My Not So Perfect Life

My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella               Audio Book: 12 hours     Paperback Book:  464 pages         

This story reminds me a lot of “The Devil Wears Prada.”       Same type of work obsessed boss, with little time to sort out her home life because she devotes so much of herself to her job.    Driven, hard person who makes the heroine of the story, Katie (Kat) Brenner’s life difficult.     Katie is mad to live in London though she feels a little out of place as a Junior in a fast paced firm.    She shares an apartment with two roommates in order to keep her living expenses as bare bones as possible and she subsists on a miniscule diet mostly vegetables to keep on the cheap between checks.    She hasn’t yet earned her place in the clique at work though her co-workers treat her tolerably, at least they speak.   Her boss just dismisses her for the most part because she is always preoccupied on the phone, texting, in meetings, etc.   Katie longs to be her boss with they posh clothes and the home that looks like it should be featured in House Beautiful (and likely has) and the family, a loving husband and two bright and well- mannered children.    Katie grew up on a farm in Somerset and tries to hide her background to fit in with the London set.     Her Dad and Step-Mum miss her and always tell her they want her to be happy but reading between the lines the reader knows they are desperate for Katie to come back home.    Her Dad is always coming up with some entrepreneurial idea that he never follows through with due to the cajoling of a Mr. Haney type that is always trying to sell him something that sets her Dad off on another big idea that he just doesn’t have the wherewithal to bring it to completion.   Her Step-Mum loves her Dad dearly and goes along with all of his ”big ideas”, but, even she can’t make them work.    They finally decide to turn their farm into a tourist site for city dwellers wanting a country life experience.   Around this time, Katie loses her job.   Last one in first one out.    She is devastated and can’t think how she will make ends meet.   Her Dad asks for her help with their latest venture and since Katie has time on her hands, she agrees to come home on a sabbatical – she can’t admit she got fired – to help them establish their brand, their website and to help them get things started.   Her advice is invaluable and things turn out to be better than expected so much so that while on sabbatical, the boss that fired her books her vacation on Katie’s Dad’s Somerset farm.    Revenge is sweet and hilarious and everyone learns a lot from this new venture.   It is lively, funny and brilliant.    I can’t get enough of Sophie Kinsella’s writing.   Always witty and laugh out loud funny and true to how people really think and act.    Loved it.