Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Audiobook: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Spice: 🌶️🌶️

by Ali Rosen

Thank you to Ali for the gifted digital copy of her gorgeous book, which is both a charming second-chance romance and a thoughtful story about the conflicting pressures put on women as parents, partners, and professionals.

At the pinnacle of her career and managing co-parenting with her ex-husband, Bea’s life takes an unexpected turn when her boss announces a move to Ireland. This decision, requiring frequent travel, threatens Bea’s delicate custody arrangement. In Ireland, she is confronted with a surprise: the new Chief Technology Officer is Jack Slater, her high school love, who broke her heart. Their relationship, initially frosty, thaws into a ‘what happens in Ireland, stays in Ireland’ co-workers-with-benefits arrangement. As their connection deepens, Bea discovers a newfound confidence, thanks to Jack’s quiet support. This evolving relationship and the complex dynamics of Bea’s friends and boss form the heart of the story, culminating in a poignant reflection on past events and a hopeful future. 

This book is such an evolution for Bea – deciding she can choose how to respond to the challenges in front of her, ask for what she wants, own her successes, and solve her own problems. I love how she navigates coming to terms with the dissolution of her marriage, gains confidence in herself, and how Jack gives her the space and confidence to do those things. He doesn’t swoop in to help her; he pushes her to help herself. In addition to Bea and Jack, Bea’s friends and boss play critical roles in the story. Additionally, Bea and Jack revisit their different perspectives on what happened twenty years ago, and each sees those events through new eyes. By the end, I cared tremendously about these characters and reflected on my own conflicts of trying to be successful as a partner and mother while also being dedicated to a job I love.