My Not So Perfect Life: A Novel

Product Information

And then she arrives. Demeter. Your boss. The woman who inspires you with her brilliant ideas, her glossy hair and designer clothes, the woman who can't even remember your name. But-wait, she asks you to join her in her office! This is it, you think and your chest is ready to explode. This is your chance. And so, you enter her office, nervous but overly excited, preparing your thank you speach, until the moment... she asks you to dye her hair. In the end you get to work, and commence your boring tasks while you day-dream that one day they'll recognize your talent and promote you.

Even if you disregard for a second my disconnect from Katie and her overlong and dull story, even if you forget the uninteresting love interest, much is built up around the whole "finding out Demeter is not actually all she first seems" angle, but this was unsatisfying to me, too. Her rudeness is explained away through misunderstandings, and while some revelations about her draw sympathy, am I really supposed to feel sorry for her because - oh my gosh - she has a few home troubles and a mortgage? I actually cringed when she complained about the beautiful stone steps outside her house and how hard it is to get a pram up them. Boo freaking hoo. There is a rare authenticity in the prose of Sophie Kinsella, a deep connection to your reality that makes you see yourself in Katie. She is such a relatable and wonderful character, you can feel, truly feel her inner battles, the way she is torn between two lives, and two sides of herself. The cool, classy London girl or the farmer's daughter. Kat or Katie. The girl with the perfect life and the girl with the not-so-perfect life. And you realize that the latter, the not-so-perfect part, is the one that fills you with contentment, a genuine euphoria you want to touch, cuddle, put in a box and preserve forever. Your face hurts from smiling, and your heart flutters like a bird every time Alex appears (the aforementioned funny and gorgeous guy whom - of course - I pictured as Henry Cavill because apparently my mind is not capable of conjuring another man's face) This is a satire in the rom com literary genre with a touch of Hollywood fluff in the ending. However, it comes with a little more substance, meat to the bones, and I loved that. I'm somewhat subjective and biased too in my rating. My daughter took a sabbatical from her 18-hour days in the advertising world to tour the world. She is the Katie Brenner in our own story. Then, just as she’s finding her feet—not to mention a possible new romance—the worst happens. Demeter fires Katie. Shattered but determined to stay positive, Katie retreats to her family’s farm in Somerset to help them set up a vacation business. London has never seemed so far away—until Demeter unexpectedly turns up as a guest. Secrets are spilled and relationships rejiggered, and as the stakes for Katie’s future get higher, she must question her own assumptions about what makes for a truly meaningful life.

Need Help?

Then, when things couldn't get any worse, she is fired. Without an income and no prospect for a new job, she's forced to return to her family's farm in Somerset. Your feet are sore and your hair resembles a bird nest when you finally get in the train. It is so crowded, though, that you end up accidentally eating the breakfast of the incredulous woman next to you.

My not so Perfect Life has been one of my most surprisingly good reads this year and also one of the most hilarious books I’ve read ever (The Panini and “Vedari” incidents had me wiping tears of laughter. I swear.) and if a book could make me laugh this much, I believe it deserves five stars. I'm logical that way. Out with the serum in the curls, the unfamiliar straight, tortured hair, the most important steps at a front door, away from the biscuit people, the naked-man coat stand, the amazing giant plastic flowers, and in with a little bit of amorous huffing and puffing in the cow dung on her way to find a considerate man, number one, but, number two and three, a man of quality who values her. Fun becomes such a last-year's kind of vintage rhetoric in the end, oh so like Alex Astalis, for instance. But wait, that's only in the hunt for the perfect partner. On the farm fun is the buzz word for chia seed, organic ginger, and special seaweed-groupies with a Gwyneth Paltrow-lifestyle craze.Working in the behavioral health field, I see how people present themselves while in the waiting room and then I see the real deal once in my office. The difference can be as extreme as night and day. Lesson? Everything ain't always as it seems. Just like the alphabet, bitch, I come before U. Yep, Demeter Farlowe(the goddess of the harvest, but also Mrs. Wilton in her other life), a proper Godzilla II, heads a team of pretty, but nasty nails on parade in the advertising world; a goopy pudding of gals, fluffed up by high heels, the secret Wednesday Bacchus devotion, and Ya Ya-sisterhood to die for. It has heart. It has joy. The life lessons that Katie encounters are ones that we have all had to learn and are, possibly, still learning. I believe most readers will find something relatable in Katie's journey, regardless of where they are on their own life path. Sophie was born in London. She studied music at New College, Oxford, but after a year switched to Politics, Philosophy and Economics. She now lives in London, UK, with her husband and family.

It's the brochure for Ansters Farm that got the moss on the rolling stones to scatter in totally new directions for the Somerset girl. The second thing I liked, was Demeter. I wish she were real. She was an amazing supportive character. Katie also has a crush on her other boss, Alex. She thinks something is going on with him and Demeter though. She has this hate relationship with Demeter because she acts like she's better than anyone else. She has the perfect life, the husband, the kids, the job, the house, the everything. But, as we all know things aren't always what they seem.

Katie "Cat," thinks Demeter has the best life. Her commute is short, she has the perfect job, the perfect husband, the perfect kids, perfect travels and dining and then there is her relationship with Alex Astalis. Alex, the guy Katie has developed a crush on. You run to catch the bus, but your high heels are killing you, so you miss the bus and you're forced to reach the metro station on foot, while the bypassing cars keep splashing you and your only trench coat with mud. Kinsella is my go-to for fun, feel-good reads that demand very little of me. After all these years, since the very first shopaholic book, I know exactly what I'm going to get from her and I'm totally good with that. Unfortunately, though, a huge chunk of My Not So Perfect Life bored the pants off me.