Reviewer: Rowena
Carpool Confidential by Jessica Benson

Publication Date: October 16th 2007
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 432
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books

Looks like we made it...

From the outside looking in, Cassie Martin's life is storybook perfect. She and her investment banker husband, Rick, have everything -- financial stability, a loving marriage, and a to-die-for apartment overlooking the Manhattan skyline that they share with their two young sons and one stinky but beloved dog. It may not be the height of excitement, but Cassie's content to take care of her family and compete in the superparenting sweepstakes of the New York City private school mom. Then one night, in one instant, everything changes. Rick has been offered an exciting new opportunity involving a...Barry Manilow retrospective? And he wants -- no, needs -- to try to get the feeling again.

I can't smile without you...or can I?

What can a woman do once she's been abandoned for brown polyester leisure suits and an a capella version of "Weekend in New England" other than hope her husband will eventually come to his senses? But as Cassie tries to keep her life afloat among the complications of financial insecurity, warring parents of her own, a mother-in-law who suddenly wants to become best girlfriends 4ever, and the advent of a third child in her life, it becomes clear that there's more to the Manilow story than meets the eye. And as fate would have it, Cassie's new work has her venturing into some of the city's hottest night spots -- definitely not the Copacabana -- and maybe, just maybe, into the arms of a man who will help her try to get the feeling again....

I started this book expecting a light and funny read but what I got was something entirely different. What I got was a woman left behind with two small children to raise all on her own because her ass of a husband wants to find his creative self with some stupid shit Barry Manilow interpretation.

Seriously.

So, now Cassie (the spurned wife) gets hired by her editor friend to start up a blog and do what we all do on our personal blogs…write about our lives. Write about what we’re thinking, how we’re feeling, how we’re dealing with getting on with our lives with some laugh out loud jokes on the side. Before she takes the job, she’s really iffy because 1) she’s embarrassed 2) she doesn’t want everyone to read about her innermost thoughts and 3) she just doesn’t want to. Before Cassie had kids, she used to be a writer, she wanted to be a journalist but she left the whole writing thing completely to raise her kids.

Some things that got on my nerves in the beginning of the book was it was a little slow to pick up for me. I was already irritated when because Cassie’s husband Rick was such an ass and then to make matters worst, Cassie has a maid that doesn’t clean the house. Why on earth would Cassie keep the stupid ass maid around, paying her to do the things that Cassie does herself. Cassie was doing the maid’s job when Rick announced he was leaving her….what the flip?

One thing I wanted to mention in my review is that this book was written when Heath Ledger was still alive, it was weird to read Cassie telling her friend Charlotte that her side of the city had Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger and I mourned a little for the loss of a great actor and said, “Not anymore sweetie” ….Awww, I’m still in shock over Heath’s passing.

I hated that Cassie let herself get walked all over by those stupid people from the PTA and then I hated how she dealt with her husband leaving her….6 weeks later and she’s still in denial that Rick would come to his senses and come home. I hated that begged him to come back home when he would call to talk to the boys and I hated that she would blow the number he called from up just so that she could talk to him. I hated seeing her like that but I guess, I had to see her like that to appreciate the woman she became at the end of the book. She came a long way and by the end of the book I was a much happy camper.

I enjoyed seeing the change that came over Cassie as she started putting the pieces of her life back together again. I enjoyed her relationship with the different people in her life, including her mother in law. She helped others deal with their own problems at the same time that they were helping her deal with her problems. It was good to see all of this going down because at the end of the book, I was cheering her on.

Watching her move on with her life, doing what was best for her and her boys was great to see and I think that Jessica Benson did a great job of letting us get to know Cassie Martin and what she was made of. I enjoyed reading her blogs too, they were funny, quirky and real. The problems that Cassie faced were real and I connected with that.

The book ended the way it was supposed to end and I quite enjoyed the story. I enjoyed seeing Cassie grow to be the woman at the end. I enjoyed the other characters that made up this book and I ended up really liking this book. It’s a story about a blogger, one you guys might relate to in one way or another and it’s just a good book.

You guys should definitely read this book.

4 out of 5