One advertiser, one artist, one body wash, one campaign,
one Romance Convention, one long weekend, and one great
big ball of wax. Anna Wyatt has her work cut out for her.
At the Holloway/Greene advertising company, Anna is
climbing the ladder in spite of two misogynist bosses and
one who's as desperate to get to the top as she is. In
order to get a leg up on the competition, Anna and her
associate Sasha steal a pitch meeting for Quincy
Pharmaceuticals. What are they selling? The old standby
shower gel, Lumineux. Lumineux has been too pink and
glittery for too long. Anna and Sasha create the simple
concept and are ready to go. In looking for a
spokesperson, they are sent to RomanceCon. Anna finds
herself surrounded by unbelievably handsome men and the
women who live to love them. Lincoln Mallory finds her in
the hotel bar and they begin a short-lived affair during
which Anna must discover who she is and whether she can
really control anything. Control is her life. What will
she do when she loses it all?
GIRL BEFORE A MIRROR really threw me for a loop.
I had no idea how to feel about this book. It was a
regular old roller coaster, and I still don't know how I
feel. At first the main character seems to hate the
feminine aspect of her job; then she's spewing Girl Power
everywhere. One minute someone we're supposed to like is
completely anti-feminist; the next she's Hardcore
Feminist Butterfly. This is a different brand of
confusion, one where I'm not sure if it's the book or
just me. When I read this book I had few expectations but
confusion was not something I was looking forward to.
Confusion aside this was a very nice book. The prose is
always very good and very consistent. There is no doubt
in my mind that Liza Palmer knows her romance novels.
This, while it does a great deal of honoring the romance
novel, is not your typical Harlequin romance. This is a
book dedicated to dissecting the tropes and really
understanding the market.
The whole time, we are given the heroine we
deserve. Anna Wyatt is fabulous. She's a forty-year-old
divorcee with no children and a family which does not
paint her as a failure for this. She has insecurities and
worries, but she does not let any of them stop her from
getting exactly what she wants. She has a plan, she has
goals. She is separating herself from toxic people,
taking a break from the dating game, and living for
herself. Yes, she does have a bit of an obsession with
control but this is a flaw I not only believe but
sympathize with. I like Anna. She's the woman I want to
be when I turn forty—she's dedicated and strong but
without any of that irritating compensation for things
she isn't doing that society thinks she should be doing.
Anna is the character I dream about writing myself.
In contrast with Anna, the rest of the cast of
characters seem to be rather stereotypical. This cast has
it all: the old misogynist, the son who is poorly suited
to take over the company, the ignored daughter, the
tough-but-fun writer who doesn't take crap from anybody,
the insecure twenty-something who can't get her life
together, the lawyer type who doesn't know how to handle
love when it comes to him, and the posse of screaming
women whose only desire is to touch an unrealistic bicep.
I was really disappointed when I summed up the
characters. For something so rich in empowerment ideals,
I didn't see many strong female characters, and most of
the men were flat. Characterization is the thing I look
for first and I wasn't very excited by these characters.
GIRL BEFORE A MIRROR doesn't sound like the kind of book
which would lack characterization but it really does.
However, this was not enough to completely ruin the book
for me.
If you want an atypical romance I'd recommend you
check this out. The romance is certainly not what you
would expect. The very fact that this novel deconstructs
romance novels tells you that. Anna and Lincoln do break
apart the stereotypes and make this a story worth
reading. For anyone who loves romance novels and the
things that make them great, for those who don't like
romance novels in spite of never having read one, for
those who really have no idea what to think, GIRL BEFORE
A MIRROR has something for you.
The author of CONVERSATIONS WITH THE 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.
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