It’s my great pleasure to welcome Megan Mayfair back on to my Thursday Themes blog. I recently read both Tangled Vines and The Problem With Perfect – gobbling them up in a couple of days each, as they were so good I couldn’t put them down!
So I’m looking forward to seeing Megan’s explanation of the themes behind these delightful and fascinating novels.
Over to you, Megan…
Thanks Jo for hosting me on your blog!
I’m thrilled to be here today to have a chat about my recent book, The Problem with Perfect.
Here’s the blurb:
Marigold Doyle’s life was perfect, with a successful career and wonderful marriage. But when her husband, Julian, passes away, her life is thrown into turmoil as she discovers a trail of secrets Julian was hiding in the months prior to his death. Struggling with her grief, she knows she needs to find out Julian’s actions to help her move on.
Finn Schröder, a former police officer and now private security consultant, is focused on an uncomplicated, unattached life and growing his business. He agrees to help Marigold find out the truth about Julian, but as they become closer, he realises his feelings for her may be developing beyond simply professional.
As Marigold and Finn work through the web of Julian’s deception, will they learn to face the reality that things aren’t always exactly as they seem?
The themes:
One of the things about The Problem with Perfect I really wanted to touch on was the idea of pressure – and most specifically, the pressure we place on ourselves.
Marigold places a lot of pressure on herself to be successful and prove herself worthy to take the leadership of the family business when her father retires, but the question she begins to realise that while she was busy doing that, how much did she miss happening under her eyes as she realises that her late husband had been hiding a lot of secrets?
I continued to explore this theme with Finn. He’s a former policeman who now runs a business that consults to Marigold’s family business. He’s put a lot of pressure on himself in terms of taking care of his mum and sisters since his dad died, and also a lot of pressure on how he will handle an upcoming submission to a government inquiry into the death of an officer when he was on the force.
While they know each other professionally before the book starts, this chain of events brings them together and they realise they have far more in common than they thought, and life is a lot more imperfect and messy than they thought, but perhaps there’s also beauty in that.
The concept of the pressure we place on ourselves and how we cope was one that was really interesting to me and I hope readers will connect with in The Problem with Perfect.
You can purchase The Problem with Perfect at https://mybook.to/theproblemwithperfect
About the author:
Megan Mayfair is an Australian writer who writes women’s fiction with a dash of family intrigue, a sprinkling of humour and a spoonful of romance. And a lot of heart.
Megan lives in Melbourne with her husband and three children, loves a good cup of coffee and believes you can never have too many scarves.
Her debut novel, The Things We Leave Unsaid, is published by Crooked Cat Books, along with her second novel, Tangled Vines and her third is The Problem with Perfect.
Social: https://twitter.com/MayfairMegan
Instagram: https://instagram.com/meganmayfairwrites
Facebook: https://facebook.com/meganmayfairauthor
