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strictly literary: my (not so) perfect llfe by sophie kinsella

can you keep a secret? and i've got your number are two of my all-time favorite comfort reads--they are laugh out loud funny, romantic, and after i read them i can't stop smiling. my (not so) perfect life hits all the right notes and joins the other two in my re-read pile for when life gets stressful or depressing.

katie brenner is finally living the london life of her dreams. except her boss, demeter, is crazy demanding. and her flat is miles away from where she works and she's got terrible roommates. her salary barely covers her rent, and so mostly she pretends to herself and the world that her london life is perfect. doing so by instagramming picture-perfect moments that don't reflect the reality--filtering out imperfections and cropping out the reminders that, actually, if she sits down and takes stock, she's pretty miserable. 

so when she is unceremoniously fired, she retreats back to her family farm in somerset where her father and stepmother are setting up a glamping vacation business. still pretending that all things london are perfect and she's just on a sabbatical from the job in order to help them out, things go haywire when her ex-boss ends up in a yurt with her kids. at first katie is intent on revenge, especially since demeter doesn't even recognize her. 

but as demeter withstands the humiliating customized retreat that katie puts her through, and katie realizes that all is not necessarily golden in demeter's world, they begin to come to terms. when alex, katie's crush from london, and demeter's rumored boy-toy shows up to fire her too, demeter recruits katie in order to help her save her job.  

katie, demeter, and alex manage to untangle the very knotty web that has grouped them together, and they all grow as their relationships and understanding of one another deepen. katie is our delightful narrator, and her voice, her sense of the ridiculous, make the novel so charming while also ringing true about how we all have the moments of pretending life is perfect, when it is anything but.

**my (not so) perfect life will publish on february 7, 2017. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/random house publishing group (the dial press) in exchange for my honest review.

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