In
this funny and inspiring novel from the authors of The Better Half, a
mess of a heroine is desperate to resolve her past so she can finally
rediscover who she was always meant to be.
Antonia “Toni” Arroyo’s protective mother has outdated notions for her
daughter’s life: employ her natural beauty and marry young. But Toni has wholly
different aspirations.
A promising inventor and budding entrepreneur, she fights to keep her passions
alive as a financially strapped mother of twins with a job in airport
transportation services that has her going in circles. One treasured frequent
passenger is elderly traveler Sylvia Eisenberg, Toni’s sage but unofficial
adviser and cheerleader. When Toni meets Sylvia’s grandson, Ash, a striking
venture capitalist, luck just might bend her way.
With a game-changing new business endeavor in development, Toni hustles an
opportunity to pitch her idea on TV’s Innovation Nation. Toni’s
unexpected challenger? Her very own recently resurfaced, self-aggrandizing
not-quite-ex-husband. As Toni’s interrupted past collides with her tenuous
future, she is more determined than ever to follow through on her delayed
dreams. Toni’s been clinging to “maybe” for so long—it’s finally time for
“absolutely.”
Buy Links
Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon Au ~ Amazon Ca
Hardcover (US) ~ Paperback (US)
Audiobook (US)
Narrated by Bahni Turpin
~ Also Available with KindleUnlimited ~
Reviews by the
Wicked Reads Review Team
Ruthie
– ☆☆☆☆
3.5 stars rounded up
There is much to like in this book. I really liked that the old lady who
chatted to Toni at the airport really was the entrepreneur and innovations guru
who had supported some of the biggest names in the business – it was a clever
reminder not to judge a book by its cover!
Toni has a brain which cannot stop coming up with bright ideas – she just needs
one to work and be picked up by an investor so she can stop her job driving
airport transfers. Her ex walked out, leaving her bringing up twins and
shouldering all the bills and burdens. When Sylvia, her favourite client, falls
ill and she goes with her to the hospital, their lives become more entwined.
Meeting Sylvia's grandson, Ash, changes everything – she finds someone
attractive for the first time in forever, but he is completely out of reach...
let alone she is still married. And now he is in a position to give her a
chance at her dream on a TV investment show. Of course, her ex pops up, like a
bad penny, and chaos ensues.
I felt that the plot got a bit overly twisted in places and could have been
rejigged a bit to reduce the need for explanation, but I did really enjoy the
characters and the storyline, as well as the outcome!
Alli Frank
The
robustness of a farm girl, the honed sophistication of a city woman, a dash of
Jewish chutzpah, and a heaping cup of endurance athlete and voila, you have ALLI
FRANK.
Alli was raised in Yakima, WA, the only child of two parents who instilled in
her that hard work coupled with a resilient spirit will take you where you want
to go. So up some of the highest mountains Alli climbed, down insanely steep
terrain she skied and across long swathes of land she ran. To pay for all this
adventure, Alli has worked in education for over 20 years in San Francisco and
Seattle – from an overcrowded, cacophonous public high school to a pristine
private girl’s school. She has been a teacher, curriculum leader, coach,
college counselor, assistant head, private school co-founder, sometimes pastor,
often mayor, and de facto parent therapist. A graduate of Cornell and Stanford
Universities, Alli can still be found with her nose deep in a book or hunkered
down at the movies, never one to miss a great story.
Alli lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband, two daughters and terribly
cute mini-Bernedoodle. When she needs good food (cause she can’t really cook)
she turns to her co-author Asha Youmans.
Connect with Alli
Frank!
Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Twitter ~ Website ~ Goodreads
Asha Youmans
ASHA
YOUMANS was raised in Seattle, WA, by an educational and civil right pioneer
father and a children’s hospital administrator mother, along with a sister and
a brother she admires and adores. As a child, Asha was a member of a two-time
city champions Double Dutch team, among the first wave of girls to integrate
Little League baseball and rode a unicycle, tumbled and juggled as a member of
a traveling circus acrobatics team. She also read everything she could get her
hands on from X-Men comic books to the “Clan of the Cave Bear” series to Camus.
Enrolled in gifted programs while attending public school, Asha went on to
graduate from one of America’s premier private academies, Lakeside School, from
which her father, TJ Vassar, earned a diploma as the school’s first black
graduate. After receiving a degree from the University of California, Berkeley,
Asha returned to Seattle where she taught in public and private schools for
nearly 20 years.
Asha is a fabulous home cook who loves storytelling and connecting with others
by making them smile. She lives with her white husband, two ethnically
ambiguous sons, and a dog that is part Yorkie and part who-the-heck-knows.
Connect with Asha
Youmans!
Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Twitter ~ Website ~ Goodreads
ARC provided by
Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided
with a free copy of Boss Lady by Alli Frank & Asha Youmans to read and
review.
