Story for the Week
I don’t remember the last time I had a summer of vacations. In fact, it’s possible this has been my only one ever. In the three traditional summer months of June, July, and August, I enjoyed a vacation every month with a variety of my favorite people. But each vacation included different people, and there was definitely some crossover.
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June
The summer started with our long-awaited Disney cruise (A Disney Cruise Makes for the Best Vacation). Corinne and I were joined this year by our besties Stephanie and Jakub. Stephanie has been on every cruise with us. Jakub sailed for the first time, basically taking the place of Aly who couldn’t make it this year.
I have often said that Disney knows marketing. When Corinne was young and we were still buying DVDs, the Disney Store used to advertise pre-orders. When you pre-ordered a DVD, the folder for the receipt included a coupon for $20 off a purchase of $40 or more. You could use the coupon beginning the day the pre-orders came in. For the longest time, when one movie came in, there was another movie on pre-order, but the movies only ran about $30. Who wouldn’t spend the extra $10 to save $20?
Fast forward to the present day. Most of the brick-and-mortar Disney stores closed, and most people don’t order DVDs anymore. But Disney’s amazing marketing still works for the cruise line. Cruise dates usually open up a year and a half or so before the sail date. Shorter cruises require a deposit of about $200 per person per stateroom. Longer cruises run about $500 per person per stateroom. Depending on when you book versus when you sail, you probably have about a year to pay off the balance.
Once you take that first cruise, however, one of the biggest benefits offered is booking your next cruise before the ship reaches final port. When you make your reservation on ship, the deposit is only $250 per stateroom…total. Not per person…per stateroom. So our four-person stateroom only requires a deposit of $250 versus $1,000-$2,000, regardless of the duration of the cruise. You have two years to sail, which means you have time to choose your next destination. You also save 10% on the total cost of the cruise. And the deposit is fully refundable. If you enjoy cruising, why wouldn’t you make the reservation before the ship gets into the port?
Stephanie, Aly, and Jakub all plan to join us on the next cruise in two years…along with Aly’s boyfriend Andrew. Next stop? Alaska!
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July
July featured a stay-cation. My firm closes for the week of the 4th as an added perk for the employees. We take two vacation days; the firm gives us three paid holidays. With the weekends, it’s a nine-day break from the daily grind. I had lots of plans for that week. I was going to clean out drawers, closets, cabinets.
Instead, I slept and relaxed a lot. I caught up on Virgin River while Corinne worked. While I didn’t finish any books that week, I still read every day. I played The Sims…a lot. I cleaned out exactly two drawers. But I had fun playing The Sims. There were a lot of Sims. 🫣
Corinne, Rodolfo, and I watched a lot of World Cup games. I had my annual physical where I told my doctor that we really have started meal planning. That stemmed from trying out a meal delivery service through Home Chef. (If you click the link, you get a discount for several weeks, and I get a rebate on my next order. 😉) It’s been about two months now. We haven’t repeated a meal, and we haven’t had anything we didn’t like.
The dogs visited the vet for a checkup. We re-started our fish tank with all new decorations and fish. We went to a 4th of July party for the first time in forever. I signed up for Duolingo to learn Spanish along with Rodolfo’s girlfriend.
It was a busy and still wonderfully relaxing nine days.
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August
The final vacation for the summer included an amazing group of friends in a city I’ve never visited for a two-day indie book convention—a thing I never knew existed. Back in January (yes, January), I watched a TikTok video by Kathryn R. Biel when she was planning to attend a book event in New York. I commented that I wished she would come to Chicago because I would love to meet her in person. She told me about Happily Indie After, a book convention organized by Twisted Tale Events scheduled for August in Cincinnati.
Cincinnati is only a 4.5-hour drive from Chicago. Even though I would have gone alone if necessary, Corinne wasn’t going to be back in school yet, so I started organizing. I would take Corinne…obviously. I asked Stephanie, Aly, and Jakub. Aly is the only avid reader of the three, but this was going to be more about the adventure.
Stephanie and Jakub were able to make it. Aly had just started a new job and had no idea what her vacation time would look like, so she opted out. We also invited Raena and Abby, who Corinne met in Liverpool when they were all in the global program for a semester. Raena stayed on campus in Michigan for the summer, so she met us there. Abby drove down from Michigan and rode with us to Cincinnati.
A couple weeks before the convention, I saw a Facebook post asking attendees to comment if they were bringing anything to trade. Ummm…what?! Apparently, I could bring things to trade?!?! I brought bookish stickers and notepads, and I created a Canva account to design some bookmarks for my blog. Because why not?
We booked a gorgeous AirBnB, complete with a piano, a pool table, and a beautiful screened-in porch. We took a couple of detours to see some landmarks from the intro of WKRP in Cincinnati. We also chose Cancun Mexican Bar & Grill in Kentucky for dinner one evening because we were only a few miles from the border, and Abby wanted to be able to say she went to Kentucky.
I looked forward to this convention from the moment I bought the tickets, and it was so worth it. Fantastic event, amazing company, and a book nerd’s ultimate happy place. I knew Raena would have fun, but on the first day of the convention, Corinne mentioned that it was way more fun than she expected. Everyone on our book adventure bought at least one book. Abby bought the most at ten.
The 2027 convention takes pace in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It’s a bit of a longer drive, but I’m not against a bit of a road trip for a bookish experience. 😉
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The entire backstory of the book below revolves around two competing agencies pitching a new campaign for a luxury resort brand. One of the copywriters talks about the experience of being on vacation. “There’s nothing in this world better than being on vacation….You’re with your favorite people; you’re in a beautiful place; everything you were worried about back home has been left there. And from where you are now, it feels so far away it might not even exist….”
I loved this summer of vacations, and it made me realize how important it is to take time to relax and rejuvenate. Here’s hoping for many more summers of vacation with my favorite people.
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐½
3.5 Stars for If Not You by Ellen O’Clover
400 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: September 15, 2026
I received an advance copy of this title from Berkley via NetGalley.
Publisher’s Description
Five years of history. Four weeks on the road. Two rival copywriters learning love is the hardest sell of all.
Mattie French has always known how to tell a good story. It’s why she stopped at nothing to land her dream career as a copywriter at a scrappy independent advertising agency. In fact, if it weren’t for one person, Mattie would probably be the most-talked-about rising star in town.
Campbell Porter is a senior copywriter at Chicago’s slickest agency. Absurdly talented, incredibly aware of it, and the bane of Mattie’s existence since they were interns together, Campbell is always just…there, with his golden-boy smirk and the familiar gaze that never fails to taunt her across a crowded room.
Mattie would love nothing more than to avoid Campbell forever. But when their agencies are pitted against each other to compete for a luxury resort account, it’s her chance to prove she can beat him—and earn the promotion she covets.
During the month of travel required for the pitch, Mattie and Campbell are thrown together as fierce competitors and, slowly, as unexpected witnesses to each other’s hidden wounds and softest parts. As their trip barrels toward its final pitch, Mattie is forced to confront the increasingly obvious truth: the story she’s crafted for her and Campbell over the years might need a new ending.
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Main Characters:
- Mattie French – 27 years old, studied communications at a state school in Central Illinois, originally met Campbell when they interned together at Slater Faust, currently works as a copywriter for The Art Room in downtown Chicago
- Campbell Porter – 28 years old, originally from North Carolina, graduated with honors from Vanderbilt and took a 15-month course at an advertising school before interning with Slater Faust, earned the junior copywriter position at the end of the internship, currently works as the senior copywriter at Slater Faust
- Ava – Mattie’s best friend since grade school, she and Mattie were roommates in college and moved together to Chicago, kindergarten teacher, her fiancé Lev moved in with Ava and Mattie four months prior, they plan to move into their own place after the wedding in the spring
- Dexter – Mattie’s art director partner at The Art Room, lives with his partner Krishna in River North and doesn’t like to be away from home
- Soraya – Campbell’s art director partner at Slater Faust
I struggled with this book a bit.
Campbell Porter has basically been Mattie French’s nemesis since their internship at Slater Faust after college. After Campbell beats Mattie out for the one junior copywriter position, Mattie chooses to go somewhere else to work. But Campbell is always there—winning awards and heading ad campaigns that remind Mattie that she has been second-best to him since she started her career.
When the luxury resort brand Wicksteed requests proposals for a new advertising campaign, Mattie and Dexter make up The Art Room’s go-to creative team. Three companies are invited to pitch, but only two are selected for the second round. And the second round includes a month-long stay between two of the company’s resorts, including a number of exercises to decide on the best fit for the brand. To Maggie’s dismay, of course the other agency is Slater Faust, and of course the creative team includes Campbell.
I really like the premise of the story as well as the romantic tropes—enemies to lovers, forced proximity. There’s a ton of potential for this story. Mattie carries years of clear disdain for Campbell and certainly doesn’t want to spend four weeks anywhere with him. But Campbell seems completely unbothered. In fact, Campbell’s attitude toward Mattie seems more like a friendly workplace rivalry.
The huge variation in their attitudes is actually one of the things that made this book not work quite as well for me. Mattie’s attitude feels overly negative. Yes, multiple times in their careers, Campbell has just barely beaten her for awards and campaigns. His award-winning athletic wear campaign constantly comes up in case studies at strategy meetings. While she never speaks with him, Mattie sees Campbell at every networking event, every award ceremony. He has her dream job at her dream firm, and she can’t seem to escape him.
Her animosity for him amps up after she finds herself waiting for a train, crying over something that is explained later in the book, and he sees her from across the tracks. She is pretty much horrified that Campbell Porter, with everything else he seemingly holds over her, has now seen her crying alone on the L platform.
What really bothers me about this, though, is that Mattie’s dislike for Campbell stems from a 10-week internship when they were 22 and 23. She makes massive assumptions about Campbell’s background and how he came to Slater Faust. She resents the fact that he earned the job she desperately wanted, despite the fact that the creative director at Salter Faust is clearly a misogynist.
And throughout the book, she talks about knowing Campbell, insisting on personality traits as if she knows him extremely well.
- I know Campbell. I know he does this, and I still always let him get the best of me.
- “It’s my white whale,” I’d told Iris. “Proving that I can make something as good as Campbell can.”
It was the most professional way I could articulate it. What I meant was: He’s insufferable. I meant: It tortures me, that I have to try so much harder than he does. Showing him up had become a career milestone that meant so much to me it edged on humiliating. - “He distracts you, Mattie. Don’t let this become about him.”
I’m insulted she would suggest it, and I feel my face going hot. “He doesn’t distract me.”
“You don’t need to prove anything to him, ” Ava says, gentler. “That’s all I meant.”
But I do need to prove something to Campbell Porter.
That I can do the one thing I’ve never done: beat him.
Through a good portion of the book, Mattie acts more like a jealous 17-year-old than the successful 27-year-old woman she is supposed to be. I rolled my eyes at her a lot and really wished she would get over herself. She can’t possibly know someone that well after only two-and-a-half months working together five years ago. I really couldn’t understand the hatred.
On the other hand, I love the other characters—Dexter and Campbell especially. Dexter, Ava, and Lev are each so supportive of Mattie in their own way. And Campbell, for all intents and purposes, seems like a decent guy who just likes to egg Mattie on.
Through much of the book, I was leaning toward a 3-star rating. I landed on 3.5 because Mattie seems to redeem herself a bit at the end. She had a ton of growing up to do, and I wish she would have been less antagonistic throughout the book. But I did like where she ended up.
I may give O’Clover another chance after this. Several authors have become favorites after a 3.5-star read. I just hope O’Clover’s next main character is a little less childish from the outset.
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