DNF

I’m sure there are readers who will enjoy Been There, Married That yet I am not one of them, in fact, I didn’t make it to the 40% mark before I just had enough. It is rare for me to DNF, I don’t like to give up on a book but this one was not for me, so I’m not going to draw this out. There might have been humor but I didn’t find it funny, I couldn’t find one thing to like about any character including Agnes. I was unable to find any empathy for Agnes and simply did not like the characters or the story. When the heroine is as unlikable to me as the "villain", well, there is nowhere to go from there for me. .And so – no, this one was not for me.

However, you really need to make up your own mind. A review is just one person’s opinion – yours might be different.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

I tried hard to like this book. The synopsis sounded so funny! I did finish it - I see many others didn’t. My problem with it was that it seemed so scatterbrained. The author would be talking about a situation and the next sentence would be something completely different... way out in left field different. I spent more time re reading parts to figure out what was happening than reading the actual book. This book simply wasn’t for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book spastic! I had a lot of trouble following what the devil was going on. Yes it had some funny spots...but not enough to keep me interested. I did not finish.

This is a DNF for me. I think the writing wasn’t great. It felt disjointed and awkward at times. Also struggled with following the story.

It is fine. Different and entertaining. I can't say I've ever read anything like it. I felt that it lacked emotion, but it was entertaining and I'm glad I finished the book.

I am so sorry but this was a terrible book. Disjointed, the writing was all over the place, it was inconsistent, none of the characters were likeable.

I was mostly confused by “Been There, Married That.” Agnes is a writer and Hollywood wife. She has some funny lines, but the story line felt like one of those stage comedies with people entering and exiting from left, right and center with no apparent purpose. I abandoned ship at about 30%.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This story is a little different from my usual fare. I liked the premise of it so it had it's good and not as good parts. The main character, Agnes Nash is a fun character. I liked her sister Fin too. The story line got a little wonky at times so I kinda got a little lost here and there. The snark was fun and made me laugh though.

I really had such high hopes for this one and unfortunately it fell short. Agnes Murphy Nash is the quintessential Hollywood wife until she gets locked out of her house and credit cards frozen.

Honestly the first two chapters were funny. How is it not when your husband hires someone to tase you if you try to go home? Obviously the man-child Trevor was so extremely irritating. Whenever Anges and Trevor were engaged in their loveless banter the story was somewhat interesting. However how does he do all the things to undermine her in the divorce and she does nothing? Anges doesn't even attempt to bring him down; although she says that's her plan. I kept pushing though and after the rehab stint I really expected Anges to make a move. I was frustrated that she basically waited for him to need saving and then he offered to make the divorce settle.

Also, if this is based off real life experience, I am utterly terrified of society. The writing was at times way to fast paced and felt like a perimenopausal psychopathic word vomit. I needed some extra breaks in between banter because I was constantly distracted and had to go back and reread.

I recieved a complimentary ebook for my honest review.

Agnes and Trevor are the quintessential Hollywood couple. He is a producer and she is a stay at home mom, that also writes books. They have a daughter called Pep. Then out of nowhere, everything starts falling apart. Trevor wants what he wants and he is going to make Agnes pay. The craziness that ensues. Between Agnes's friends, the lawyers and a cast of characters., you will just shake your head. I love Agnes's sister Fin. Fin was the wild child. She has been in and our of jail. Agnes was the good child. She inserts herself into this mess and things get crazier. In the end, everyone comes together to agree amicably on the divorce.

This is the first book I’ve read by Gigi Levangie and when I started, I wasn’t sure what I was reading. I felt like Agnes was taking me on a schizophrenic journey without a real direction. Her marriage is falling apart in the world of Hollywood but as all the signs were pointing to this destruction, she wasn’t really acknowledging the reality of the situation. There are a lot details about the world of a Hollywood producer’s wife but I was frustrated that she wasn’t taking charge of her life before her husband did. Trevor is a self-involved, selfish man and when he doesn’t get his way, he plays dirty. Now, by the end of this crazy tale, I ended up enjoying the journey. Agnes showed real growth when she was forced to fight for her daughter. She finds out who her true friends are while building a career for herself to support her daughter. I’m glad I kept reading because the payoff for me was worth it to see her discover herself. I voluntarily read an ARC of this book and this is my honest review.

This was an overall entertaining book, though I had a very difficult time getting into it or feeling engaged. It was a slow read and the scenes written were all over the place, making it confusing and scattered. I expected it to be "...a drop-dead hilarious battle of wills that will make you laugh out loud, cringe, and keep turning the pages..." I rarely laughed and it definitely did not keep me turning the pages. I wouldn't recommend it.

Been There, Married That by Gigi Levangie

Contemporary fiction all about Hollywood games and Los Angelos upper echelon exposed.
The first two chapters are all name dropping and extreme high end brands. So much so that I found it difficult to follow or really know what was happening.

I love humor, snark and sarcasm but this has so much of the throw away comments and asides, that it was extremely difficult to read. After too much of it, I just didn’t care anymore.

I continued and finished but can’t say I liked anything about these people. A coming of age for adult users? Fin was probably the best character. She does what she wants and succeeds.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

If you love new, modern, hip books with today’s language and the Hollywood scene, you’re gonna love “Been There, Married That” by Gigi Lavangie. Agnes is the main character who thinks she is happily married to a big name Hollywood producer. That is until he locks her out of the house and changes all the security codes!

I enjoyed being along for the ride. These days I am not keeping up with Hollywood and I didn’t catch onto the slang. I’m old! It did, however, hold my interest and I enjoyed some of the happenings between Agnes and her husband Trevor. She has a sister that is always getting in trouble, a father who dates questionable women and a daughter that is going through being embarrassed by her mom. The characters are delightful.

In the story Agnes is a writer who coincidently has a book or two named the same as Gigi Lavangie’s books!

This was my first book by her and I am sure I will be reading more. This book is definitely worth your time to read and I recommend it.

Been There, Married That: A Novel by Gigi Levangie Grazer is a hilarious Hollywood drama-filled story. Agnes is a middle-aged mother who is going through a divorce in Hollywood. Her soon to be ex-husband is an annoying man-child who is determined to go through every line of the prenup.  Been There, Married That is a laugh out loud comedy that shows the funnier drama side of divorce. A hilarious story about the lifestyle of Hollywood's rich, famous and weird.

A wild and crazy story that will make you choke on laughter. Agnes is having a mid life crisis. As her body changes, her husband changes and so does her daughter. She tries to find humor in all the craziness as everything around her tries to fall apart. Surrounded by some like minded friends and her sister and father she sets out to change her destiny.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Oh my, what do you do when you have gone from lavish Hollywood wife to bring locked out of your gargantuan house and all your credit cards cancelled? Do you run off with your tail between your legs or do you fight back? This book will have you rolling off your seat from laughter. You won't know what's coming around the next corner. Definitely a must read for all who enjoy a humorous story. Enjoy! 📚

This book was rough. I felt really confused for most of the book. The characters were not very likable. The writing was so fast-paced, I couldn't follow it most of the time. The main character's inner thoughts were ALL written down. It felt like we was just reading someone's inner thoughts at times and it was so confusing. There were a lot of references that I didn't get, and so many conflicting thoughts and actions. It was honestly just a mess for me.

I was provided an advanced readers copy of this book for free. I am leaving my honest, unbiased review voluntarily.

Agnes Murphy Nash has been married to big shot movie producer Trevor Nash for over a decade, but Trevor has decided he needs out of the marriage. Completely caught off guard, Agnes does the only sensible thing and chooses to fight tooth and nail for custody of their tween daughter Pep (short for Penelope), hoping that giving in on everything else won't prolong their Hollywood-style divorce. Unfortunately, Trevor is determined to make her life a living hell, throwing wrenches into her life so he comes out looking his best. But, with a trio of Spanish speaking employees and a criminally inclined younger sister, Agnes has more than enough ammo to fight with.

I wanted to read this book because I thought it would be a witty and, perhaps, sarcastically funny take on the lives of the Hollywood elite. Considering I live in LA and have met aspiring actors, an artist, and music producers (plus my daughter's dance teacher is married to a cameraman), I was hoping for a really funny novel that was both hilariously familiar and shockingly revealing. Instead, the attempts at humor made me roll my eyes and cringe, and wonder about how accurate the portrayals of the Hollywood folk were.

The Characters: All About the Supporting Cast

I loved the supporting cast. The Triplets, as the three Hispanic ladies who worked for the Nash family were called; Fin, Agnes's prison-prone younger sister; and Pep, the spunky tween caught between her parents. They were amazing, amusing, and really added color to the story. They were really the only reason why I kept reading. They were the funny ones.

Agnes and Trevor annoyed me. I didn't understand them, either as individuals or as a unit. Both were rather one dimensional. Agnes, the narrator, painted herself as, basically, a nobody in Hollywood who happened to strike it rich when Trevor encountered her and fell madly in love. Sure, her fight against Trevor during their divorce proceedings showed she had a backbone, but it also showed how bland she probably had been before the start of the story. Overall, she wasn't really interesting and fell into traps far too easily for someone who had spent over a decade as a Hollywood wife. Trevor was so annoying I just wanted to strangle him. He was manipulative and Agnes never seemed to see through him. I don't even understand why he wanted to marry Agnes when, as a big shot producer, he could have literally had any woman in town. He was little more than a grown child who hid behind his lawyers. I could see why Agnes wanted to marry him, but I couldn't fathom why he wanted to marry her.

The Setting: Comfortably LA

Set almost entirely in LA, the setting was familiar, and probably my favorite part of the book. I don't know about you, but I enjoy books that use places I know. And I know LA. It was a bit like reading a piece of home. Not only were the streets familiar, but the behaviors as well.

Whenever my husband and I drive through the city, we like to remark on the big expensive houses in quiet neighborhood pockets. We always ask each other what people must do to be able to afford those homes, as well as what they do in their homes. Well, guess now I know. It was fun and comforting. I loved that this book felt far from touristy as Agnes traveled around, yet still managed to maintain the air of LA.

It also really did feel like LA, complete with the flashy celebrities zooming around, acting elitist, and spinning stickier webs than a spider can. As someone who knows the city, but isn't intimately familiar with the Hollywood lifestyle, I did wonder just how accurate it was, and how overblown it might be, but I somehow doubt it was too over exaggerated. It was both amusing and cringe worthy.

The Plot: Built Up Far Too High

My biggest problem with this book was the ending. The whole book felt like it was building up towards something, but the end fell completely flat. It almost felt as though the author had just run out of steam and decided to tie the story up with a neat little bow. It was too perfect and too sudden. Perhaps the story had begun to spin a little out of control and necessitated a quick tie up, but it felt forced.

This was the story of a regular woman who became a Hollywood wife whose husband decided he no longer wanted to be married to her (how Hollywood) and wanted to make her life a living hell just so he could win. I thought it might be funny, but it came off as more inane. Some of it made sense and some of it didn't. If I had been Agnes, I would have been dancing in the streets when Trevor said he wanted a divorce. Their relationship was so bizarre and I just didn't get the sense either of them even cared about the other. It felt more like Agnes stayed for the lifestyle. I expected, since this is women's fiction, that she would face difficulties (I suppose divorce from a big shot producer and loss of current lifestyle could be considered difficulties to her) and find a way to rise from the ashes. I did love that she was a devoted mother, more devoted than some other mothers I've read about this past year, but she didn't seem to really struggle and everything she needed just happened to fall neatly in her lap. Oh, to be a Hollywood wife!

To put it mildly, the story bothered me. Too much didn't make much sense to me and Agnes got on my nerves after awhile. She let things happen to her when she should have known her husband better and just should have known better in general. Instead, she was gullible and it made me cringe too many times while reading.

Overall: And the Award Goes to the Supporting Cast

Overall, I enjoyed the setting and I adored the supporting cast. The main characters were annoying and the plot was almost cringe-worthy. Some of it was fun to read, but too much had me asking why. I suppose to some this might be a fun novel and perhaps it would be fun to laugh at the Hollywood lifestyle, but, personally, I found it to be more lackluster than glittery.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press, for a free e-copy. All opinions expressed are my own.
Link to review: https://thelilycafe.com/book-review-been-there-married-that-by-gigi-levangie

A laugh out loud book about Hollywood divorce that makes for a fun light read. The story is entertaining, although pretty unbelievable in spots. The characters are one-dimensional, but fit in well with the overall feel of the story. Light, fluffy and slightly cartoony.
I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.