Lexi's life is a bit of a shambles. She has a rubbish job, a rubbish boyfriend, name of 'Loser Dave', and an oddball family. She's out one night with her friends who are celebrating their bonuses - she didn't get one because you had to have been working a year for her company and she was a week short - and takes a really bad tumble while going for a taxi. She wakes up in hospital, bruised and battered, but things are not quite right. They tell her she was in a car crash when she knows she can't drive. She discovers she has expensive belongings, is in the private ward of the hospital and... horror of horrors... is married. Lexi, it appears, has lost 3 years of her life: she has amnesia.
Back at home with her husband, Eric, Lexi discovers she is wealthy. They live in a massive loft appartment and have very expensive tastes. To say she's bewildered is a gross understatement. Her next discovery is that rather than being an underling in her company, she is now the boss of her previous department, and worse... she was horrible, the boss from hell; her friends now hate her. But still, she has this marvellous new expensive lifestyle to compensate doesn't she? Her husband is good looking and attentive and clearly loves her? Well no, the reality is that he's a stranger now, one she doesn't love or even recognise any more. And then there's Jon, Eric's architect. Where does he fit into the equation? He's clearly suffering badly over Lexi's loss of memory. Somehow, Lexi has to rebuild her life, relearn all her work skills, get to know the people in her life again, find out who's lying to her and why and, most important, find out who she *really* is.
Let's get something straight - I'm not the world's biggest chick-lit fan. I do, however, love a bit of romance in my reading, so you'd think I'd be a big fan? No. The thing is, if I'm going to read a romance I want to be hit around the head with the emotions. I want to suffer with the characters, fall in love with the hero, hate him when there's some misunderstanding and the heroine is devastated and so on and so on. For some reason, chick-lit doesn't supply this for me; I find it insubstantial in the emotions department. Of course, I should add - rather sheepishly - that I'm no expert as I haven't really read loads of it; I perhaps ought to do a bit more research before I declare that I'm not really a fan...
Anyhow, all that said there's always an exception to the rule and for me that author is Sophie Kinsella. She's best known for her Shopoholic books of course and I like those well enough, but my favourite book of hers is a stand-alone, The Undomestic Goddess, or it was. Remember Me? is now my favourite... I really, really enjoyed it. The plot accounts for a lot of that. It's an unusual situation and you suffer along with Lexi because you have no idea what's going on either. As the plot thickens, so to speak, and things get horribly complicated with her relationships and at work, it really is quite upsetting. No lack of emotion here... the pages whip by as you find you can't put the book down! Two nights in a row I've been up till 1.30am, despite a rotten cold, because I just couldn't stop reading. And now I've finished - the ending was very satifactory in every way - I feel quite bereft. Luckily, there's another of her stand-alones I haven't read and that's Can You Keep a Secret? Needless to say, I've just reserved it from the library.
This is book number 5 for my Support your local library challenge, being hosted by J.Kaye.
11 comments:
I have been known to read a book by Kinsella from time to time, but it has been several years! They are good for a nice, light read, though.
Sophie Kinsella is always good for a light romp! I'm a fan , too.
Tara and Kailana: You're both right, Sophie Kinsella's books are perfect for a good, page-turning light read. And yet... she nearly always has quite an important point to make about the role of women in modern society. The fact that women these days are not left with many choices when it comes to lifestyle, how you're 'judged' as a person by your 'so called' success in your career or how wealthy you are. I find her enjoyable but also very thought provoking.
Maybe I will try this one then. I didn't like her Shopoholic series whatsoever. Great review!
J.Kaye: I've only read a couple of the Shopoholic books, I find the girl in them a bit irritating to be honest. I much prefer Kinsella's stand-alone books. They have more substance and more plot, imo. I thought Remember Me? was even better than The Undomestic Goddess and that was pretty good.
Oh my gosh, YES! I couldn't get through the first book. And it seemed like everyone else LOVED them. So glad you said this...I don't feel so bad. I'll definitely try this one.
Thank you!
I wnated to give her a good shake, J.Kaye. LOL! I got to the end of the first one because I do like Kinsella's writing, but I barely made it. I think I started the second one but didn't get very far. I have several of them on my tbr mountain and can't make up my mind whether to make some room on book shelves by taking them to the charity shop or whether to make myself read them. I'm not good at unbiased decisions when it comes to books. LOL.
I just finished this and it certainly was a page turner! I think I finished it in two days...it was a fun light read and I think what I liked best-the characters were nice people. This was the first book by Kinsella I've ever read.
Hi Miri! Thanks for visiting my blog. I'm glad you enjoyed your first Sophie Kinsella. I read it in two days as well... couldn't put it down!
I would recommend The Undomestic Goddess too, it's very funny with another good plot. Hopefully I'll be reading Can You Keep a Secret? soon, as that sounds like another good read.
Hope your library challenge is going well!
I have this on my wishlist so I am glad that you enjoyed this. I hate when I have a book on the wishlist and find out that it might not be as good as I thought it would.
Hi Kaila! I know what you mean about that - it's really disappointing, even worse if you've bought it and it's sitting on your tbr mountain unread. You then feel like you don't want to read it any more. :-( I hope you won't find that with Remember Me? though. I thoroughly enjoyed its mix of humour and perceptive insight into the way we all think. Great fun.
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