Book Review: My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella

Book Review: My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella

Publisher:  Random House Publishing Group – Random House

            The Dial Press

Everyone is guilty of it at one time or another. You post something to one of your social media accounts to try to make your life look better than it really is. You use an Instagram filter or Photoshop to make a picture look good. You brag about a delicious meal that you ate when in reality it wasn’t really yours. You post about your picture perfect life despite the fact that the washer flooded the house and your kids have explosive diarrhea.

Little white lies that make your life look better than it really is and for a time make you feel better. Katie Brenner does that in this book. She makes her job and social life look glamorous when she’s actually really lonely and a peon at her job. She models her social media presence after her boss’s life, not knowing that her boss isn’t as perfect as she seems.

How things look are not always how they are in real life. Some people forget that. Katie spends so much time trying to erase her life as a farm girl that she misses out on any real emotion. Things start looking good for her when her boss and a hot guy take an interest in her but that quickly falls apart. Her boss fires her and the romance turns out to be nothing more than a fantasy. She soon returns to her boring farm life and the father that she has been trying to desperately to make proud.

Not a lot more can be revealed without spoiling the book but let me say that parts of the story really had me laughing out loud. I got strange looks from my future spouse. Katie, who was a little bit whiny and annoying in the beginning soon find her footing and makes you root for her.

The ending. Again, without spoilers, the author could have taken the easy and predictable way out and tie everything up with a pretty bow. She didn’t and that was a pleasant surprise for me.  It actually made me crack a smile.

This book was a pleasure for me to read.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. 

Book Review: In the Blue Hour by Elizabeth Hall

Book Review: In The Blue Hour by Elizabeth Hall

Publisher:  Lake Union Publishing

Elise Brooks has a dream that someone driving her car drives off an icy road. She can’t see who the driver is so when her husband Michael dies the exact same way she dreamed she is devastated. She is stuck in a rut and can’t move on. She’s depressed and can’t shake the feeling that Michael is trying to reach her from the other side.

I have experienced encounters with spirit-type beings so this wasn’t really a stretch for me. It was one of the reasons why I requested the book. This book was more eerie than scary so it’s not going to keep you up at night. One of the underlying themes that run through the whole book is that you have to live with the consequences of the actions you take and choices you make. Grief and how to move on is another theme.

The writing is very descriptive of the scenery. I found myself wanting to head out to New Mexico and the surrounding areas just to see the colors.

Some of the “chance meetings” were a little far fetched for me. At the end I could understand Elise’s path and how she ended up where she did but at times I just shook my head in disbelief. It was still well written and her journey was interesting to read.

The best part of this book, for me, was Elise. Even though she was suffering from grief, she eventually pulled herself up and got back to living. She had a mystery to solve and it gave her purpose but at the same time she found the inner strength that she had the whole time. It was nice to read a character that wasn’t a poor me pity me crybaby for the entire book. She was simply a woman who had been dealt a blow, and even though she wallowed in it for a time, she fought her way back to herself. She wasn’t written perfectly, she was written as a genuine human being. That is what I enjoyed the most.

I’d definitely recommend this to a friend as a good read. It didn’t drag and the characters were believable. Some were a little quirky but not over the top.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.