Today’s #ReadersSpeak features Maddie Dawson, an author whose books I truly enjoy.
I first came across Maddie when I got her book – The Opposite of Maybe – to review. I soon started to look for more of her books to read. I find her characters so relatable, the stories so real. Her writing makes me laugh and yet touches a chord deep within.
Maddie Dawson
Maddie Dawson, a transplanted Southerner living in the Northeast, is the Washington Post bestselling author of eight novels. She specializes in humorous literary fiction, about people stumbling toward love, family, connection, and hope—and usually finding it in the most unlikely circumstances. Her books have been translated into fifteen languages. You can read more about her here.
Maddie’s first novel ‘What Comes After Crazy’ was written under the pen name Sandi Kahn Shelton.
Her other books include:
- Matchmaking for Beginners
- The Survivor’s Guide to Family Happiness
- The Opposite of Maybe
- The Stuff That Never Happened
- Kissing Games of the World
- A Piece of Normal
- A Happy Catastrophe
The Opposite of Maybe
A heartfelt and exceptionally human novel about the best mistakes a person can make
Jonathan and Rosie have been together so long they finish each other’s sentences—so when he (finally) proposes and asks her to move across the country with him, everyone is happily surprised.
But when things suddenly unravel, Rosie sends Jonathan packing and moves back home with Soapie, the irascible, opinionated grandmother who raised her. Now she has to figure out how to fire Soapie’s very unsuitable caregiver, a gardener named Tony who lets her drink martinis, smoke, and cheat at Scrabble.
It’s meant to be a temporary break, of course—until Rosie realizes she’s accidentally pregnant at 44, completely unequipped for motherhood, and worse, may be falling in love with Tony, whose life is even more muddled than hers. When Soapie reveals a long-hidden secret, Rosie wonders if she has to let go of her fears, and trust that the big-hearted, messy life that awaits her just may be the one she was meant to live.
“The heart is a funny little animal, isn’t it?…It gets this idea about somebody, and then it doesn’t let go, even when things go bad. Even when they go awful, and anybody else could see plain as day you should get out. There’s your own stupid little heart just bumping around claiming, ‘No, it’s fine! I’m fine! It’s all good!”
From the Opposite of Maybe
Matchmaking For Beginners
Marnie MacGraw wants an ordinary life—a husband, kids, and a minivan in the suburbs. Now that she’s marrying the man of her dreams, she’s sure this is the life she’ll get. Then Marnie meets Blix Holliday, her fiancé’s irascible matchmaking great-aunt who’s dying, and everything changes—just as Blix told her it would.
When her marriage ends after two miserable weeks, Marnie is understandably shocked. She’s even more astonished to find that she’s inherited Blix’s Brooklyn brownstone along with all of Blix’s unfinished “projects”: the heartbroken, oddball friends and neighbors running from happiness. Marnie doesn’t believe she’s anything special, but Blix somehow knew she was the perfect person to follow in her matchmaker footsteps.
And Blix was also right about some things Marnie must learn the hard way: love is hard to recognize, and the ones who push love away often are the ones who need it most.
“You need a mantra to help you. You can borrow mine, if you want: ‘Whatever happens, love that.”
From Matchmaking For Beginners
A Happy Catastrophe is her latest novel and a sequel to Matchmaking For Beginners.
Connect with Maddie Dawson
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads
Have you read any of Maddie’s books yet?