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.