The Making of a Mad Woman is a dual-timeline blend of historical fiction, women’s fiction, and family drama, and for me, its strongest element was easily its look inside the golden age of advertising.
In Manhattan in 1962, Jo Carmichael is a model who returns to New York to succeed her father as CEO of a Madison Avenue advertising agency. Think Mad Men, but from the perspective of a woman trying to claim a seat at a table that was very much designed for men. (And despite the title, no, Jo isn’t actually “mad”—although trying to run a company as a woman in 1962 might have been enough to make anyone a little crazy.)
This was by far my favorite part of the novel. Cambron explores an interesting contradiction in advertising at the time: men were making the decisions about how products should be marketed, even though women controlled so many of the everyday purchasing decisions within American households. I loved getting a glimpse into how campaigns were created, who was allowed to have a voice in the room, and the ways women had to fight to be taken seriously in the business world. The Mad Men vibes are definitely there, but with a much more female-centered perspective.
In the present-day timeline, we meet Jo’s granddaughter Alex, who has spent much of her life living in the shadow of her formidable grandmother. Jo eventually walked away from Madison Avenue, but Alex doesn’t know the whole story of why. Now running a flower shop in Michigan, Alex finds herself drawn back into her grandmother’s past after Jo makes an unexpected request.
While I liked both timelines and thought the premise had a lot of potential, I never became quite as emotionally invested in the characters as I wanted to be. The characterization felt a little thin in places, particularly for a story centered so heavily on family history, identity, and the complicated relationships between generations of women. A little more depth there could have made the revelations and emotional moments land much harder for me.
Overall, I enjoyed The Making of a Mad Woman, but I’m not sure it will be one that sticks with me for very long. I’d recommend it especially to readers who enjoy historical fiction blended with contemporary women’s fiction, dual timelines, family secrets, and stories about women carving out space for themselves in male-dominated industries.
Thank you to Thomas Nelson Fiction and NetGalley for the advanced reading copy.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars
📚 Publication date: February 9, 2027
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