My Perfectly Imperfect Life

by Jennifer Archer

Book Overview

My Perfectly Imperfect Life by Jennifer Archer released on Feb 28, 2006 is available now for purchase. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0373880847
• ISBN13: 9780373880843
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Harlequin Next
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

My first Next Title, won't be my last!

I've been curious about Harlequin's new "Next" line for a while and finally had a chance to sample one of these books. My Perfectly Imperfect Life is by Jennifer Archer, who is something of a flag bearer for this line--this is her 3rd! Next title (the line only started in July '05) and another of her Next books was among the first batch published. So I figured "Perfectly Imperfect" was a good place to start. And I really enjoyed it! One thing with Harlequins (and Silhouettes)--they can range from the utterly mediocre and formulaic (and sometimes just bad) to packing a cast of fully developed characters and a genuinely nuanced story into the same genre and page-length restrictions. I admire the really good books even more when they manage to pull off a memorable story working inside fairly strict guidelines. In this case the guidelines point toward some melange of so-called "women's fiction" (generally women of a certain age having to start over, come to terms with their pasts or get over a midlife trauma) and/or "chick lit" for the slightly graying set who may be more Samantha than Carrie at this stage in the game. "Perfectly Imperfect" plants its roots firmly on the women's fiction side of the continuum, as heroine Dinah faces a series of traumas on her 40th birthday: she has not conceived after years of struggle, her marriage may be shakier than she thought (she just found a bra in her husband's jacket pocket), and the sister she hasn't seen in 17 years shows up on her doorstep, pregnant and offering the baby to Dinah to adopt. While this starting point could have led to either a totally light and fizzy book (especially with a cast featuring more than its share of "zany" characters, including sister Dottie and tea-leaf-reading Aunt Maeve) or a completely somber one, Archer strikes a nice balance with characters just a little over the top who react realistically and with a range of emotions to the various curveballs in the plot. And one of the storylines (I won't say which one) takes a very unexpected turn that I didn't see coming and was pleasantly surprised by. The traditional Harlequin Superromance line has always frustrated me by having a longer page length and a wider range of plot possibilities than many of the other lines, and yet all too frequently delivering some of the most vanilla, undistinguished and formula romance novels of any of the category lines--but every once in a while pulling out a stunningly wonderful, deeply emotional book that eclipses almost every other category romance out there. This book reminded me of the occasional buried Superromance treasure, and I look forward to sampling more of the Next books to see how they compare. In the meantime, the several hours (I read this in one sitting) I spent in Dinah's perfectly imperfect life were highly enjoyable and I definitely recommend checking this one out. I plan to look for more of Jennifer Archer's Next books!

deep emotional family drama

On her fortieth birthday, Dinah Dewberry received a surprised present that no one should get. Inside her husband's pants is a sexy 42-double-D bra; Dinah knows she does not quite fill a B. Feeling betrayed and angry, Dinah is forced to stop in mid rage when her estranged pregnant sister Dottie shows up to ask a favor. Once she gives birth, Dottie wants Dinah to raise her child. Instead of tossing Dottie on her butt to the curb as she normally would have, she feels a bit of camaraderie for the first time in years and tells her sibling about her lingerie discovery. The sisters commiserate with one another and soon agree to track down the owner of the 42 D to confront her. Dottie's avant-garde lifestyle proves to be a boom to the amateur sleuths who know that the lingerie's owner can be found in a club that they had not in their wildest fantasy suspected. MY PERFECTLY IMPERFECT LIFE is a deep emotional family drama starring two sisters who turn to one another for needed mental support though they spent most of their lives detesting one another. Readers learn much of what disturbs Dinah besides her philandering spouse as she is unable to conceive and the zaniness of Dottie hiding her fears of rejection especially by her sibling. There is a lot of humor in this tale especially when the sleuth sisters are on the hunt like felines chasing a mouse. This adds to a wonderful affecting character study. Harriet Klausner