FERGYVILLE: Episode One by Katina Ferguson

Blurb:

Frank and Catherine are parents worn down by three young children, and life. As they try to come up with a new, more efficient, way of managing their lives, they are met with a series of unforeseen obstacles. When Frank gets home from work, things don't seem quite right. He begins to wonder if some of the problems experienced by his family are in fact the work of malicious people from his past.


My Review:

This was a cute short story that made me laugh several times while I was reading it. The family reminds me of any typical, disorganized family in the US. In fact, it kind of reminded me of my younger brother’s family!  The author comes across as very witty, and this obviously is shown in her characters. 

Frank is outwardly a straight laced guy who spends his 8 hours working on a computer in a cubicle, but that doesn’t mean his mind doesn’t wander at times! I cracked up several times by some of the things that went through his mind, or the way the author described something he did. One comment that made me laugh was when he was working hard on his computer, “He forgot he was hungry, he even forgot that his size 38 pants had become too small in recent days, and were squeezing his balls the entire time he sat in the chair.” Another time I laughed out loud was when he was listening on the phone to an uptight, snooty sounding woman who was listing a ton of things she needed him to do. The whole time he was on th phone with her he was zoning out and imaging bending her over her desk, and seeing if he could make her a little less uptight! I was thinking, what a typical man! He has three kids and a wife, but that doesn’t mean he can’t daydream! The author’s tone was at times dry and sarcastic, which I always enjoy because I’m pretty much the same way.  Frank, like any man, thinks about his penis too much. While on a tightly packed commuter bus, “[…] Frank put his podcast on pause because there was  no way  he could enjoy it crammed like a sardine protecting his family jewels from scandal.” I don’t know why, but Frank’s personality was very entertaining for me.

Catherine is your typical burnt out mom, who is trying to control everything, and in the end is unable to control anything! It’s funny because she has all these plans set up so that she can organize time to do everything she needs to do, spend time with the kids, pick up the husband, get the kids ready for bed, and then relax for a minute. Of course nothing seems to go the way it’s supposed to, so it’s complete confusion! I honestly think that their family, and everything that goes on in this short story is pretty dead on to what goes on in any family with three children under the age of 6! It definitely solidified my resolve to hold off on kids for awhile, and three kids, ha, no way!

The story ends with a cliffhanger, and I’m definitely curious as to what’s going to happen next! 

I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Plan-Fergyville-ebook/dp/B004ZG7UJO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307240652&sr=8-1