There are so many amazing things about blog tours, and their wonderful organisers. But one of the things I love the most, is that I get to read books and ‘meet’ authors that I’d possibly never ordinarily read and discover. Odd Mom Out by Sandy Day is probably one of those books, so thank you to RaRa Resources for sending this gorgeous book my way!
Blurb:
Life just got life-y…
On the night that Trudy Asp discovers her ex is engaged to the same dental hygienist who’s been picking at her teeth for ten years, her daughter, Madison, suddenly announces that she too is getting married, in Europe.
Frumpy, floundering, and forced to live with her martini-swilling mother, Trudy is swamped by these revelations. And on top of it all, she’ll be wearing the second most scrutinized gown at the wedding.
Having packed on the pounds during the demise of her marriage, the idea of being eyeballed by her ex and his scrawny fiancée Zelda, is truly horrifying. To make matters worse, there’s the paralyzing fear of a transatlantic flight—something Trudy has avoided for decades.
When Zelda offers to stand in for her, Trudy is forced to confront the forces that stole her marriage and threaten to steal her daughter’s wedding too. With three months until the ceremony, Trudy must get to Europe, squeeze herself into a gown, and claim the role she wants more than anything: Mother-of-the-Bride.
Will this Odd Mom Out sink or swim? Or will she drown in a sea of humiliation?
My Review:
I adored Trudy! Not only because I completely identified with her as a self-conscious, overweight mom, of a certain age, with a 20-year-old daughter who scoffs at everything she does (if you have a daughter around this age, you’ll be able to relate!). Sandy Day has created a character who is wholly relatable: she’s authentic and just so very real! She is uncomfortable in her own skin, and knows even before she does it, just how colossally she’s about to mess something up and the level of excruciating embarrassment it’s going to cause her. I lost count of the number of times I wanted to hug this woman!
Thankfully, the author also assembled a suitable support cast to travel on Trudy’s journey with her – both literally and figuratively. Literally, because they do actually travel, from Canada to Croatia, and figuratively, because the road she travels from the book’s starting point to its end point, is one of enormous self-growth and inner strength. It’s not without stumbling blocks along the way, but thankfully there are some lovely friends to pick her up when she’s fallen down (again, both literally and figuratively – including some laugh-out-loud moments too!)
But, like life, not everyone seems to have Trudy’s best interests at heart. Don’t you often find that those closest to you are the ones who seem to hurt you the most? Day picks up on the nuanced relationships between mothers and daughters and we see it in both Trudy’s complicated relationships with her mother whom she’s been forced to live with since her husband left her, and with her own daughter Madison, who’s upped and left to go and work overseas and can barely bring herself to communicate even minimally with Trudy.
Another complex relationship that the author has woven into her plot is something else that many women find themselves navigating later in life – something that so often, we aren’t warned about, and that we don’t like talking about: her best friend! Trudy’s best friend Jane, doesn’t always seem to have her best interests at heart, to be honest. She often appears quite nonchalant when it comes to the intensity of what Trudy is going through and can come across as self-involved. There’s also that tiny little niggle of having a lot of inside information about what’s going on with Trudy’s ex-husband’s current’ fiancee! Just how friendly are they?
When you look at things from a different perspective though, and realize that obviously Jane’s dealing with her own stuff, including coming to terms with Trudy coming out of her comfort zone and making new friends, things start to look a little different though!
Sandy Day has written a warm, relatable book about self-esteem, friendship, relationships (with yourself and others), and discovering that maybe that life you’re looking for isn’t going to be what you expected, and that it’s just one or two steps outside of your comfort zone if you just find a way to take that first step.
Thanks once again to RaRa Resources for this fantastic blog tour!
PurchaseLinks:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CP1GB4V2
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CP1GB4V2
Author Bio:
Sandy Day is a recovering chatterbox and writer of riveting slice-of-life poetry, memoir, and fiction. She has authored five books to date, with two in the works. A graduate of Glendon College, she studied creative writing under Michael Ondaatje and bp nichol. A lover of cheese, coffee shops, and illustrations, she lives on the shore of Lake Simcoe in Georgina, Ontario, Canada. You can find and follow her on Substack and sandyday.ca-it rhymes!
Social Media Links: Substack: https://sandydayauthor.substack.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandeesnaps/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SandyDayWriter/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5103092.Sandy_Day
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/sandyday
jansbookbuzz.com 
Leave a comment