The Very Principled Maggie Mayfield

By: Kathy Cooperman

Narrated by: Amy McFadden

Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

From Kathy Cooperman, the bestselling author of Crimes Against a Book Club, comes a comedy about a woman with good intentions who makes some very bad decisions.

Maggie Mayfield, an elementary school principal in the upscale suburbs of San Diego, likes to do the right thing - for her students and, after her marriage takes a hit, for herself as well. What’s wrong with that?

To keep her cash-strapped school afloat, Maggie says yes to a sweet deal from Silicon Valley’s hottest for-profit education company. They’ll provide enough funding so that Maggie can keep her science, art, and PE teachers in exchange for some dopey beta-test program backed by handsome CEO Danny Z. No layoffs! Happy kids!

Professionally, everything’s flourishing. Personally, the right things are tingling - Maggie can’t resist Danny Z’s magnetism. But as the school year continues, Maggie senses that she might have been duped. As things take a turn for the worse, Maggie and her BFF assistant, Diane, must keep things good - by going a little bad.

Smart, funny, and unpredictable, The Very Principled Maggie Mayfield is a comedy of friendship, class warfare, good intentions, and occasionally necessary unprincipled behavior.

©2018 Kathy Chen (P)2018 2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

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could have been so much better. such bland characters, why the stupid chocolate thing throughout?

Funny, Witty, and Insightful

This book was so much fun! And at the same time, it was smart, funny, and insightful. While I was rooting for Maggie -- even when she was making the wrong decisions and I just wanted her to get back on track -- I also loved so many of the other characters. Some of my favorite moments were inside the mind of the 3rd grade overachiever, Lucy, and her mom, who was actually hilarious in the way she judged everyone and expected only perfection. What made the book so great was that it dealt with real-world problems like public schools strapped for funding and the compromises teachers have to make to try and do their best for the kids, but at the same time it was filled with hilarious moments we can all relate to (like helicopter parents), and those we can't but that were so much fun to read about (like luxury doomsday bunkers and porn-addicted ex-husbands). My only warning is to be aware that if you listen to the audiobook while exercising, you could have times when it's hard to breathe because you're laughing or snorting at the witty dialogue and funny moments. It happened to me a few times while running uphill! The narration was also terrific--Amy McFadden (whom I really enjoyed in the Darkest Minds series) did a great job with all the accents and personalities in this book.

Lighthearted

Writing and performance were excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed listening and laughed out loud several times!

Fun, and as a teacher, I loved it!

Fun and light. I read a lot of crime drama, and some just for fun thrown in to lighten it up. I enjoyed this book!

Excellent narration

This was one of the best performances that I have heard. I will look for other books performed by Amy McFadden.

Okay

It was okay. I was excited to read this book as I was such a fan of Crimes Against a Book Club. I am not as much of a fan of this book, however. It has the same great humor - Kathy Cooperman has a great sense of humor and is a great writer. But the characters were infuriating! Maggie made so many bad decisions when it came to Danny. He was never right for her, I didn’t get the relationship at all, I kept waiting for her to come to her senses, but she was clearly too sexed to think clearly the whole time - even at the end which is ironic considering her ex-husbands issues. Danny as a character was too hard to be sympathetic toward. His happy ending did nothing for me. I didn’t hate him enough to see jail time, but his success did nothing for me. And the end to have Maggie and Diane just dip out to escape the law and It’s all just fine henceforth. I just couldn’t deal. I also want to say anyone who has an issue with her bringing up the problems with funding for today’s schools needs to reevaluate their principles.

Narrator has limited range

Enjoyed the story up to the ending. It was a little too outrageous for me, but not terrible.

The biggest let down is the narrator made just about everyone except Maggie(most of the time) sound like buffoons.

What a good read!

I loved the story and even found myself laughing out loud at times. I would recommend this book to all but especially to teachers who work in the system and work with kids everyday. I can't wait to read K.Cooperman's next book!

cute book

cute book. well written, entertaining, likeable chatacters. will see what else this auther has to offer

Wonderful story brought to life

I thoroughly enjoyed Amy's ability to bring Kathy's story to life. Amy is brilliant when it comes to various accents.