The Overdue Life of Amy Byler by Kelly Harms

Rating:           7

General Rating: A fun summer read.

Skip factor:  4%. I skipped a little, not much.

Who should read: If you are a single, unappreciated mom or a woman immersed in the dating world, you’ll like this book.

Summary: Amy Byler’s ex-husband up and left three years ago, so when she runs into him in the drug store, she’s shocked, to say the least. John, the ex, went to Hong Kong on a business trip and never returned. He left Amy alone to raise their two children, Corrinne (Cori) and Joe, and moved in with a much younger woman, as his son Joe puts it, “to rebuild his self-esteem at the expense of his family.”

With the help of Amy’s best friend Lena, Amy gathers herself together, lands a library job at her kids’ school, and carries on as best she can.

But when John comes back in the hopes of reconnecting with his children, Amy, for the first time ever, is able to concentrate on herself. A little frightened, she takes off to a conference in New York City and her life does a complete three-hundred-sixety degree turn.

While she had thought she and John might reconnect, she begins dating, strikes a romantic relationship, and begins questioning her life and where she is going.  

Characters:  Harm’s characters are both realistic and unique. Amy’s children and friends each have their own quirky personalities, and I especially liked her daughter, Cora, and looked forward to reading the remarks she sent her mother.

Storyline:  Simply, this is the story of a mother who finally has time for herself. I rated this a bit lower because I couldn’t identify with the main character in that, she sometimes appeared sorry that she had children. I couldn’t fathom a mother even remotely feeling that emotion. The story evolved into a happy medium between being a good mother and finding yourself, but I liked Amy the least after that.

Writing:  Writing is good. This wasn’t a page-turner, but it was a fun, easy read. While I didn’t have a passionate desire to return to it, I did look forward to finding out how the story would wrap up.

Read this author again?  Yes. I’d try another of Harm’s books.

Read on!

Read on!

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CJ Zahner is the author of The Suicide Gene, a psychological thriller, Dream Wide Awake and Project Dream, two crime thrillers with sixth-sense components, Friends Who Move Couches and Don’t Mind Me, I Came with the House, women’s fiction. Zahner’s Dream Series novels were inspired by Zahner’s own experiences. Listen to her interview about her 9/11 a premonition here. Download her Beyond Reality Radio podcast here. Listen to her Online Book Circle podcast here.

Follow her on InstagramTwitterFacebookGoodreadsBookBub, or LinkedIn. Purchase her books on Amazon.

Read more about Zahner in Voyage Raleigh at https://voyageraleigh.com/interview/rising-stars-meet-cyndie-cj-zahner-of-wendell-falls-area.