Name: Steph's review of My (Not So) Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella
Item: My (Not So) Perfect Life
Rating: 4
Author: Steph

Sophie Kinsella

Katie Brenner has the perfect life: a flat in London, a glamorous job, and a super-cool Instagram feed. OK, so the 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 who has everything - actually have such an idyllic life herself? Maybe they have more in common than it seems. And what's wrong with not-so-perfect, anyway? Everybody loves Sophie Kinsella: "I almost cried with laughter" Daily Mail "Hilarious . . . you'll laugh and gasp on every page" Jenny Colgan "Properly mood-altering . . . funny, fast and farcical. I loved it" Jojo Moyes "A superb tale. Five stars!" Heat

My (Not So) Perfect Life

Steph

Lindy

It's like Cold Comfort Farm transposed into the 2010s but with zero finesse. 

The pacing was stilted, the humor stale, the protagonist lacking in self-awareness, the romance unappealing, the moralizing cheesy. 

Look, if Katie is so gifted at branding, how has she not already monetized her instagram page to hell and back by the time the story begins? (view spoiler)[ And at the end, she has less than three hundred followers; has the author ever spent more than five seconds on instagram? (hide spoiler)]

Melissa Palmer

Book #17 Read in 2017
My (not so) Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella

Kinsella is known for chick lit. This book takes it up a notch and deals with more than just a woman searching for Mr. Right. Katie is searching for her spot in the world--a career, a man, a way of improving her relationship with her father. The characters in this book are interesting and unique. Overall, a good read. I received this book from Amazon Vine in exchange for a honest review.

Colleen

DNF after Chapter 2

I do not know why I bothered to pick up another Sophie Kinsella book. It must have been the peer pressure of Goodreads. I have never liked anything she has written. I believe I completed two of her books and DNF'd a couple others. They all seemed to have nearly carbon copy heroines. Namely the same vapid, vacuous, TSTL nitwit so predictable and flat you stand a statistical chance of losing IQ points by reading about them. If you dropped any Sophie Kinsella heroine into a horror movie, she would die in the first ten minutes. Probably right after exiting the shower and probably in such an over the top display of idiocy that all you can do is utter "thank God that's over," along with a snort of derision. 

(On a side note: I'm not sure what is going on with her skirt on the cover, but it really looked like a tail when I first glanced at it.)

Whatever life lessons the gobshite of My Not So Perfect Life allegedly learns, they were most certainly not worth the amount of eye rolling and banging-head-against-wall that would have been involved in finishing this book. 

Sophie Kinsella, you are officially on my DO NOT READ author list. You should have been there a long time ago, but now you are officially a resident. File a change of address, and go introduce yourself to your neighbors. You might get along with Cassandra Clare and Janette Oke, but watch out for Nicholas Sparks, he steals everyone's tools and hides them in his office. 


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 1 Star
Writing Style: 1 Star
Characters and Character Development: 1 Star
Plot Structure and Development: 1 Star
Level of Captivation: 1 Star
Originality: 1 Star

Rachel Kanyid

By far one of my favorite Kinsella novels! Loved it!

Alexandra Sklar

Far-fetched and silly. Passed time and I did like the main character.

Gisela Ayala 

To say that I enjoyed this book is an understatement, but I don't know what other words to use to describe how much I love this book! This is the first Sophie Kinsella book I read and it hopefully won't be my last because this was so darn entertaining! I needed this after all the high fantasy and dark reads I've been reading. This book had me literally laughing out loud the whole time. Katie is one of my favorite protagonists. She's super relatable in a super realistic way. Her inner monolog was incredible because it's things I've said to myself before. Her whole journey through the book, from assistant in a branding company to working on a farm was hysterical and heartwarming. I kept thinking to myself how I want this to be turned into a movie. 

If your heart is breaking or you are suffering from a book hangover (as I was) this is the book you need to read!

Noelia Abreu

**3.5 stars**

cute and easy read, i liked the characters and the story - sometimes i wish things would go faster and get to the point of the story but i still enjoyed it a lot.

Kayla Walters

A bit hard to get into, Cat/Katie's story line was somewhat weak at the beginning, and although I normally love Kinsella's writing style in her stand-alone novels, the beginning read a lot like her voice in the Shopaholic series which I couldn't finish. The novel does grow and once Alex is introduced and the plot does thicken, and in the end, I really enjoyed the story.

Kendall V

This is such a sweet and cute book with a great message about finding yourself. I enjoyed all the characters who felt incredibly realistic and flawed (but in the best way!). This is so much more than just a Rom-Com. I would definitely recommend it! 

Robin M Cabana

Sophie Kinsella is one of my favorite authors to go to when I want to read something light and cute. Like most of her heroines, Katie Brenner is smart and full of big dreams, but afraid to admit she needs help. Katie has a lousy job at a cool company in London, an Instagram account documenting her dream/fake life, and annoying roommates in a terrible flat. And it gets even worse for her before she stumbles onto a new business adventure that takes her back to her roots. I really laughed at some of Katie's escapades, even if the story was a bit predictable. It was fun and charming and I enjoyed it more than some of Kinsella's recent books.

Kendra Negron

I really enjoyed this. I loved the character development of everyone involved and the girl power undertone!

Kelsi Proulx

I didn't enjoy this quite as much as I have enjoyed Kinsella's other work, but that might just be my mood. I found it fairly predictable and I didn't relate much to Katie, in fact I found her really annoying and juvenile most of the time. She completely fails to take the perspective of other people for most of the book, and even when she does get a glimpse of who they really are and what they're going through, she still can't fathom that they might actually not be so bad. Eventually she turns it around because it's a novel and the characters have to grow and I get that she started out in a bad spot specifically so that could happen, but I just found her a bit hard to understand all around. Not my favorite, but still an enjoyable enough read if you're into a humorous romantic comedy.

Didn't finish
Chick Lit doesn't work for me.
Got through the first chapeter and stopped.

Maria

где-то в ревью прочитала, что кинселла - это картофельное пюре среди книг, в том смысле, что не подведет (писал явно человек, который не ел пюре в российской столовке, ну ладно). похвалю эту книжку главным образом за то, что она про работу, а не про страдания всякие. самым интересным для меня было описание запуска бизнеса родителей героини. прочитала бы еще книжек про это!

Jane The Bookaholic

I really wasn't expecting to love this book so much, but I did.
This book was so predictable plot-wise, and don't expect big twist in this one. But the rest was really, really good. I got into the story and into the characters, and it felt so good and heart warming reading this one.

Marisa Shibata

4.5
loved demeter's character development so much! and Katie might just be my favorite Sophie Kinsella character uwu also, i really wanna go on a somerset vacay now, maybe to ansters farm? ;)

Anika | @chaptersofmay

I loved this book! The main character was easy to identify with the I was chuckling throughout. I wouldn't read again straight away, but the story made my heart happy.

Kourtney

In the age of Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, so many people post pictures of how they wish their life would be, rather than how their life really is. Katie Brenner is no different. Having moved to London and reinventing herself to "Cat," Katie would boast of her beautiful coffee (not really hers...but it could...), neighborhoods she COULD live in (and why correct anyone's thoughts of that?) etc. Watching her perfect boss, with her high ranking job, perfect family, and always looking perfect, only makes her resent that she has a crappy apartment, crappy job and isn't quite as happy as her Instagram feed represents.

That all changes when Demeter fires her, sending her back to her small town and spiraling her into Demeter's life in ways that Katie never saw possible, where the truth of Demeter's life shows Katie that not everything can be a perfect Instagram life.

I know for a while we Sophie Kinsella fans have been crying out for the early days of Sophie's writing style. Her Shopaholic series was getting stale, and I wasn't the biggest fan of her foray into Young Adult writing. But this brings me back to all the elements of why I enjoy Kinsella's books, and will always be one of the first to pre-order her stories. I found myself engaged, and wanting to find out more more more (which is getting harder to do now that I have a toddler). 

A bonus to this all for me - this is a story where the focus is NOT on a "find the guy to complete me" storyline! Sure there is a romance storyline, but it takes a backseat to the relationship between Katie and Demeter. FINALLY! We women don't need a guy to survive (but it can be fun when it's there!)

This is now the second book that I have read that has the theme of "look at my Facebook feed! My life is perfect? No...wait...don't tell but it's not!" I have a feeling that this is going to bloom into more stories in the future. I'm glad Kinsella is one of the first!

I received this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Chelsea White

** spoiler alert **
           Cute story, I love how she comes to terms with life never being picture perfect in the end. And the ceremony on the farm? I was cracking up while reading it!!

Chantale

I found the first few chapters of this book slow. Like all Sophie Kinsella books you laugh and you also sometimes feel like you want to hit the main character for being so stupid.

This isn't one of my favourite books by Sophie Kinsella but it isn't my least favourite either. It is entertaining.

Steph &
My (Not So) Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella

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