The Juggle by Emma Murray
Published by Boldwood Books
Publication Date 11th February 2021
Womens Fiction, Humour
My thanks to Rachel Gilbey of Rachels Random Resources for the invitation to read this book ahead of publication and feature my review as part of the promotional blog tour. My views here are my own and unbiased.
Book Description:
Mother-of-one Saoirse is just about holding it all together – combining part time work with the school run, while her husband David gets to focus on his career. But when David loses his job, everything has to change.
With no hesitation, Saoirse suggests she takes on the role of main breadwinner. After all, how hard can it be? And when a new client offers her a life-changing sum of money, Saoirse can look the other over-achieving Woodvale school-run mums in the eye with pride.
But there’s a problem with keeping too many balls in the air – eventually one is bound to drop. And when that happens – well, who knows what the consequences could be…
Laugh-out-loud funny, achingly relatable, but with a heart of gold, and warmth running through every page. This is the perfect read for anyone who has way too many balls in the air! The novel may or may not have been inspired by real life…
My Thoughts:
I was completely unaware when I signed up for the blog tour that this book is a sequel and even by the end of the story I didn't feel like I had missed significant amounts of information by not reading the first one. On reflection yes, I probably had but not sufficient to spoil the story for me. Saoirse and David have life pretty much sorted, David works in banking while his wife does the school run and works as a ghost writer from home. Then life does what it does and drops a bombshell with David being made redundant from his job. But this coincides with Saoirse being offered the chance to earn big bucks for a seemingly easy writing job and for only six months work. There's a saying: if something looks too good to be true it usually is. This comes to Saoirse's mind when she hears the offer - but in a desperate effort to take the pressure off David she agrees to the task and at first she believes all her dreams are coming true. The author presents us with comical narration of the family's day to day life with Saoirse's twice daily dreaded experience of the Organics, the seemingly perfect school run mums. Anyone who has done the school run will be able to relate to these tales and there are some particularly laugh out loud events which befall Saoirse and her daughter Anna. Dad David tries to take the strain of these treks to the school gates much to Anna's dismay (nothing the promise of a much frowned upon pink doughnut won't solve though) so that Saoirse can travel across London to meet the eccentric benefactor who is facilitating this change of lifestyle. While taking his sabbatical from work David makes the decision to try and trace his birth mother (this must be one of the sections of the story which the first book provides a background on) which causes the inevitable ripples in his relationship with his adoptive mother, a cold, rather strange individual I found. This part of the story I found quite emotional in more ways than one, which I wasn't expecting amongst the humour I had been reading so far. I found the whole book a very realistic representation of the many and varied characters in life - but at the same time realised that even with all these different personalities, humans are the same the world over and we are all stereotypes in one form or another. This would be a fun book to discuss for a book club with all sorts of issues to discuss from parenting styles, employment issues, adoption, friendship boundaries and many, many more.
From the Author:
I am an Irish author living in London, UK. I started writing stories when I was 9 years old. My first 'book' was called 'Carrie the Kitten and Friends,' scribbled untidily in a school notebook (my handwriting is as appalling today as it was back then). My favourite subject at school was English, and I regularly bored dozens of fellow school children with my prolific essay-writing. Following university where I studied English and Spanish (my Spanish is mediocre at best, but mysteriously improves after a few glasses of wine), I moved to London to pursue a banking career. Turning 30 gave me the push I needed to take all my savings and invest them into pursuing my dream job as a full-time writer. Over the last decade, I have worked on mainly nonfiction books in the area of business and academic textbooks, but my first love has always been fiction. At a publishing event a few years ago, a literary agent gave me some great advice, 'To be a writer, you need to be passionate about the subject and write from the heart.' The birth of my two daughters inspired me to apply this advice to a series of books about motherhood and its impact on romantic relationships, women friendships, and family dynamics. They are set in London and Ireland (where I am originally from) and give a humorous account of the frustrations of being a parent. Writing these books has been the hardest but most worthwhile thing I have ever done in my career. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I love writing them.
You can find out more and follow my blog at www.emmamurray.net
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