MAREN HIGBEE
(PATTERSON)
Maren is an award-winning novelist and an Emmy nominated producer and writer. Some of her favorite career highlights include working on The Deadliest Catch, Oprah's Big Give, and Jockeys. After many years in the industry, she was thriving when a sudden diagnosis rocked her world. In 2017 a nasty 6" Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma tumor grew in her husband's chest forcing them into the world of hospitals, chemo and confusion. This only taught Maren, there is more work, more sharing, more support we can provide for everyone going through treatment, so she wrote a fictionalized version of their story in her novel, The Cancer Patient’s Wife.
It started when, after Maren’s husband Brandon was diagnosed, she searched for information. Not bland, scary pamphlets, but a story. Something to entertain and inspire her during her long hours of waiting on tests, nurses and doctors. She found nothing. So she decided she’d write another novel. As soon as the Chemo was over, she began writing, then stopped barely a sentence into her new book. It was too difficult to remember all the stress before processing and it was clear that the journey was not finished yet.
Once the treatment is over, she found she was a different person. She and her husband both felt like this was a totally different life. A life that is unidentifiable to before. She wanted to include this in their fictionalized story, so she waited.
Now, he is over five years in remission and it’s time for the story to come out.
IndieReader
Discovery Award Winner for Chick-Lit & Romance
Cheryl Schopen for Readers' Favorite
Imagine a woman sending out a mass email to 100 people offering $5,000 to the person who introduces her to her future husband before her 30th birthday, which is about a month away. That’s exactly what Lana does in Maren Higbee’s Lana Fray and the Grand Plan. What could go wrong with such a grand plan, right? As you can imagine, a lot can go wrong. To her surprise, she meets some very strange, smelly, outrageous guys, yet she continues on her mission to find Mr. Right. After all, they can’t all be insane, right? Will her grand plan work and help her find the love of her life? Or will she come to a very unexpected realization along this crazy journey of hers?
Even though I expected more romance, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Everyone knows how ridiculous Lana’s grand plan is, except her. While I wanted to strangle her sometimes, I have to admire her determination. It was also nice to read about a dynamic main character who clearly changes by the end of the book. Some of the men she meets along the way were over-the-top crazy, but they definitely made me laugh. I also enjoyed Lana’s loving, sometimes dramatic, friends and family, who made the story for me. Humorous with a lot of heart, Lana Fray and the Grand Plan is an entertaining read that I recommend to fans of chick-lit. I hope to see more by Maren Higbee, who is obviously a talented writer.