Sunday 25 January 2015

Review: Girl Before a Mirror by Liza Palmer

The author of Conversations with a Fat Girl—optioned for HBO—returns with the hilarious and heartfelt story of a woman who must learn how to be the heroine of her own life-a journey that will teach her priceless lessons about love, friendship, family, work, and her own heart

An account executive in a Mad Men world, Anna Wyatt is at a crossroads. Recently divorced, she’s done a lot of emotional housecleaning, including a self-imposed dating sabbatical. But now that she’s turned forty, she’s struggling to figure out what her life needs. Brainstorming to win over an important new client, she discovers a self-help book—Be the Heroine, Find Your Hero—that offers her unexpected insights and leads her to a most unlikely place: a romance writers’ conference. If she can sign the Romance Cover Model of the Year Pageant winner for her campaign—and meet the author who has inspired her to take control of her life—she’ll win the account.

For Anna, taking control means taking chances, including getting to know Sasha, her pretty young colleague on the project, and indulging in a steamy elevator ride with Lincoln Mallory, a dashing financial consultant she meets in the hotel. When the conference ends, Anna and Lincoln must decide if their intense connection is strong enough to survive outside the romantic fantasy they’ve created. Yet Lincoln is only one of Anna’s dilemmas. Now that her campaign is off the ground, others in the office want to steal her success, and her alcoholic brother, Ferdie, is spiraling out of control.

To have the life she wants-to be happy without guilt, to be accepted for herself, to love and to be loved, to just be—she has to put herself first, accept her imperfections, embrace her passions, and finally be the heroine of her own story.


Kindle Edition, 384 pages
Expected publication: January 27th 2015 by William Morrow Paperbacks 
Genre: Women's Fiction/Chick Lit

Kristine's Thoughts:

I received an advanced readers copy from William Morrow via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

This book "Marpled" me! You have to read the book to understand what that means. In other words, it was unassuming and caught me off guard. Out of nowhere it surprised me and blew me away.

This is the first book by Palmer for me and I am excited to say that I think I found a new author to enjoy. I loved her writing style and thoroughly enjoyed the humour that she used in her story telling. The plot and the characters were well developed and engaging and I was in Anna's corner every step of the way.

The story isn't just about Anna and her career but her journey of self discovery. It is about her learning to be comfortable in her own skin, relinquishing her tight control on everything and figuring out how to be truly happy. Throughout her journey there are many missteps and comical errors that had me giggling out loud. The Romance Conference was a favourite part of the story for me. There seemed to be a perfect balance between the serious and not so serious to keep the story interesting without losing sight of the big picture.

I don't think that I can put my thoughts on this book into words and do it justice. What I have written above and even the synopsis did not capture all that this book is in my opinion. It was serious, funny, sad, unique and empowering all wrapped into 384 pages. This book was like a breath of fresh air when I really needed one. I loved every minute of it and will be reading the rest of Palmer's books.





About the Author
Liza Palmer is the internationally bestselling author of Conversations with the Fat Girl, Seeing Me Naked, A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents, More Like Her, and Nowhere But Home. An Emmy-nominated writer, she lives in Los Angeles, and is hard at work on her next novel and several film and television projects.


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