2.5 stars

This book started so slow, it took me so long to get into the story. I really thought this book wasn't my cup of tea, but unexpectedly, I really enjoyed the last 40%. In the last 40%, the pacing picked up and I felt like that was where everything was happening. I finally saw some character development and some pieces started to fall into place. It is sad because I think I really could've liked this story if it was more fast-paced during the first 60% of the book. Especially since the story itself was well-written with a nice and, for me, refreshing plot.

Based on the reviews, I wasn’t sure what to expect going in. I agree that the build up was slow. I feel the impatience I felt was offset by the end result I had been craving. I do hope there is a sequel to follow!

You know how sometimes you pick up a book without a lot of expectations and just hoping to be entertained? That’s how I went into reading this...and was I pleasantly surprised!

I loved Agnes’ story and her resilience after being thrown into a situation that she was not prepared for.

Highly recommend this story. Thank you NetGalley, publisher and author for providing a free copy of this book.

Agnes has been living the life most would envy, but that life is not what it seems. The husband who has promised to always take care of her has gotten himself into serious financial trouble and they quickly lose everything. Agnes is sent to the Bronx to teach middle school English at a prep school.

Trophy Life is humorous, laugh out loud funny at times. Gotta love Beeks and her honesty...everyone needs a friend like that. It also has unexpected depth and a little bit of mystery. The best part was Agnes's transformation from "trophy wife" to living her best life, even it was significantly different than what she had become accustomed to.

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy and my apologies for the late review.

I'm sad to say that this book did not grab me like I hoped it would have. I really like the concept and the characters! However, I just couldn't finish. Agnes' struggle to adjust to life after her husband abandons her struck me as sad and stressful, but also naive. Thank you for the opportunity to review this book!

It was tricky for me to move past the concept of anyone being a "trophy wife", but in order for me to get into this book, that's exactly what I had to do. The term is not my favourite, the concept even worse and I wish it wasn't perpetuated by women and it's ultimately why I give this a 3.5/5 stars. That all said, I appreciate why Lea Geller used it to bring the story to life. This is a book for people who enjoyed reading "I Don't Know How She Does It" by Allison Pearson. Moms doing it all and overcoming major life hurdles is an interesting genre - I almost feel as though it's having a moment.

Such a cute, laugh out loud book. I laughed so hard, yet I was also empowered by this character because she finally stood up for herself and showed her true colors.

Agnes Parsons is a trophy wife. She has a staff to take care of her life, her house, and her newborn daughter, Grace. The only thing that she has to do is her job of a trophy wife. Look gorgeous at all times and be available whenever her older by two decades husband, Jack, beckons her.

When Jack doesn't show up for their monthly massage, he never misses an appointment--he's a control freak. Aggie gets worried. After a few hours with no word, she calls Don, Jack's only friend, who tells her that her husband 's gone. Don also tells her that they are broke. She has to leave her house, sell her diamonds, and move to N.Y. to teach private school. Aggie hasn't taught anything since she married Jack. Her husband's in hiding from dangerous people and she can't even talk to him on the phone.

She drives across country with her six month old, that she's never taken care of alone before and she goes through each and every emotion: sad, mad, scared, etc. When she reached N.Y. and moves into the school housing, she doesn't unpack because she's waiting to go back home. The private boarding school that she's teaching at is for the boys that got kicked out of all the other schools; this school is their last hope. At first the boys hate her, but soon she wins over a few by defending them and actually teaching them something.

Her relationship with Grace is great, watching her crawl and walk for the first time is something that Aggie knew she'd never witness if she was still in California. They become inseparable. She gets impersonal updates on Jack through Don, but nothing else.

When Jack finally calls her, he's living in a 5 star hotel in N.Y. while Aggie and their baby are living in the dorms in the Bronx. That's when she really gets mad and starts to think about the line of "work" her husband is really in; what she finally figures out isn't pretty.

When Jack asks her to do the unthinkable, she has to make a choice. Just her and Grace and a drama-free future or an unreliable, lying husband?

A must read!!

This was such an enjoyable read for me covering motherhood, friendship and self discovery. It was an easy read and i found it hard to put down.

Now and again i enjoy reading something different from the usual genres that i go for. Sometimes i discover books that i find myself rather liking and wanting to read more. To be honest, i struggled with this book and although i did eventually read it from start to finish, i now know that this genre isn't for me. That is not to say that this was not a well written book, as it was. For anyone who enjoys a laugh out loud book, then i would urge you to have a read of 'Trophy Life'.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy. This is my honest review, freely given.

Overall was a good book, really enjoyed seeing the main character's progress along the story, how she was so focused in pleasing her ''perfect'' husband and how she transformed back to her old self!

As a mum, I am really pleased that in the end of this story, her priorities changed and her daughter became her no. 1 in life.

Lifestyles can define people and in this book we can see how a different way to live(places, opportunities,cars,houses and above all money - or so she thought) make or break someone and so they will become a very different person from their truth essence.

I decided to give 3.5 stars to this book because it was an easy and interesting read although the end didn't really match all my expectations.

Thank you to Net galley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

This one, unfortunately, fell flat for me. I thought it would be a great book to kick off summer reading based in the premise-but it wasn’t charming, or funny, or any if those things that I look for in these types of books. I always love reading books about women who find their voice and learn to stand up for themselves, but I just did not connect with any of these characters, and didn’t particularly like any of them either. Didn’t hate it, but didn’t love it.

When I began reading this book, I was very confused. It was neither “laugh out loud funny” nor a “light” read. Once I adjusted my expectations of what the book should be, I started to enjoy it more.

Agnes has been living a life of luxury in Santa Monica, married to a rich, older man who fulfills her every need. She has a housekeeper and a nanny and spends most of her time being pampered. Then it is all suddenly taken away when her husband disappears.

She moves across the country with her baby girl and begins teaching at a private school that is the last stop for troubled rich boys. As she adjusts to her new life, she begins to discover that somewhere along the way, she had lost her true self. She slowly begins the process of rediscovering herself while building a new life with new priorities.

The biggest issue I had with the book is how Agnes continues to let her husband, Jack, control and manipulate her even after he has proven that he’s a despicable human being, even psychologically abusive. But overall, I enjoyed the book, once I accepted it for what it was.

I loved this so much even though she was a trophy wife which I really didn’t understand until I read this I felt like the main character still had a good life and marriage I loved this book so much

The summary was interesting and I thought that I would really get a “laugh-out-loud novel” like the introductory message promises: “A refreshingly honest, laugh-out-loud novel about losing the life you always wanted…and finding the life you were meant to have.”. However, it didn’t feel like that kind of book. A lot of drama goes on in it and humour wouldn’t be the logical primary selling point, in my opinion.

Besides, I never really connected with the storyline, let alone the lead female character, despite her moving background. It all felt a bit forced somehow. And it didn’t help that Agnes sort of acted like a doormat, accepting a bit too easily the fact that her husband disappeared without explanation, that she was forced to move across the country to start a new (penniless) life, all the while putting up with cryptic messages from the husband’s colleague.

Going from trophy wife to middle school teacher for difficult boys was a dramatic change for this character and the transition didn’t feel too credible. I started losing interest about halfway into it. But there was so much mystery around the husband’s secret trouble, I had to fast-track my reading to finally get to the point and at least know what it was all about. Basically, the ending was what you would expect, no big surprises, except for Agnes’s personal evolution. But I wish she had toughened up much earlier.

I was in two minds about how to rate this book. On one hand, I enjoyed it and on the other, I kept mentally berating our leading lady Agnes for behaving in the fashion of a doormat. Some of the behaviour could be explained away, as she does(time and again) but the time it takes for her to come to her senses leads almost to the last page and there is very little of her actual transformation in this book. This is not a spoiler, as a book of its genre, the turning point had to happen. I would have liked the latter part of her life to have more pages dedicated to it.

Agnes is comfortable in her life, she merely exists. She flits from one expected routine to another and likes the fact that everything is preset to the last detail. Now, when her husband fails to turn up to their regular massage, she panics. Agnes realises that she has been so blinded by her life that she no longer knows how to live. Taking her daughter Grace on a cross-country road trip to a new job that she has very little qualifications for, Agnes decided to do something about her life. She slides back to just waiting every once in a while but she has friends and she is starting to find something wrong in the school. Her husband is not a likable character in any form or fashion. It is not the storyline itself that made me like the book but the actual writing. I think if I had read the same story written any other way I would not have liked it at all. There are some loopholes in the story but if you are looking for a cozy book to read on a rainy afternoon, this would do the job.

I received Trophy Life by Lea Geller as an ARC from NetGalley. Agnes has been a trophy wife for the past 10 years when her husband leaves her with no money and her infant daughter. She is forced to take care of herself and her daughter and learns that she is more resilient than she thought. She moves to the Bronx and takes a position at an all boys boarding school. I loved the characters and it was an entertaining read. A good debut novel.

After working hard all her life, Agnes, finally has the perfect life and someone to look after her in Jack. However, after many happy years of marriage and with a six month old, things seen wonderful but they soon begin to spiral downwards. It seems Jack has been keeping secrets from her. After a missed couples massage and non payments to the two masseuses, Agnes begins to worry, she phones Jack's one and only friend Don, who tries to reasure her that Jack is fine, but his questions about Jacks passport and not wanting the police involved soon makes Agnes questions things.

Since Jack has vanished , it seems, into thing air, Agnes has to move away and start her life over again. She has to rediscover who she is or more importantly who she wants to be.

This is a wonderful debut from Lea Geller. Trophy Life was a rather entertaining read, that was nice and simple with lovely short chapters. It had plenty of laugh out loud moments as well as pull on your heart string moments. This was a true rediscovering yourself book. I thoroughly enjoyed Trophy Life and look forward to reading more from Geller.

In Trophy Life, Agnes, a Santa Monica mom to Grace and wife to Jack, is blindsided when her husband doesn’t show up for their scheduled massages one evening. Jack lives by his schedule, so Agnes knows something is wrong. Jack has disappeared and Agnes receives bizarre but firm instructions from his business associate, Don, to travel to New York and accept a middle school teaching job at a boarding school for boys. She does so, despite numerous lingering questions.

Trophy Life is about Agnes’ journey into this new chapter, far from her previous pristine California life. She tries to get a grasp on her often disobedient, adolescent students, deal with nosy and overbearing coworkers, and be a decent mom to Grace while living in their new, non-luxurious home. She is also desperately missing Jack.

Overall the story was cute and entertaining, despite being somewhat predictable. I thought Agnes was relatable and it was nice to see her grow as a person, as she tried to come to terms with, and accept, her new life. Even so, I wanted her to take more of a stance on several things throughout the story - The students, her coworkers, her best friend, Beeks, and Jack. I felt like Agnes was kind of a pushover and I’m not sure I’d consider Beeks to be a “best friend” based on some of her behavior/commentary, but hey, that’s just me.

Trophy Life by Lea Geller is a page-turner that is full of heart. Reading the premise, I expected a more lighter story but this one is full of depth and really makes you think.

I felt for Agnes on her journey. Life was pretty easy when she was a typical "trophy wife" in Santa Monica. However, all of that comes crashing down when it turns out her husband was a fraud all along. She is then forced to move with her daughter to the Bronx where she'll teach middle school boys.

The author Lea Geller does a great job of painting life in Santa Monica (full of sunshine, green juice and yoga) to how drastically different it is in the Bronx—with an old house, mice and living off processed food.

I also really enjoyed Agnes' relationship with her students and how invested she gets in them. These kids are written off as spoiled brats but she sees the potential in them.

Agnes journey isn't easy and while she might still have days where she misses life in Santa Monica, she learns to stay true to herself and that she's also a survivor.

Trophy Life by Lea Geller is a fun, light, humorous novel that is the perfect book to read in between heavier novels and true crime. This is a great book to read in one sitting or over a weekend, its entertaining and you will love Agnes.

For the last ten years, Agnes Parsons’s biggest challenge has been juggling yoga classes and lunch dates. Her Santa Monica house staff takes care of everything, leaving Agnes to focus on her trophy-wife responsibilities: look perfect, adore her older husband, and wear terribly expensive (if uncomfortable) underwear.

When her husband disappears, leaving Agnes and their infant daughter with no money, no home, and no staff, she is forced to move across the country, where she lands a job teaching at an all-boys boarding school in the Bronx. So long, organic quinoa bowls and sunshine-filled California life. Hello, processed food, pest-infested house, and twelve-year-old-boy humor—all day, every day.

But it’s in this place of second chances (and giant bugs), where Agnes is unexpectedly forced to take care of herself and her daughter, where she finds out the kind of woman she can be. Ultimately, she has to decide if she prefers the woman and mother she has become…or the trophy life she left behind.

If you are in the mood for a cute, heartwarming story, grab this one!