February 7, 2017
Blurb from Goodreads: Katie Brenner has the perfect life: a flat in London, a glamorous job, and a super-cool Instagram feed.
Ok, so the real truth is that she rents a tiny room with no space for a wardrobe, has a hideous commute to a lowly admin job, and the life she shares on Instagram isn’t really hers.
But one day her dreams are bound to come true, aren’t they?
Until her not-so perfect life comes crashing down when her mega-successful boss Demeter gives her the sack. All Katie’s hopes are shattered. She has to move home to Somerset, where she helps her dad with his new glamping business.
Then Demeter and her family book in for a holiday, and Katie sees her chance. But should she get revenge on the woman who ruined her dreams? Or try to get her job back? Does Demeter – the woman with everything – have such an idyllic life herself? Maybe they have more in common than it seems.
And what’s wrong with not-so-perfect, anyway?
SASCHA DARLINGTON’S REVIEW
When was the first moment that I fell for the charm of this novel? Near the beginning, Katie aka “Cat” as she wants to be called in London, has just finished dyeing Demeter’s roots in the office when Demeter panics that Alex is coming for a meeting and that Cat/Katie has to make him come back in 30 minutes or email. Katie doesn’t know who Alex is but follows him to the roof where he starts unpacking Chinese boxes that contain “adult toys.” Not THOSE adult toys, but toys for adults to play with (still not sex!). One happens to be a drone. The magic in those moments between Katie and Alex is almost palpable. This is chemistry that’s maintained between them throughout the novel. This is the stuff that all of us who want to write romances wishes very fervently that we could pull off. And Sophie Kinsella makes it looks so, so easy.
My Not So Perfect Life is a not easily categorized novel. While the romance between Katie and Alex is fun as well as sweet and has that grand gesture at the end that makes a person’s heart melt and it has funny and romantic and lusty scenes, this is also a novel about workplace relationships (not romantic) in which people don’t express the reasons for their behavior as well the seemingly perfect lives we depict on social media, the only showing the good or the beautiful and not the other stuff that makes us human and ultimately relatable.
It’s also about how we perceive the people around us and how we frequently misjudge. It’s about not wanting to make decisions that hurt the ones we love and how they do the same thing so that so much is held in that threatens to hurt just by not wanting to hurt.
My Not So Perfect Life will make you laugh and smile and feel good, and sometimes feel just a smidgen of sadness. And some of that sadness might just be because you can’t spend more hours with the down-to-earth Katie, the adorable Alex, the ditzy but creative Demeter, the wonderful Mick, and the loving Biddy. Hopefully it will be a movie so that I can be there all over again.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
From Amazon: My Not So Perfect Life
rating: 
(5 out of 5 butterflies)