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Mr. & Mrs. American Pie  By  cover art

Mr. & Mrs. American Pie

By: Juliet McDaniel
Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen,Jonathan Todd Ross
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Publisher's summary

Now an Apple TV+ limited series called Palm Royale, starring Kristin Wiig, Ricky Martin, and Laura Dern

"Sarah Mollo-Christensen and Jonathan Todd Ross perfectly narrate this hilarious story.... Mollo-Christensen instills smugness and frustration with every huffy stream of profanity that comes from Maxine. Ross voices Robert in a calm and collected tone and gives an adolescent neighbor excited bursts of speech. Maxine builds an unlikely family while working toward her goal of winning a pageant. Hers is a delightfully vivid journey with expertly voiced characters." (AudioFile magazine)

Narrators Sarah Mollo-Christensen and Jonathan Todd Ross bring Juliet McDaniel's first novel to vivid Technicolor life with the banter of a zany, screwball comedy.

It's 1969 and Palm Springs socialite Maxine Simmons is planning a Thanksgiving feast to rival Nixon's stealthy maneuvers in the White House and Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon. With a catered menu to die for and a dining room that looks like it's been ripped from the glossy pages of a magazine, her entrance to high society is all but assured.

Then comes the humiliation of being dumped by her husband of 17 years for his 22-year-old secretary. Banished to Scottsdale, Arizona, the disgraced Maxine languishes in exile. Inspired by a stolen copy of Napoleon's bio from the local library, she suddenly gets an idea of how she can win it all back. First she must transform this nondescript condo into her own fabulous Elba. Then the determined divorcee sets her sights on the Mrs. American Pie Pageant, so she can be declared the best wife and mother in all the land.

The only hitch? She doesn't have any children, or even a husband. Undaunted, Maxine sets out to create her own perfect family and win the comeback crown of her dreams. No wonder Big Little Lies actress Laura Dern calls Maxine "a gorgeously messy and misguided heroine." Like the Pink Lady cocktails she tosses back and the blue convertible she drives around town, Maxine's redemption is a screamingly hilarious detour that's colorful, tart, and refreshingly sweet.

©2018 Juliet McDaniel (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A gorgeously messy and misguided heroine. I love this story." (Laura Dern)

"The perfect blend of salty and sweet." (Booklist, starred review)

"Hilarious." (Refinery29)

What listeners say about Mr. & Mrs. American Pie

Average customer ratings
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  • 09-07-18

Pretty much perfect.

This might be the best thing I’ve listened to this year. Is it great fiction? No. Is it well-written, entertaining, humorous, and touching, with fleshed-out, endearingly-flawed characters? Yes. I loved it.

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21 people found this helpful

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What a hoot!

I wasn’t sure I’d like this book. But it was so funny and unusual with great oddball characters and goo narration, I was hooked! Idon’t even know what category I’d put it in, probably heartwarming humor!

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18 people found this helpful

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Fun and funny

It's not great literature, but this is very entertaining...added bonus, I listened to it during the Thanksgiving holiday, which is the starting point of the book. I liked the female narrator, but the male reader was just ok.

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4 people found this helpful

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Terrible

I could not finish this book. It was stupid no real plot and the reader was monotone. I Rarely if ever do not finish a book. This was a waste of my time.

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4 people found this helpful

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Narrator’s voice is unbearable

Can’t rate the story as I can’t go more than a few minutes but it is making me so I am giving it a 1. Woman’s voice is awful, sounds like a computer talking. I should have listened to the sample. Will be returning.

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3 people found this helpful

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Both hilarious and heartwarming.

Loved it. Great story and readers. Sorry to have it end, but a perfect final line.

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3 people found this helpful

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Mostly Fluff

I did not care for this book at all, it was just a bunch of fluff with no depth or substance. It had occassional insights to just how bad parents could get a way with neglect back in the early 60's. It was not believable in any way shape or form and although the author seemed to be going for funny she missed the mark.

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2 people found this helpful

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Horrendous on every level

I hope that Ms McDaniel has a day job, because she is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a writer. The plot, (I only endured it for about half an hour ) is tedious and shallow, and there are laughable mistakes such as the use of "gastronomic" when she meant "gastric."
The narration is as tortured as the prose.
I could kick myself for paying money for this amateurish drivel.

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2 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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I tried to like it, but it’s just so much

I kept trying to like it, but I just didn’t. Really bummed that it wasn’t what I thought.

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1 person found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Mediocre Story, great performance

I enjoyed this book but there were times I thought the story dragged. Glad I got it on sale and didn’t waste a credit.

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