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Not My Job Anymore
She lost her mother—and found her fury.
What happens when a woman who has spent forty years being dutiful decides she’s done surviving—and starts living dangerously instead?
Set against the icy beauty of a Massachusetts beach town in winter, this novel is a sharp, darkly funny, emotionally charged story about marriage, betrayal, grief, desire, and reinvention at the exact moment life is supposed to be winding down. Viola arrives to bury her mother and settle an estate. Instead, she uncovers a devastating secret linking her mother and her husband, Anthony—a lie that has shaped her entire adult life.
Fueled by rage, heartbreak, and a long-buried hunger for freedom, Viola begins sabotaging the version of herself everyone expects. She plunges into the freezing Atlantic with her outrageous best friend Jackie, becomes obsessed with the stranger who rescues her, battles with her dead mother’s ghost, and watches as a violent nor’easter threatens to destroy the fragile house—and identity—she’s trying to rebuild.
At once wickedly witty and deeply moving, this is a story for anyone who has ever wondered whether it’s too late to change their life, reclaim their body, or choose themselves over obligation. Readers will find a fearless heroine navigating late midlife reckoning with humor, sensuality, and fury, wrapped inside a page-turning mystery and storm-lashed coastal drama.
What happens when a woman who has spent forty years being dutiful decides she’s done surviving—and starts living dangerously instead?
Set against the icy beauty of a Massachusetts beach town in winter, this novel is a sharp, darkly funny, emotionally charged story about marriage, betrayal, grief, desire, and reinvention at the exact moment life is supposed to be winding down. Viola arrives to bury her mother and settle an estate. Instead, she uncovers a devastating secret linking her mother and her husband, Anthony—a lie that has shaped her entire adult life.
Fueled by rage, heartbreak, and a long-buried hunger for freedom, Viola begins sabotaging the version of herself everyone expects. She plunges into the freezing Atlantic with her outrageous best friend Jackie, becomes obsessed with the stranger who rescues her, battles with her dead mother’s ghost, and watches as a violent nor’easter threatens to destroy the fragile house—and identity—she’s trying to rebuild.
At once wickedly witty and deeply moving, this is a story for anyone who has ever wondered whether it’s too late to change their life, reclaim their body, or choose themselves over obligation. Readers will find a fearless heroine navigating late midlife reckoning with humor, sensuality, and fury, wrapped inside a page-turning mystery and storm-lashed coastal drama.
- GenresAmazon
270 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2026
About the author
Margie Benedict
10 books11 followersAward-winning novelist Margie Benedict writes emotionally resonant, genre-defying fiction rooted in the power of second chances. From coastal suspense to time-twisted mysteries and sweeping speculative worlds, her stories follow characters who rise, reclaim their agency, and rewrite their destinies.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 7, 2026
Thanks to Netgalley for this advanced reader copy, after reading the synopsis on netgalley i knew i needed to request this book. Its my first Margie Benedict book pleased it stay it wont be my last, I really felt like i needed a palette cleanser after reading horrors and thrillers. This gladly did the job i needed as its a very realistic read.I also feel that some books are read at the right time in life so if you find yourself at a cross roads or approaching some form of change in your life, this book will help.
Viola has just lost her mother and although am not fond of reading sad stories i found this the absolute opposite as the sadness its there in the book, but it also gives a new chapter for Viola. This is quite refreshing and honest, Viola really re-evaluates everything in her life. I think the book has a deeper reflecting and it certainly makes you look closer at relationships with family.
Voila makes some choices and they are bold, she wants to reinvent herself and knows that life is really too short, this was the part that i loved. The things and the people who she would once literally go to the end of the earth for were no longer serving her purpose. Voila has put herself last and finds herself constantly running around after everyone else. You can see the self neglect in Voila and she looks into the future and realises how the years have just gone by.
It was great going back in time to uncover the memories but the most real thing about this book is we can love our parents but also not serve to choice their path and not agree with everything or the decisions made. Its perfectly ok to put yourself first with your own ideas and trust the process. Voila felt as a child she had to fit onto what her parents wanted and it went against her own desires.
The painting in this book just really shows how she literally felt. But i found it energising and almost like i was cheering Viola on from the side lines. I love how this women can be 63 but doing exactly what she wants.
The author has done a perfect job with balancing the emotions of grief, family life, lost desires , and fresh starts. If you need to make the change then do it! Just what i needed to hear!
Viola has just lost her mother and although am not fond of reading sad stories i found this the absolute opposite as the sadness its there in the book, but it also gives a new chapter for Viola. This is quite refreshing and honest, Viola really re-evaluates everything in her life. I think the book has a deeper reflecting and it certainly makes you look closer at relationships with family.
Voila makes some choices and they are bold, she wants to reinvent herself and knows that life is really too short, this was the part that i loved. The things and the people who she would once literally go to the end of the earth for were no longer serving her purpose. Voila has put herself last and finds herself constantly running around after everyone else. You can see the self neglect in Voila and she looks into the future and realises how the years have just gone by.
It was great going back in time to uncover the memories but the most real thing about this book is we can love our parents but also not serve to choice their path and not agree with everything or the decisions made. Its perfectly ok to put yourself first with your own ideas and trust the process. Voila felt as a child she had to fit onto what her parents wanted and it went against her own desires.
The painting in this book just really shows how she literally felt. But i found it energising and almost like i was cheering Viola on from the side lines. I love how this women can be 63 but doing exactly what she wants.
The author has done a perfect job with balancing the emotions of grief, family life, lost desires , and fresh starts. If you need to make the change then do it! Just what i needed to hear!
June 2, 2026
OVERALL RATING:
⭐⭐⭐⭐🍪
4 stars + 1 cookie!
I am pleasantly surprised to have loved this. I think timing matters when it comes to books, because I happened to pick up Not My Job Anymore during what can only be described as a "quarter-life crisis," and it felt like exactly the book I needed.
From the very first page, the writing pulled me in. The prose is personal, reflective, and intimate. What I appreciated most was how authentic Viola's narration felt. The novel begins with the death of Viola's mother, but that's really only the first domino: what follows is a story about grief, family history, betrayal, divorce, identity, and the strange freedom that arrives afterwards. So, even if the flashbacks were brief, it was as if I was very connected with our main character. Her mother was not idealized. She was loving, but frustrating; overbearing, but sometimes supportive, and hurtful in different measures--much like many real mothers are. I found myself connecting deeply with those chapters.
In many ways, the emotional core of the book worked wonderfully for me. I laughed, I cried, and then I laughed and cried at the same time. There were passages that made me put the book down simply to sit with what I had just read. More than once, it reminded me to text my own mother.
Not My Job Anymore is a tender reminder that growing older is not the end of becoming who you are. I'm far from our protagonist's age, yet this was one of the first novels I've read that genuinely eased some of my fears about aging. Spending time inside the mind of a 63-year-old woman was unexpectedly comforting; it doesn't pretend that getting old is easy, but it presents later life as something rich with memory, love, grief, humor, and possibilities.
This novel is for readers who enjoy empowering women's fiction and reflective family stories. Because the novel is so rooted in a woman's interior life, your enjoyment depends heavily on whether her reflections resonate with you personally.
I received a free copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
4 stars + 1 cookie!
I am pleasantly surprised to have loved this. I think timing matters when it comes to books, because I happened to pick up Not My Job Anymore during what can only be described as a "quarter-life crisis," and it felt like exactly the book I needed.
From the very first page, the writing pulled me in. The prose is personal, reflective, and intimate. What I appreciated most was how authentic Viola's narration felt. The novel begins with the death of Viola's mother, but that's really only the first domino: what follows is a story about grief, family history, betrayal, divorce, identity, and the strange freedom that arrives afterwards. So, even if the flashbacks were brief, it was as if I was very connected with our main character. Her mother was not idealized. She was loving, but frustrating; overbearing, but sometimes supportive, and hurtful in different measures--much like many real mothers are. I found myself connecting deeply with those chapters.
In many ways, the emotional core of the book worked wonderfully for me. I laughed, I cried, and then I laughed and cried at the same time. There were passages that made me put the book down simply to sit with what I had just read. More than once, it reminded me to text my own mother.
Not My Job Anymore is a tender reminder that growing older is not the end of becoming who you are. I'm far from our protagonist's age, yet this was one of the first novels I've read that genuinely eased some of my fears about aging. Spending time inside the mind of a 63-year-old woman was unexpectedly comforting; it doesn't pretend that getting old is easy, but it presents later life as something rich with memory, love, grief, humor, and possibilities.
This novel is for readers who enjoy empowering women's fiction and reflective family stories. Because the novel is so rooted in a woman's interior life, your enjoyment depends heavily on whether her reflections resonate with you personally.
I received a free copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
May 27, 2026
Losing a parent definitely changes the way certain books hit emotionally, and Not My Job Anymore ended up affecting me more than I expected.
This book really captures that stage of life where you start looking around and asking yourself if the life you built is actually the life you still want. Viola is grieving the loss of her mother while also dealing with a marriage that has slowly drained her over the years, and honestly, a lot of her emotions felt very real to me.
As someone in my 50s who recently lost my mom, the mother-daughter parts hit hard. The imagined conversations with her mother after her death felt especially relatable because grief really does work like that sometimes. You carry those conversations around with you long after someone is gone.
I also loved seeing a story centered around a woman in her 60s who is still messy, emotional, angry, funny, impulsive, and trying to figure herself out. We do not get enough books like that. So many women’s fiction books focus on younger characters, and this felt refreshing.
The cold coastal Massachusetts setting added so much atmosphere too. Everything felt stormy and unsettled in a way that matched Viola’s emotional state perfectly.
I wouldn’t really call this a romance as much as a later-in-life reinvention story with some romance woven into it. Watching Viola slowly stop living for everyone else was honestly the strongest part of the book for me.
The ending wrapped up a little faster than I wanted, and there were moments where I wished Viola had a bit more self-awareness, but overall I found this emotional, witty, thoughtful, and very readable.
I think this would make an excellent book club discussion book, especially for women navigating aging parents, grief, marriage, identity, and major life changes later in life.
This book really captures that stage of life where you start looking around and asking yourself if the life you built is actually the life you still want. Viola is grieving the loss of her mother while also dealing with a marriage that has slowly drained her over the years, and honestly, a lot of her emotions felt very real to me.
As someone in my 50s who recently lost my mom, the mother-daughter parts hit hard. The imagined conversations with her mother after her death felt especially relatable because grief really does work like that sometimes. You carry those conversations around with you long after someone is gone.
I also loved seeing a story centered around a woman in her 60s who is still messy, emotional, angry, funny, impulsive, and trying to figure herself out. We do not get enough books like that. So many women’s fiction books focus on younger characters, and this felt refreshing.
The cold coastal Massachusetts setting added so much atmosphere too. Everything felt stormy and unsettled in a way that matched Viola’s emotional state perfectly.
I wouldn’t really call this a romance as much as a later-in-life reinvention story with some romance woven into it. Watching Viola slowly stop living for everyone else was honestly the strongest part of the book for me.
The ending wrapped up a little faster than I wanted, and there were moments where I wished Viola had a bit more self-awareness, but overall I found this emotional, witty, thoughtful, and very readable.
I think this would make an excellent book club discussion book, especially for women navigating aging parents, grief, marriage, identity, and major life changes later in life.
May 25, 2026
I liked this book because it tackled issues we need to see more of in women’s fiction: aging, mom-daughter relationships, death of a parent, adultery, mothering adult children, mature marriages, divorce, mature dating, changing careers, and/or pursuing dreams later in life. It would make a great book club selection because of this.
The main character, Viola, is in a long-time marriage to a needy and manipulative husband who doesn’t appreciate her. Instead of dealing with that directly, she has become very passive-aggressive and generally miserable. When her mother passes away, she travels from California to her childhood home of Massachusetts to deal with her mother’s affairs only to uncover one hell of a secret that rocks her world and that is the catalyst for changing her life.
Initially, I was disappointed that “changing her life” was simply “having an affair.” However, eventually circumstances help prompt more substantial changes – although I would have liked to see more self-reflection in the main character. She’s witty and entertaining, but I didn’t find her all that endearing.
While I wouldn’t necessarily categorize the book as a romance per se, I enjoyed the romantic elements it contained. The end did feel rushed, though. I would have liked a bit more of a fade out there. Otherwise, I liked the allusions to a fated romance.
Overall, Not My Job Anymore is an entertaining novel about a woman who comes into her own and takes control of her life in her sixties and takes us along for the ride.
Thank you to Margie Benedict and NetGalley for the eARC of this novel. I will always provide an honest review.
The main character, Viola, is in a long-time marriage to a needy and manipulative husband who doesn’t appreciate her. Instead of dealing with that directly, she has become very passive-aggressive and generally miserable. When her mother passes away, she travels from California to her childhood home of Massachusetts to deal with her mother’s affairs only to uncover one hell of a secret that rocks her world and that is the catalyst for changing her life.
Initially, I was disappointed that “changing her life” was simply “having an affair.” However, eventually circumstances help prompt more substantial changes – although I would have liked to see more self-reflection in the main character. She’s witty and entertaining, but I didn’t find her all that endearing.
While I wouldn’t necessarily categorize the book as a romance per se, I enjoyed the romantic elements it contained. The end did feel rushed, though. I would have liked a bit more of a fade out there. Otherwise, I liked the allusions to a fated romance.
Overall, Not My Job Anymore is an entertaining novel about a woman who comes into her own and takes control of her life in her sixties and takes us along for the ride.
Thank you to Margie Benedict and NetGalley for the eARC of this novel. I will always provide an honest review.
May 30, 2026
Viola is already feeling miserable, mainly in her marriage, when she must leave her home in CA and travel back to her family home in MA after her mother dies. While taking care of her mother’s estate, Violet realizes that much of what she has handled in her life is Not My Job Anymore in the aptly titled book by Margie Benedict.
This story showcases a woman in her 60s who decides to finally stand up for herself and start living her own life, not the life her husband or daughter wants her to live. Written by Benedict with humor and heart, we follow Violet while she experiences some sadness, late-in-life realizations and a willingness to embrace new relationships on her path to self-discovery.
This book was both engaging and touching… a joy to read!
3.5* rounded up to 4*
Thank you to Riveting Reads and NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.
This story showcases a woman in her 60s who decides to finally stand up for herself and start living her own life, not the life her husband or daughter wants her to live. Written by Benedict with humor and heart, we follow Violet while she experiences some sadness, late-in-life realizations and a willingness to embrace new relationships on her path to self-discovery.
This book was both engaging and touching… a joy to read!
3.5* rounded up to 4*
Thank you to Riveting Reads and NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.
May 25, 2026
THIS was a very fun, clever read. As a woman in her 50's, I could relate with so much of how she felt, thought and behaved. Man, that was real life.
I LOVED that this book was written from the perspective of an older woman. I'm not quite her age but I sure hope to be someday. The fact that there are romances from this age perspective is just lovely. I didnt know this was a romance when I picked it...and I'm not positive it IS a romance. More a coming of age...old age. We've seen similar books...the one it reminded me of the most was Wifey by Judy Blume. It went a different way than I expected and I liked this diversion too!
Very engaging, fast paced and interesting. I finished it in a day!
*Was gifted this book by Netgalley.
I LOVED that this book was written from the perspective of an older woman. I'm not quite her age but I sure hope to be someday. The fact that there are romances from this age perspective is just lovely. I didnt know this was a romance when I picked it...and I'm not positive it IS a romance. More a coming of age...old age. We've seen similar books...the one it reminded me of the most was Wifey by Judy Blume. It went a different way than I expected and I liked this diversion too!
Very engaging, fast paced and interesting. I finished it in a day!
*Was gifted this book by Netgalley.
June 4, 2026
I received an ARC of Not My Job Anymore thanks to the publisher through NetGalley and leave this review voluntarily.
Not My Job Anymore was a great self-discovery romance taking place later in life (following a 40 year marriage). I love how the relationship starts and how it develops. The tension between the characters is swoon-worthy. Even if you are not typically up for a older character romance (like me), this may still be for you because the self-discovery aspect makes it feel a bit younger in the best way.
Not My Job Anymore was a great self-discovery romance taking place later in life (following a 40 year marriage). I love how the relationship starts and how it develops. The tension between the characters is swoon-worthy. Even if you are not typically up for a older character romance (like me), this may still be for you because the self-discovery aspect makes it feel a bit younger in the best way.
June 7, 2026
Too many incidents to be plausible
Being a woman of a certain age, I looked forward to reading this book; however, repeatedly it disappointed. The characters were not believable (the daughter seemed more like a 20 year old) and the main character was not likable, nor was her husband,but that was part of the storyline. How did he show up, with no explanation? Just too unrealistic , overall.
Being a woman of a certain age, I looked forward to reading this book; however, repeatedly it disappointed. The characters were not believable (the daughter seemed more like a 20 year old) and the main character was not likable, nor was her husband,but that was part of the storyline. How did he show up, with no explanation? Just too unrealistic , overall.
May 28, 2026
A beautiful love story
Viola is miserable in her marriage to a college professor. She has given up so much of herself to be with him. He treats her like a servant. Her mother dies and she embarks on a journey of self discovery. Her mother confesses a secret about her and Viola’s husband that turns her world upside down. Unputdownable love story.
Viola is miserable in her marriage to a college professor. She has given up so much of herself to be with him. He treats her like a servant. Her mother dies and she embarks on a journey of self discovery. Her mother confesses a secret about her and Viola’s husband that turns her world upside down. Unputdownable love story.
May 23, 2026
It is a character-driven, slice-of-life contemporary book.
It was refreshing to see a female lead in her 60's. The grief, and her conversations with her mother got a light horror feel and were very realistic.
Overall liked reading this book.
It was refreshing to see a female lead in her 60's. The grief, and her conversations with her mother got a light horror feel and were very realistic.
Overall liked reading this book.
May 30, 2026
Not my job anymore
I really enjoyed reading this book it was so good. Once you start you wouldn't stop you have to fine out if she will stop being a door stop and live her life with out letting everyone walk over her. Glad she made the right choice.😇
I really enjoyed reading this book it was so good. Once you start you wouldn't stop you have to fine out if she will stop being a door stop and live her life with out letting everyone walk over her. Glad she made the right choice.😇
May 14, 2026
Awesome Book. I loved it.
Being a woman of "a certain age", it is so refreshing to read a story about one who, after many years of subsurvience, finally begins to live for herself.
Being a woman of "a certain age", it is so refreshing to read a story about one who, after many years of subsurvience, finally begins to live for herself.
May 15, 2026
a 63 year old unhappily married woman goes back home when her mother dies.....she ends up getting divorced and finds happiness with another man
May 19, 2026
Happily Ever After
A story of life, love, and relationships. This story just makes you feel good and reflect about life and it’s challenges.
A story of life, love, and relationships. This story just makes you feel good and reflect about life and it’s challenges.
May 20, 2026
Great read! Love the humor!
May 29, 2026
Really enjoyed the characters. Will make many women wonder if what they have is really what the want, need and deserve.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews