I really enjoyed the characters in this book. Maggie is full of self doubt and fears, but as the story progresses she learns who she is and what her place is in her new world. During her journey, she makes quirky new friends and has many new experiences. While the story is one I’ve read a few times before, the characters make this one worth the read.

Maggie Halfmoon and her husband, Adam, is nearing their retirement and their 28th year of being married. However, Maggie’s worst nightmare came when Adam just suddenly dropped the bomb that he’s leaving their home because he no longer loves her. Aside from this, he told her that there’s another woman in his life; he sent a divorce paper few weeks after he was gone, and Maggie was left thinking what went wrong in their marriage. She kept on wishing that Adam will have a change of heart; that he will come back and they will fix their relationship.

Maggie went through the stages of grief: denial of what happened; anger to the man he love since college; she even bargain to Adam when she drunk called him while he was in Rome; she had a mild depression, it was shown when she was slowly becoming an alcoholic particularly in the beginning; and she finally come to acceptance after she met Adam again in the hospital.

While reading Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties, it reminds me of the bestselling novel of Elizabeth Gilbert. Although I haven’t read the aforementioned, but I was able to watch the movie based from the book; hence I was able to compare this novel of Camille Pagán to it. The similarities from the two are that both protagonists went to Italy; they went through grief and confusion; and they both want to know what they want in their life now that they are single.

The story of Maggie in this novel and those other divorced women will teach us that it’s not the end of the road if your marriage failed. Hence, we should relish every phase of grief; seek peace; try to forgive those who hurt us; and keep moving forward because behind those failures might be a better life ahead.

Like many women Maggie is shocked and hurt when her husband of over 30 years says he wants a divorce. Maggie never saw this coming ...this is the one thing she never feared, although she worried constantly about others lives and lost her own sense of self. She finds her days filled with too much wine and she is lost, desperate and doesn't understand how this happened. Eventually she agrees to take up a friends offer to go to Rome. Maggie finds the culture and Italian men romantic. She moves back home, tries a new career, and eventually meets a new man, Charles who she enjoys very much. She finds purpose in a new job, feels empowered and even thinks she may renew her social work certification. Then a tragedy strikes when she learns Adam has had a heart attack, she relives all her worries and decisions wondering what will happen to her and her grown children if he dies. Will her life be upturned once again when she has just found herself and is now content and happy with her new image? What will she choose? This story is filled with many emotions, so real, so poignant it will fill your heart. I was so glad to receive an ARC of this book, and I truly loved it!

This book resonated with me because I enjoyed reading about a woman who was devastated, but found her strength and made a new life for herself.

Oh Maggie. She's an empty nester with a mother in law who has dementia. She's got a part time job as a book keeper for a dentist (who you'll want to yell at later). Things are going along ok and then her husband Adam comes home and announces he's got another woman and doesn't want to be married any more. You might think some of this is cliche but I found Maggie very relatable because of the small details. She opts to take the trip she'd planned to Rome and in the luck of the draw becomes friendly with a woman who offers her the chance to live in her home in Ann Arbor for six months. This reset in her life doesn't go entirely smoothly but she does meet a love interest, rediscovers herself as a social worker, and, when Adam experiences a health crisis and wants to come back, well, things aren't as clear as they once were. There are some interesting little surprises, such as when she meets Adam's love interest. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this well written and entertaining novel.

Thanks to Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
The story tells the ups and downs of Maggies life after her husband Adam tells her he in in love with a much younger woman. Initially Maggie deals with the breakup with the help from a few glasses of wine each evening. She loves Adam and wants him back,, but he then reveals there is no other woman and he has just stopped loving her. Maggie is devastated but plucks up the courage to go on their planned holiday to Rome alone. She makes a new friend on her travels, decides to take up her offer of house sitting for six months to work out what she wants to do next. Strangely Maggie discoveries that she can survive on her own, she joins a support group, meets Charlie, gets a voluntary job, is getting her life back together and then Adam arrives unannounced at her door to apologise for hurting her and to ask her to marry him again.
What will Maggie do? Maggie has always put others first, Adam and their two children, maybe now it’s time to put herself first. A light hearted read. 3.5 stars.

I requested this novel solely because the title grabbed my attention.

"Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties" was relatable. Despite that, I couldn't get into it at all.
The heroine, Maggie Harris finds herself unexpected divorced, when her dependable husband of nearly thirty years leaving her for a much younger woman. How cliche, right?

The kids are grown up and out of the house. Who's Maggie without her partner? Unsurprisingly, she's confused, depressed, and very lonely.

Unsurprisingly, Maggie has to re-discover who she can be, what she wants and so on. Of course, she's in pretty good financial position, so she doesn't have the struggles of other women in a similar position.

There's travelling to Italy, a new romance, ups and downs. The writing is simple and utilitarian. While it's not fluffy, it's not particularly engaging either. It was actually pretty flat, so I had to force myself to get back to it.

I really enjoy Camille Pagan's writing. She's smart without being pretentious, funny without being snarky, and sensitive without being maudlin. This was an entertaining story with realistic characters and situations. I hope we get to see what Maggie does next in a future book.

“I spent the first few weeks after Adam’s bombshell waiting for him to wake from this nightmare he had dreamed up for us both and realize the only compassionate, logical thing to do was to come back.”

There are a million things Maggie Harris worries about on a given day. Identity theft. Falling air conditioners. The IRS. You know, things every middle aged woman worries about. The one thing Maggie never even considered was that her husband of nearly thirty years would leave her. Until he did.

In trying to find out why he left, and more importantly, who she is without Adam in her life, Maggie realizes that she doesn’t really recognize the woman she’s become. When Adam makes it clear that he isn’t planning on coming back, she decides to find the woman she last knew.

Deciding to go to Rome by herself, uproot her life to a small town for a brief period and a new career, along with joining a divorce support group and even getting back into dating, Maggie finds that she can not just survive without Adam, but thrive. Obviously that’s when disaster strikes.

Faced with a fork in the road, Maggie has to decide if which direction her new life will take her. And if she’s willing to risk losing the new woman she worked so hard to become.

“The best-laid plans can change at any minute. That’s just the way life is. So I try to enjoy whatever I have while I have it.”

This book was a fast easy read. I enjoyed it, but there wasn’t anything shocking or breathtaking for me. It was fairly predictable, which doesn’t make it bad, just not jaw dropping.

It is sprinkled with plenty of life lessons and sound advice. But there were quite a few times when it felt too predictable. There wasn’t really anything that stood out as shocking or surprising in Maggie’s journey. Of course she was sad, and then angry, and then determined. Of course she found herself. Of course she dated. Even her final decisions with Adam were expected.

Everything came together really easily, with not a lot of obstacles in Maggie’s path. I know that her emotional turmoil was more the struggle, but again, that was just a little too easy to really count as struggle. She wasn’t facing abject poverty, didn’t have to get a job working minimum wage to survive, etc. So her struggle had a tinge of privilege to it. Not to mention, there is really no push back or drama with Adam. He basically does whatever she wants, (outside of staying married to her), so again, where is the struggle?

Perhaps being a child of divorce, in a society where divorce is more the norm than long marriages, I just didn’t really relate to Maggie. I’ve read more interesting characters that really had to struggle with serious consequences facing a divorce, so this felt, I don’t know, normal? Bland? She was blind-sided and had to find herself. Nothing deviating from most divorcing middle aged women these days.

Part of my difficulty in relating to Maggie is also that she just isn’t very strong. Adam basically cold heartedly walks out, and while I understand Maggie needs to get through the grieving process, she never really lets go of needing a man. Even if it isn’t Adam. Which is fine. Lots of women feel this way, and I am sure older women feel that maybe more than younger women, but I don’t relate to her. It would have been a much more interesting story if she didn’t need to go through the typical rebounds. And if she stopped dealing with Adam.

This is a good book for taking to the beach or on vacation. It’s not fluff, and it isn’t difficult to follow, so it’s an enjoyable but easy read. It’s a book about a woman finding herself. She has the luxury to be able to do that, so if you’re looking for a profound struggle, this isn’t the book. But, if you are looking for something straightforward to read, something that has a good moral and characters that feel like they could be your neighbors, this is a good book for you.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloom Review Crew for sending me a copy to read and review!

Well written story about a woman’s struggle to find herself. I loved the wide array of characters- Maggie, Adam, their kids, Rose, Jean, Charlie. They were each very distinct personalities and gave something special to the story. In my heart, I kept battling back and forth regarding what Maggie would do in the end. Camille did a great job describing Maggie’s heartache, disbelief and struggles just as well as she filled Maggie’s personality with compassion, perseverance, and strength throughout the novel.

Recommended read? Oh, yes!

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for a copy of this book to read and review. My honest opinion follows.

Maggie and Adam have been married for decades. Their children are grown, they’re approaching retirement age, and he’s leaving her. Maggie is a natural worrier but the one thing she hasn’t worried about is happening suddenly – her husband is ending their marriage and there’s nothing she can do to stop it.

Readers follow Maggie through her divorce and attempts to rebuild her life after such a shattering upheaval. There are parts that are humorous but most of this book was sad to read. Perhaps it’s a good book for anyone going through a divorce. Maggie attempts to save the marriage, drinks too much, travels, meets a few new friends, and starts a new relationship. She was hard for me to relate too in a lot of ways which could be why I didn’t connect very well with this story.

This book didn’t wow me, but it was an easy to read story of a middle age woman going through what so many like her have gone through. I did like the last chapter especially where Maggie writes a letter on forgiveness. There was a good message along with an ending I wasn’t really expecting. I think, overall, this book will be forgettable to me. I doubt I’ll recollect most of this story a few months down the road.

“It’s an age-old story: woman meets man, man woos woman, woman spends her best years believing their love is the everlasting kind. The pair watches with teary eyes as their progeny take flight from their suburban nest, knowing they’ll return in times of crisis or when their laundry needs to be washed and folded. Woman embraces aging with hair dye and ample amounts of wine . Man faces his impending mortality by convincing himself that a younger woman is the answer to his waning energy and flagging libido. Certain their sparkling future is worth the collateral damage, the May–December duo ride into the sunset as our heroine stands in the shadows, stunned by this unexpected rewrite. Yes, mine is a tale as old as time. Beauty replaces the beast.”
When Maggie’s husband leaves her later later in life, she has to figure out once again who she is without him. How do you find yourself after decades of marriage when you’ve always been an “us” and never an “I”? How do you make people see you again as the person you were? How do you make people see you AT ALL??
“When had I ceased to be a human and metamorphosed into a windowpane? Maybe people had been looking right through me for years, and I was only now realizing it. Ladies and gentlemen, the Amazing Invisible Woman has been spotted!”
Now in her 50’s with grown children and a husband who no longer thinks he loves her she has to wonder, “Where was the bright-eyed girl who had dreamed of a happy nuclear family and actually lived to see her dream come true?”
So, Maggie decides to go on her Anniversary trip to Rome that was already booked to try to find herself as her own person again. Learning to put down the bottle and be her best self… or, at least the self that is recognizable once more.
“After seven months of numbing my worst feelings, I was ready to feel them, even the ones that made it seem like life was nothing but a big fat cosmic joke.”
This book is equal parts “Eat Pray Love” and “Bridget Jones’ Diary” all at once touching and funny. I loved the character of Maggie as she was written very real. She wasn’t perfect, but she was strong and she was weak all at the same time. It wasn’t a pretty transition from wife and mother to single woman again, and it wasn’t one of those books where she just fell into the arms of some hunky man who sweeps her off her feet and they live happily ever after. It’s messy and it’s up and down as we follow Maggie on this beautiful journey where she learns that you can always change your mind because “Life is nothing if not full of twists and turns.”

Thank you to the publisher and the author for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

4.5 stars

At 53, Maggie is blindsided by her husband's request for a divorce. She has spent decades with him, believing their life together to be happy. In the aftermath of their separation, she realizes that in immersing herself in her roles of wife and mother, she has lost herself and no longer knows who she is or what what she wants.

The search for where to go from here takes her to Rome as well as to Ann Arbor. She has some hilarious adventures, makes many mistakes, and learns alot about who she was and who she wants to become.

Maggie is a decade older than I am, but I could relate to her struggles to find herself within the constraints of being a mother and a wife. A very enjoyable book that has a quest, romance, and some surprising insights about life! I thoroughly enjoyed it! .

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this entertaining read.

Every mother and wife will likely relate in some way to Maggie Harris. We all give part of ourselves to those we love, making their life the focus of ours.

Maggie's got an empty nest and a long-term marriage that she's assumed will last until "death do us part". Not so, according to her husband who shocks her with news he is not happy in their marriage and is out the door.

Maggie's lost. The foundation of her happiness has always been her family, and now that foundation is on shaky ground. She doesn't see a way to be happy on her own. She's forgotten how to be the woman she was decades ago.

But she is stronger than she thinks. The story leads us down many paths Maggie tests. Some work for her, some do not, and somewhere along the way she remembers how to live to make herself happy.

I like the author's sense of humor in the writing, and she doesn't take the easy way out with her characters. She puts Maggie through the ringer--and it makes Maggie a stronger woman along the way.

This is a book that will resonate with many women. As soon as I started reading it, I knew-you will see a part of yourself in Maggie. No matter your age. Having what is possibly a 3rd quarter life crisis, her husband up and leaves her, shattering everything she thought happy and stable. So after the required and expected wallowing, she Eat Pray Loves it for a hot minute and decides then and there, it is finally time for some self care. Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties is fiction yes, but I guarantee women will be reading their own story. Pagán nails it once again.

I received an Advanced Review Copy. All opinions are mine.

My Review of “Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties” by Camille Pagan Lake Union Publishing February 27,2018

Kudos to Camille Pagan , Author of “Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties” for such a wonderful, emotional and encouraging read. Can you imagine thinking you have it all, married for thirty years, two grown children, a house , and friends, and finding that everything in your life is about to change? How would you feel if said husband informs you that he no longer wants to be married? You’re 53 years old and you realize that your husband is not coming back. What should you do? What do you do?

Camille Pagan describes her characters as flawed, complex and complicated. Maggie Harris has a load of insecurities and anxieties, but there was no way that she can believe that this has happened to her. Of course, she is hoping Adam will change his mind. Maggie is starting to feel invisible. She had left her career as a social worker years ago, to take care of her children and husband. She works part-time for a dentist for the convenience. Many times she feels lonely, and goes through the gamut of emotions.

Maggie goes to Rome by herself. She makes a special friend and meets people and takes the time to reflect. The friend that she meets in Rome suggest that Maggie stay in her home, when she goes back to the United States. Maggie has to learn to take care of herself. The blurb from NetGalley says that Camille Pagan writes about “a woman on the verge of a nervous breakthrough.”

I appreciate that the author discusses the importance of believing in yourself, having self-esteem, and learning what you want. The author also stresses the importance of family, , emotional support, love and hope. I like that age is just a number , and you can do what you want to. I would recommend this enjoyable story to readers that like Woman’s Fiction. I received An Advanced Reading Copy from NetGalley for my honest review.

Maggie has been with her husband, Adam, for almost thirty years. They were college sweethearts who did the whole nine yards: marriage, two kids, a beautiful house in the suburbs and a cozy retirement pending. Then Adam comes home one day and drops a bomb into their supposedly happy life; he’s no longer in love with Maggie and wants out of their marriage. Not only did Maggie not see this coming, but she thinks it must just be a phase and tries to figure out how to get Adam back. When that proves utterly, and humiliatingly, futile, she pack her bags, first for a trip to Rome that they were supposed to take together, and then to Ann Arbor for a change of scene. Just when she is getting her life back on track, with new work possibilities and a new beau, Adam has a change of heart (attack) and wants Maggie back. Will she choose her previous, carefully planned out life, or her new and unpredictable one? This coming of (middle) age novel is full of the funny, laugh-out-loud moments I’ve come to expect from a Camille Pagan novel, with a relatable heroine who is trying to find her footing in a time of life when most people are securely planted. While I’m still a little shy of that phase of life, it was refreshing to have a (slightly) older protagonist in a women’s contemporary fiction novel.

I received an ARC of Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties via NetGalley.

This is the first book I’ve read by Camille Pagán. I really enjoyed the humor, the realness, and the overall relatability of her writing.

Maggie Halfmoon (that name) has recently been given notice, by her husband of nearly three decades, that he’s ready to move on—without her. Having only known herself as a wife and mother, Maggie’s entire self is uprooted with that one bombshell, as she’s forced to reimagine and reinvent herself into someone other than a woman with ‘Mrs.’ at the front of her name.

Though I am still married, Maggie’s story was still personal to me because it spoke to a fear that I believe a lot of women have—at least on some level: what happens to me if this person I’ve chosen to give my heart to, forever, decides they no longer want to be that person?.

Whether you’re married or not, any relationship where there’s a shared experience is bound to define you in some way. You’re counting on those experiences to bind you for the long run because, end of the day, it’s nice to have that history.

Paglia’s handling of Maggie’s transition from wife to divorcée to ... was lovely. And while we only really got to see it all from Maggie’s perspective, the presence of other strong female characters, all of whom were at different places in their respective lives, allowed you to see how we are at once different, but also the same.

It’s a book about love and how we can sometimes lose ourselves in the definition of it, but also how with it we are able to conquer some of our deepest fears.

Not the book for me; didn't like the characters or the outcome. No published review

Camille Pagan tells the story of a middle aged woman who is taken by surprise when her husband announces that he wishes to divorce her. We follow her as she deals with grief, rebuilds her life, finds purpose, and finds romance.

This book was a truly engaging piece of domestic fiction. Pagan did a fabulous job of fully building all of her characters in a book of less than 300 pages. Main character, Maggie, is sympathetic and flawed, a character that you truly want to root for. I appreciated how Pagan didn't rush Maggie's recovery from her divorce. It was realistic and the reader was there for every significant moment of it. I also enjoyed the side characters in the story, especially Maggie's children and her former mother-in-law, Rose. Maggie's relationship with each of them was beautifully developed.

Overall, a well put together story. Recommended for all who enjoy domestic fiction.