No.1 bestselling author Sophie Kinsella’s
latest novel is titled My Not So Perfect
Life and travels through the mind and activities of its heroine Katie – or Cat,
as she likes to be known.
Katie is the “home me”, the young ambitious
woman who left her roots in Somerset to make a new life in London.
Her real home is in the gentle Somerset
countryside where she lived with her dad until she moved to London to take up a
lowly job in a high-powered branding and strategy agency.
Her conversations are interspersed with
what she’s really thinking – including arguments with herself in her mind - and
this adds much humour to the book. Kinsella’s amusing and poignant description makes
for a sympathetic character trying to better her life. Her colleagues wear
designer labels and live in wealthy homes. She has a boss from hell named
Demeter who is high-powered, curt, obsessive and in control. Or … is she?
Katie meets and falls in love with a handsome,
creative and intelligent man named Alex, without initially knowing that he is
one of her bosses.
The characters are well-defined, especially
her widowed father with his constant flow of wild ideas. His partner Biddy
balances him perfectly. When Katie is fired by Demeter, she goes back to
Somerset and comes up with an idea to build on her dad’s glamping idea (the
term apparently derives its name from “glamorous camping”). Together, the three
create what becomes a popular rural yet sophisticated get-away.
All goes well until Demeter books in with
her two uncontrollable children. Suddenly, she sees a side of her former boss
that astonishes her. Added to the complications is the arrival of Alex. Before
long, Katie stumbles on inter-office politics plotting for Demeter’s downfall
and becomes dead set on discovering who the culprits are.
This is an easy warm-hearted read about a
young woman yearning to make a difference in her life with the creative skills
she knows she has. Her “perfect” life is not so perfect but she learns to trust
her ability and accept what she is capable of achieving.
My Not So Perfect Life would be an
inspiration to many young women in Katie’s position hoping to become successful
creative corporate identities. It is published by Penguin Random House - ISBN
9780812998269 – Caroline Smart
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