Mona messed up big time. After years of self-motivation and keeping her eyes on the prize, she couldn't hide her disdain for their client after he criticized her presentation. What he said about the ease of selling his liquor to victims of alcohol abuse hit way too close to home for her, as three months ago it was the cause of her father's death. But you don't talk back to the client if you want to move from manager to director. She knew she was going to get the axe.
Amazingly enough, her boss took pity on her. Instead of being fired, Mona was placed on "bereavement leave" for six weeks when, hopefully, she would come back with a better attitude. But she never took a day off, much less six weeks-she knew she was going to go stark raving mad, especially if she had to sit around that awful apartment all day. It was all she could afford that was close to her office but it was old and smelly, and the other tenants were weird. The vision board posted on her refrigerator showed her aspirations of living in a modern sleek high-rise in a great neighborhood instead of an old-fashioned apartment in a run-down area. After a night of binge drinking with her work colleagues and some other shenanigans at the diner across from her apartment that she hardly remembered, she went to bed and was awakened by a fire alarm. She had to be evacuated outside with the other residents, and as she ran through the lobby, she saw that the place had been trashed. Was she the cause of the mess and resulting short circuit? The nice guy from the diner seemed to think so-he was cute but she had no interest in someone not wanting to better himself. In the chaos, her landlady tripped going down the stairs and had to be hospitalized-who would take care of her elderly doxie? Mona volunteered, she was going to have time on her hands and felt the need to make amends, and Sami, the diner guy, was going to help with walks-maybe it would work out.
The only thing good about this whole catastrophe was the landlady's niece, a prominent real estate agent. She secretly revealed her plan to Mona-she had a client interested in buying the apartment building which had been losing money for years. If Mona would take over managing the building while the landlady recuperates, and organizes and fixes up the place for a showing, she would be in line for the apartment of her dreams-Mona couldn't say no.
As Mona begins interacting with the other residents and helping them solve their problems, she starts to realize that being so motivated to succeed in her career left her without friends or a community, and she begins to enjoy slowing down and taking an interest in the building's tenants. She also got to know Sami and his family, and discovered that he was a chef who came back to help his dad run the diner-but the area was in flux and customers were getting scarce-with her marketing background maybe she could help.
Sue's second novel tackles the theme of a young woman having to make her way in an unfeeling business world and how she copes. Mona has her reasons for always looking out for herself but the author does a good job of showing how she is forced to expand her world and becomes a happier and better person for it. Order up!
Reviewed by Donna Ballard
August 11, 2026
Reserve a physical copy - Coming soon
No comments:
Post a Comment