“It’s not the stuff I do that gives my life meaning. It’s the people I do it for.”
What Kelly Says:
Seven Day Switch is definitely not a book about the mommy wars, no matter how many people might guess that it is. It’s a book about being ok with yourself, being ok with your life, no matter how different it may look from that of your neighbors, or even from what you imagined when you started out on your own journey of life.
The main characters, Celeste and Wendy, are not fast friends when you meet them at the beginning of the book. Nor are they perfect embodiments of what it means to be a work-outside-the-home mom or a stay-at-home-mom. But before they can get to the life they’ve always dreamed of, they need to figure out how to be ok with the life they have. So naturally, I employed two magics: first the magic of fiction, where I can switch their lives and show the moms how it could have been, and then the magic of friendship, which lets each teach the other how to find the joy they’ve always dreamed of within the constraints of the life they’ve been given.
The Official Blurb:
Two moms as opposite as a Happy Meal and a quinoa bowl. What a difference a week makes in a heartfelt, laugh-out-loud novel by the Washington Post bestselling author of The Overdue Life of Amy Byler.
Celeste Mason is the Pinterest stay-at-home supermom of other mothers’ nightmares. Despite her all-organic, SunButter-loving, free-range kids, her immaculate home, and her volunteering awards, she still has time to relax with a nice glass of pinot at the end of the day. The only thing that ruins it all is her workaholic, career-obsessed neighbor, who makes no secret of what she thinks of Celeste’s life choices every chance she gets.
Wendy Charles is a celebrated productivity consultant, columnist, and speaker. On a minute-by-minute schedule, she makes the working-mom hustle look easy. She even spends at least one waking hour a day with her kids. She’s not apologizing for a thing. Especially to Celeste, who plays her superior parenting against Wendy whenever she can.
What Liz and Lisa say:
“Heartwarming and hilarious, with an incredibly satisfying ending, we guarantee you will love this book!” —Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke, authors of How to Save a Life
Who do Celeste and Wendy think they are? They’re about to find out thanks to one freaky week. After a neighborhood potluck and too much sangria, they wake up—um, what?—in each other’s bodies. Everything Celeste and Wendy thought they knew about the “other kind of mom” is flipped upside down—along with their messy, complicated, maybe not so different lives.
Character Secrets
Wendy: I had one of those banana “Ice cream” maker things in my house for two months. When I realized I was eating twenty bananas a week and still buying real ice cream, I had to give it away.
Davis: I am a superfan of Dancing with the Stars. There. Are you happy now?
Celeste: Sometimes when the teacher tells me Samuel isn’t trying hard enough in school, I think, well, that’s ok. He can live with us however long he needs. It’s ok with me if he never moves out. (But don’t tell Hugh I said that.)
Hugh: I can take quick naps when Samuel is talking to me about Minecraft and he never notices. (But don’t tell Celeste I said that.)
About the Cover
Description: an peachy orange book jacket with two faceless women on opposite sides of a white fence.
Look, this one was low hanging fruit. I chose a suburban setting for the story, so I knew odds were good there’d be a white picket fence. But I love how the fence motif is repeated at an angle up the cover. There was a version where the background was creamy white and the fence was the bright orange color that I totally fell in love with… but cooler heads prevailed and gave us this bright, eye-catching jacket.
THE SEVEN DAY SWITCH is for fans of…
Grilling Out with the Fam
WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE
Washi Tape
Bento Boxes
Freaky Friday
Elaborate daily planners
Big Little Lies