack of action in the bedroom have brought Sophie to the end of her rope. Greg, on the other hand, sees her as a woman neurotic about cleanliness with a martyr complex and who doesn’t appreciate how hard he works to support the family. Needless to say, the sessions do not go well and they decide to separate.
What follows is the telling of how a family functions after a split. This is what I like to call a slice of life book. There are no major highs or lows, no real villain or hero, just regular people trying to make sense of the life that they have ended up living. In addition to her marriage imploding, Sophie has to deal with major changes at work, financial troubles, and general life suckiness! Greg seemingly is able to move on with little disruption in his life.
I really liked this book. Ms. Margolis manages to keep a humorous bend to a lot of the angst in the book but not to the point of making it a farce. Both Sophie and Greg move on and have personal growth that allows them to get happiness back in their lives. When I got to the end, I was pleased with how it all worked out. I hope that Ms. Margolis has her next book out sooner than two years from now! show less

If the title didn't give it away, the hot pink cover certainly would. This is chick lit with no apologies. Unfortunately it is as superficial as the critics of the genre contend all chick lit is. It opens with single girl Rebecca stopped in traffic, busily applying make-up, and not noticing that traffic has freed up, earning her a honk and nasty look from the good looking jerk driving behind her. Cut to Rebecca discovering that she has been moved from her desk at the heart of the newsroom to show more a corner to make room for new golden boy Max, who turns out to be the good looking jerk from the morning commute. You had to see that one coming, right?! But Rebecca isn't obsessed with dating (no, we are given her goofy grandmother for that trope). She's a reporter who wants to cover more than the beauty column on which she's currently filling in as a freelancer. She wants to be a serious investigative reporter. As such, she's going to chase down the story of a new wrinkle cream that contains a secret ingredient which makes it really and truly work, but could also cause serious, irreparable harm to the women who use it. Seriously. Over the top?!

In the meantime, her personal life gets a boost from the delicious Max, who seems quite keen on her. Well, he's at least as keen on her as he is on the gorgeous television presenter with whom he's working on an expose or so Rebecca thinks. And can our heroine see that he's one of the good guys who really does like her? Nope. She has to jump to conclusions and fly off the handle and just generally act like a complete dingbat of a teenager. And yet this is a woman who is supposedly reasonably mature and capable of serious investigative reporting. I didn't much buy it. In addition to the outrageously cliched plot and main characters, the secondary characters are ridiculous caricatures. Occasionally they inspired laughs but for the most part, they were as flighty and silly as Rebecca herself.

Rebecca misreads almost everyone around her and it is sheer luck that she hasn't permanently stuffed up her personal life, career, and everything else. This was the lightest of light reads, although it had some fairly overwrought sex scenes to balance out the fluff. I probably could have found a more fulfilling way to spend my reading time but for a book when you don't want to have to think at all, this was just fine. show less

"FORGET ME KNOT", by Sue Margolis, is a naughty bit of British fluff, infused with humor and amorous escapades. The heroine of the story, Abby, runs a successful flower shop, but her life is filled with people who are not always whom they would appear to be. Her fiance, Toby, is impeccably gorgeous and increasingly remote. She meets an attractive and kind young man, Dan, when they become stuck together in an elevator. He seems to be a regular Joe, struggling to complete the low-budget film show more he wrote, directed and produced. He's definitely sexy, sweet, and creative. Is there more to him than meets the eye? Homosexuality, religion, race, and social classes are tossed around like dice. You'll rethink some of your own feelings toward unconventional people as you laugh all the way through this lighthearted tale.

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