The Unlikely Life of Maisie Meadows by Jenni Keer / Books Teacup and Reviews

The Unlikely Life of Maisie Meadows - Jenni Keer

The Unlikely Life of Maisie Meadows by Jenni Keer
Expected Publication Date : July 8th 2019
Publisher : Avon Books UK
Read Date : June 14th 2019
Genre : Women’s Fiction
Pages : 345
Stars : ★★★★★ /5

‘A charming read!’ Heidi Swain
‘A wonderful antidote to a harsh world’ Bella Osborne
‘A magical story about love and friendship, full of fun and sparkle. You won’t be able to resist the cast of quirky characters!’ Fiona Harper
When Maisie Meadows finds herself single and jobless on New Year’s Day, she resolves that this will be the year she focuses on bringing her scattered family back together. Romance is all very well, but it’s the people you grew up with that matter the most.
But a new job working at an auction house puts her in the path of Theo, a gorgeous but unattainable man who she can’t help but be distracted by. As their bond begins to grow, Maisie finds herself struggling to fulfil the promise she made to herself – but the universe has other ideas, and it’s not long before the Meadows family are thrown back together in the most unlikely of circumstances…
Can dealing with other people’s treasures help Maisie to let go of the past, and teach her who she ought to treasure the most?

The Unlikely Life of Maisie Meadows was a beautiful women’s fiction that revolved around life of Maisie Meadows and mysterious, magical tea set that changed Maisie’s life and perspective. It was about family, friendship, and love; embracing life no matter how unlikely things happened and try to live fullest; social media vs reality, read interaction and connection; quirkiness and imperfection.

Maisie was wonderful character. She was caring, orderly, organized and wanted control in life, but deep inside she and her family was a mess that reflected in her paintings. No she was not painter, it’s just hobby, she was marketing executive and she was amazing at that. I liked her trying to form bond with all staff of Gildersleeve’s, and loved her for accepting her mistakes, efforts of being better person not acting like her ungrateful siblings. As the book progressed, her views towards life, family and need for perfection and appearance changed.

Theo was opposite of Maisie and yet they both brought out the best in each other. He was disorganized, scruffy and old fashioned, no-social-media person and was 80s fan. Oh, but he was nicest charming, down to earth and easy –to-be-with person and so so caring for his staff. I loved everything about this guy. I could see why Maisie couldn’t stop falling in love with her boss, ‘again’.

I enjoyed reading about all secondary characters in this book. They were all quirky, had their own story and had guilt and made mistakes in life but at the end, they embraced life. They all played important role in unlikely life of Maisie. My most favorites were Johnny and Arthur.

Loved that cover. Color, design everything makes it beautiful and so relevant. Writing was smooth, charming, and utterly flamboyant just like Johnny. The Gildersleeve’s auction house, the items came for sell, its quirky staff and the way auction was held everything about it made the perfect setting. The plot was also interesting with thoughtful message.

Book started with betrayal that changed Maisie’s status to jobless and loveless, end of all Christmas plan and resulted in the New Year resolution- get over the heartbreak and find a new job that she did as a marketing executive at Gildersleeve’s auction house. No handsome boss around to romanticize and not entirely stick to desk job lured her in but little she knew about other old fashioned and a very charming partner of auction house who can prove her decision wrong.

Good thing that happened, she found Meredith’s teapot at auction house that brought back childhood memory. She desperately wanted her picture perfect Christmas with family like she remembered from childhood, when her family was still together. She found hope when she started reuniting Meredith’s tea set. She was certain this quirky teapot had some magical spell and she was out on a mission ‘reuniting Meredith’s tea set and her family members’.

Will she able to find all items of tea set? Was it just superstitious or the tea set really had something magical about it? Will her dream to reunite all scattered Meadows together come true? Will she fall for her boss or have to face another disappointment?

I loved finding answers to all these questions. My favorite part of the book was reading the story of Mayhew sisters, Arthur, history related to tea set and knowing each Meadows closely through Maisie’s perspective. It was interesting how tea set affected all sisters’ life and how on reuniting it was changing Maisie’s life. More surprising was the meaning of the tea-set’s name and how it worked differently with different group.

I also loved the thoughtful messages on family and friends, how imperfections has its own beauty, not everything needs to be perfect, tidy and as good as new, how used imperfect things comes by Gildersleeve’s has history and memory. Difference between social media and old fashioned way of interacting and engaging people for marketing was nicely represented.

Both Maisie and Theo made a great team and I enjoyed seeing their relationship blossom in story. Their banter over social media was endearing, both proved their point and accepted it graciously. Maisie’s relation with her family, Mayhew sisters and auction house staff was amazing. There were some hilarious moments (that old man at Willow Tree House was mind blowing), some tense and some emotional moments that made plot gripping and refreshing.

The climax was brilliant. I couldn’t guess what was going to happen when Meadows were gathered at Maisie’s place. All those confessions were surprising. There were misunderstandings, lack of communications and understanding other’s perspective that messed characters’ life. I loved how things settled at the end. End and Epilogue was satisfactory.

Overall, it was lovely, cozy, mysterious and magical women’s fiction with interesting characters and their unlikely life story. I surely recommend this book.

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*** Note: Many thanks to publisher for providing e-ARC via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. ***