Thursday, February 5, 2015

Girl Before A Mirror

You guys. GUYS. This book is everything. I hate that I always forget how much I love Liza Palmer until I read a book and instantly want to read everything all over again of hers and then I want to be her best friend.

Girl Before A Mirror - Liza Palmer
Girl Before a Mirror
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.


I'm going to tell you right now, some of my girl friends are going to get this book at some point this year. That's all there is to it. I have one friend in particular, who is going to get it before the month is out because this reminded me of her the entire way through. The conversations, the awkwardness, the sarcasm, just everything reminds me of her and I and our conversations through the day. 

The book revolves around Anna, who is recently divorced and has gone on a dating strike after the "Thunder Road Incident" (which is HILARIOUS and one of the best starts to a book I have read in such a long time) but she's turning 40 and feeling a little left out of life. Being single again isn't what she thought it was going to be, nor is dating, and she finds herself at a loss. So she throws herself into work and tries hard to land a marketing campaign that would put her at the top of her career game. That's if, and only if, the boss's daughter doesn't sabotage her and/or take all of the credit. But in order to that, she has a newbie employee (who was "recruited" at a strip club) dumped into her lap and she made grand promises that she could land a romance novel cover hunk to be in the campaign. 

Problem, she thinks romance novels are lame, but her new assistant is a romance novel junkie. They embark on a trip to Phoenix to attend RomanceCon and she is basically assaulted with all things romance and she is definitely not in her element. But she stands out (clearly) and in the middle of all of this she meets Lincoln. Lincoln is a good looking piece of man meat AND he has a British accent (cue all of the great cheese that is involved in any good romance novel) . I am going to tell you right now that Anna and Lincoln? Might be my favorite chick lit couple ever. EVER. I absolutely could not stop laughing at their exchanges, the absolute awkwardness of it all, and it was so fun. 

So much fun that the book was over before I knew it and I read it a second time just because I enjoyed it that much. 

I highly, so very highly, recommend anything Liza Palmer writes if you are in need of a fun book that is going to make you laugh yet you can absolutely relate to. Especially this one. And can we talk about the gorgeous cover of this book? I am not even ashamed I usually buy books based on the cover and this is so pretty and I want those shoes, and it's just everything. *sigh* 

You can purchase the book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Then let's all stalk Liza on her website, Facebook, and Twitter. (Please do it so I don't look like a total crazy. Liza Palmer 4 ever.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sara has an Author Crush! Great review chickie!
cindy

Ruth said...

Sounds good. Is there really a romancecon?

Anonymous said...

I can think of a few authors who hit me like this whenever I read their books - it's such a fabulous feeling!

Thanks for being a part of the tour.

Claire said...

this looks good. Not that I need any more books, but you know, it's always good to have a back up...or 60