Mom Con

by K. Morris

alt cover for ISBN 148104950X/9781481049504

Meet Anita Henry, a hard-working, single mom trying to launch her own business after losing her job. The only problem is a nasty lawsuit charging her with stealing secrets from her ex-employer.

Corporate espionage? Please. Her single greatest offense was a high school fashion felony. But when a shady court ruling forces Anita to cease and desist, she’s determined to set things right.

Her plan involves launching the hippest night spot in town, but can she work her scheme while juggling her brother the musician, who likes her couch just a little too much; his manager, who’s prone to some sketchy accounting practices; an ex-husband who can’t seem to remember those child support payments; and an old flame who wouldn't mind heating things up again?

Genres: Contemporary

292 pages, Paperback

First published December 2, 2012

Reviews

[Compulsion Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Anita Henry and two co-workers present a revolutionary product to their company’s CEO, Anita and her crew expect promotions. What they get instead are a pink slips, followed closely by a cease and desist order when they try to develop and launch the product themselves. It turns out that their old boss, Evan Goodrich, claims that the product idea was his. When Evan tampers with the evidence and possibly bribes a judge to win the case, Anita is left with almost nothing…except her cunning and a burning desire for justice. With her two friends, an ex-boyfriend who also happens to be an ex-con, and a sleazy talent scout on her team, Anita is willing to risk everything in a daring caper that could put Evan in his place or land everyone in jail.

K. Morris has written a fast, fun and devious story propelled by a likable protagonist. Anita is a capable woman who manages to juggle the many challenges of her life while also taking care of her young daughter and sparking a potential love connection with her daughter’s music teacher.

In particular, Morris does a great job of moving the story forward at a brisk pace with a light, witty narrative voice. Morris keeps Anita on her toes and realistically paints the demands of parenting an 11-year-old girl. Sticklers for grammar (like myself) will notice a scattering of errors that could be polished away with a good copyedit, but the majority of readers won’t be bothered by them.

Readers may have to suspend more than a little bit of disbelief to swallow the ending, but most will enjoy watching Anita’s “Mom Con” unfold. While I think Evan was set up as a little too much of a cardboard scumbag, (at one point he breezily tells Anita and her friends to stick to their knitting and not try to run a company), the other characters are well-developed and the book was, overall, a pleasure to read. If you’re in the mood for a fun chicklit story with a twist of Ocean’s Eleven or The Italian Job in the mix, then add Mom Con by K. Morris to your reading pile.
(This book was provided to Compulsion Reads by the author for review.)

[Elayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now this was a different book indeed where a number of ‘mums’ got together after being ‘done-over’ by their boss to con him out of the value of the proposed project.
I like the story-line and appreciate the concept. However, I seem to recall that my contract says that all my ideas - whether conceived at the physical workplace or not, remain the property of my employer. I can use them myself but I don’t own the copyright. Thus unless US law is very different from ours, and their contracts said otherwise, the employer was well within his rights to patent their idea, especially as it was related to their work and the company’s products.
So having put aside that small legal issue and concentrating on the story I liked what happened and the way that they did it. I was with the employer when he thought it would make a good franchise idea and am surprised that they didn’t run with it and thus was somewhat confused by the ending. He invested in the idea and paid them a great deal of money, which they siphoned off from him and ran away with. Unfortunately, he was so short of cash that he sold his company to pay for the concept. But he seemed to sell it very cheaply. Which did confuse me.
So I am conflicted here. I liked the story and thought the writing was good and the book was fun to read. But I had serious doubts about some of the background to it and wondered if the author knew enough about valuing businesses and contracts to actually make the story work.
If this type of veracity doesn’t bother you then do read - but as an academic working in a business school I get picky about these types of things.

[Gaele · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a cleverly plotted story of revenge, Morris has brought us Anita, Reneé and Chris: the “rainbow coalition”. The three were work colleagues and friends at a baby products company, until the owner of the company decided to let them all go, after commandeering their revolutionary product for his own gain.

With a series of interesting twists and turns, the women seek their revenge and proceed to set up the long con, seeking to get their money and their idea back. Full of those lovely revenge ideas that we all wish we were capable of pulling off; the women begin preparing for a night of over the top entertainment to get their mark to pay up the cash, willingly.

While incredibly well written, with Anita’s point of view clearly evident throughout the story; it was really a story for pure entertainment, with four of the six male characters in the story being little more than caricatures: each with a variant vice, or as they so beautifully put it “level on the bag scale: dirt, scum or douche”. That should not deter you from this fun and lighthearted read, perfect for a quick escape; in fact it reads to well that I finished the entire book in just under 3 hours in one sitting.

I received an eBook copy from the author for purpose of honest review for the Indie Authors Rock promotion at I am, Indeed. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

When the three were all let go, they decided to start their own company to develop the product and were sued by their former employer. Although the three had spent weeks “determining the feasibility of bringing the product to market, much of the time off the clock,” it was clear that legally, they didn’t have a leg to stand on. That their (now former) employer might have played fast and loose with the rules to win the case wasn’t credible, because he didn’t have to, the law was on his side.

In spite of this shaky foundation, I loved the three main characters and hated (or at least strongly disliked) their ex-boss, so I managed to suspend my disbelief and start pulling for them in their attempt to get even. He’d still done plenty to deserve it. The story of how they extract their revenge was a fun one (think The Sting or some other con game like that) and, with the exception of the too frequent typos and other proofing misses I kept tripping over, it was a fun, well-written, and relatively quick read. Readers who don’t have an inner editor or lawyer aching to get out should eat this one up.
**Originally written for "Books and Pals" book blog. May have received a free review copy. **

[Nash Norden · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Anita Henry was a single mom who lost her job. When her former employer, Evan charged her and her friends, Reneé and Chris stealing secret from the company, Anita wanted revenge. She wanted to set things right. Anita met with various people to help her with her revenge—Drake, her old flame, James, her brother and Fredrik, her brother’s manager who happened to be stealing from James. But things weren’t as easy as it seems. Anita had to deal with her daughter, Tam, who was mad when Anita started dating Chris, Tam’s teacher. Not to mention that her ex-husband was filing for their daughter custody.

I like Anita. She was smart and fun. And it was very hard not to like the other supporting characters as well (my favorite is definitely Fredrik). I think they complimented each other very well. I love the interaction and dialogue they had. There were lots of fun and interesting twists as Anita and her girlfriends plot their revenge to get their money back from Evan. I would definitely recommend Mom Con to those who were looking for a fun, light read about revenge.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard of this book before but its premise intrigued me. And as I kept reading, Anita's fascination with performing a sting on her idea stealing boss seemed right up my alley. I only wish I had such skills in my verbal repertoire.

I was biting my nails as Anita and her co-worker cohorts set up everything. I think this is the beginning of a series and I am curious to see who Anita picks for a love relationship, Corey or Drake. Both seem equally yummy.

This was easy to read. The text flowed well and the twists and turns kept me following along. I did wish for a bigger climax and I wished for more resolution with her brother, James and his music. But all in all, it was a great read. I gave it 4 stars, and deservedly so.

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) from Net Galley in return for an honest review and I thank Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to read it.

[Jesena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book. It is a perfect for weekends or holidays. I would honestly like to read its sequels every weekend. It is fun and easy - just the right thing when you want to relax. There are dirtbags and douchebags ( not necessarily in that order) and moms ready to strike back. I appreciate that the author decided against over explaining the master plan. As it unfolds everything is perfectly clear without the reader being overwhelmed with bunch of unneeded details. And that cliffhanger... I definitely want to know what happens next.

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this was one of my all time favorites and What a way to end it I hope there is a second book in the near future because that was one hell of a cliff hanger