My (Not So) Perfect Life

Katie Brenner is living her dream London life: working at a hip branding agency, exploring vibrant neighborhoods, relishing city living. Or that's what she keeps telling herself. In reality, her job involves lots of boring admin work, her flatmates are not only odd but also irritating, and her commute is a non-Instagrammable slog. Not to mention her posh boss, Demeter Farlowe, seems to embody the perfectly constructed existence Katie craves.

When Katie is laid off, she heads home to Somerset to help her dad and stepmother launch a glamping business, pouring her frustrated creative energy into designing a sleek website and making sure every detail is perfect. To her surprise, the Ansters Farm holiday experience is a roaring success--until Demeter shows up with her family in tow. Hilarity ensues as Katie tries to avoid coming face to face with her former boss. But as Katie begins to suspect that Demeter's reality might not entirely match her flawless facade, she is forced to question her long-held beliefs about what constitutes a meaningful life.

Kinsella (the Shopaholic series; Finding Audrey) expertly skewers the assumptions surrounding social media, the absurdities of office politics and the ironies of wealthy Londoners shelling out cash for a luxury camping experience. But her breezy narrative, told in Katie's voice, offers deeper insights about the pressures of family expectations and forging one's own path. There's a love story, but it's less important than Katie's struggle to build a life she loves--even if it wouldn't play well on Instagram. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

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