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The Miseducation of April Hillson
 
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The Miseducation of April Hillson, an Amazon Short
by Maureen McGowan (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  (78 customer reviews)
Price:  $0.00
Length:  17 words, 8 pages
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Product Details
Editorial Reviews
manuscript review by Publishers Weekly, an independent organization
Orphaned at age 17, April is thrust into the world of high society. By the time she's 18, the ward of Philadelphia blueblood Richard Hillson has become his wife. Twenty-two years later, April is evaluating the years leading up to her divorce and isolation from the only world she has ever known. Alternating between flashbacks is her present-day struggle to rebuild her life after years of being a society matron. This witty rags-to-riches tale is filled with well-defined characters: Victoria Billingsgate Hillson, the controlling family matriarch; Richard, the shallow billionaire husband; Roxie, the stripper/waitress turned horticulture student who befriends April and finds her a job; Dan, the cop with a heart of gold; and various society wives straight out of the film The Women. The novel culminates in double crosses and upper-class backstabbing.

Amazon Top Reviewer
"The Miseducation of April Hillson" revolves around a 40-year-old divorcee who is unsuccessfully trying to live above her means. All of her credit cards are over the limit and April can't even afford to check into a hotel suite for the weekend. April doesn't have any money and has no idea how she'll be able to support herself without a husband. A handsome blue-eyed stranger eventually comes to April's rescue, and she wonders if her new life will be so bad after all. This book seems like a new twist on the chick lit genre, which is refreshing. I also like the fact that the main character is a woman in her 40's instead of the typical 25-year-old bimbo that is commonly featured in these types of books. I think the writing is good and the story is interesting, and I'd definitely like to read more of this story.

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Maureen McGowan's latest blog posts
       
 
Maureen McGowan sent the following posts to customers who purchased The Miseducation of April Hillson
  

Anyone else a movie fan?

7:06 PM PST, February 23, 2008
Oscars are tomorrow... I blogged about it here, but my excitement has grown since I posted this... http://maureenmcgowan.blogspot.com/2008/02/who-got -passed-over-for-oscar.html

Can't wait until tomorrow night and so glad the awards will be broadcast.
Comment    

Top 100! Wow!

10:54 AM PST, February 19, 2008
I'm a little in shock, but totally thrilled. My main goal in entering this contest was to be read by an editor at Penguin so I couldn't be more pleased. (Okay, I'd love to be in the top 10, too... but really, hitting this point was as far as I let myself dream.)

I'm also excited that at least a few "popular fiction" manuscripts made this cut, especially since I received a few customer reviews implying (or outright stating) that "this kind of book" has no place in the contest.

Huge congratulations to everyone else who made it to this round, and to everyone who didn't? Keep on writing and submitting. Talent, persistence and luck. I firmly believe you need all three to get published by a major house.
 
2 Comments    

 
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Customer Reviews

78 Reviews
5 star: 73%  (57)
4 star: 10%  (8)
3 star: 10%  (8)
2 star: 5%  (4)
1 star: 1%  (1)
 
 
 
 
 
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6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "The Main Line Elite are worse than the Amish", February 19, 2008
By R. Kyle (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
At 17, April was orphaned and married. She was too young to drink and probably too young to understand about making sure she was taken care of when Richard Hillson discarded her for another younger model. At forty, she's totally unprepared for the divorce and being cut off from her money and from 'friends' who belonged with the marriage and not with the cast-off spouse.

She's stuck with a 'forever friend' from the poor side of town who only took her in because of her Christmas cards. Quickly, she realizes she can't deal with this lady's life either and Sophie can't deal with her.

The story's funny, sad, and probably too true for many women like April. Ms. McGowan's done an excellent job of drawing her character and her situation in a few brief pages. She's also left us with a good ending, which is hard to do in such a short space. Well done and best of luck on the ABNA 100.
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