About the Book:

“Twenty-eight-year-old Andrea returns home from a business trip to find Alex, her boyfriend of fourteen years, nervously waiting for her. Assuming he’s finally going to propose, Andrea’s instead horrified to learn he’s been cheating on her and is leaving to be with the other woman, who he calls Andrea’s opposite.

At first Andrea’s paralyzed by shock and sadness, but the business analyst soon forms a plan: change every last detail of her life and become her opposite so Alex will come back to her.

It’s a challenge at first, but soon Andrea’s loving the changes she’s making, the new activities she’s doing, and the new people in her life. But will she change enough to get Alex back? And if she does, will he fit into the wonderful new life she’s creating for herself?”

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

It is really funny to admit it — but I have found another favorite author.  I gave up reading romance books years ago.  And I gave them up because they all started to sound the same — different names for the characters — but the same story line over, and over, and over.  So when I picked up Wardell’s first novel — Life, Love, and a Polar Bear Tattoo I chose to read it because of the title — I just couldn’t resist a book that had a polar bear in the title.  But I found a book with great characters from the beginning — so when I was contacted to read another of her books — Stir Until Thoroughly Confused — I found that her talent for great characters just keeps getting better.  Now I find myself waiting for her next book, and I am so happy to have been given the opportunity to read this latest book.

What I love about the characters of these books is that I so completely identify with the women of these stories.  These are women that are struggling to live in the real world — with professions, dreams, ambitions, and they are still trying to figure out how to make the rest of their lives fit into this crazy kind of life.  Simply put — these are characters that resound with me, because I know what kind of life they have.  Add to the the fact that they are real — with struggles of doubt, the need to fit in and belong, and even a certain amount of self confidence issues — even when everyone around them sees the amazing people they really are, and I just found myself falling in love with these women — because I know what it feels like to be them.

This story actually resonated with me more than the other two.  I loved the liberating feel of this story.  The challenges faced by Andrea in this one is something that has taken me a lifetime to figure out.  The concept that unless you are happy with yourself, no one else will ever make you happy.  When Andrea finds herself dumped by her boyfriend of 14 years she challenges herself to remake who she is.  At first it is just to become the opposite of who she was, so she can win her boyfriend back.  But as this little project develops she finds that the most important person for her to be comfortable, and happy with is herself.  This lesson is the most important lesson that anyone can learn.  And once they figure out how to be happy with themselves, they can then find joy and fulfillment in their life.  This theme is the reason this story felt so real for me — which of course made it a book that is more than worth reading.

Add to that the fact that Wardell has a real gift for presenting the city of Toronto that I just really fell in love with, and this whole book becomes a real break from the everyday world.  Overall this is a book, as well as an author that I have come to really appreciate for the talent of writing, and the gift for developing realistic characters and stories.  Even though these fall in the category of romances — they don’t fall into the trap of the standard romance storyline.  Nor does she resort to the good guy always wins, and in the end everything is perfect.  Rather the story develops in a much more realistic method, and that lends an element of truth to the storyline as a whole.

Tags: Friendship, Loss, Love, Romance

Category: Fiction, Promo Book Reviews, Romance