Tuesday, June 10

Remember Me? - Sophie Kinsella

Lexi, a mid-twenties wage slave stood up by her loser boyfriend again, is coming to the end of pretty much her worst day ever. The following day's her estranged father's funeral, her feet hurt, her friends are drunk and karaokeing, and it's raining. Rushing for a taxi Lexu slips and has only enough time to think about how much the impact's going to hurt when she blacks out.
When Lexi wakes, with the mother of all hangovers, she's horrified to discover that she's lost three years - and that somehow, in that time, she's managed to become perfectly groomed, slender and taut, the head of her department, and married to an amazing guy with a spectacular flat. She just has no idea how it happened. Or why her best friends aren't speaking to her.
Remember Me? is a triumph of the genre - smart, funny and engaging, it takes a couple of staples - amnesia, life transformation, happily ever after - and twists them into something wholly new. Unlike another, recently reviewed book that had an ignorant heroine, the author learning about the unfolding plot as the protagonist does works spectacularly. The well developed characters (including Lexi's meticulously ordered husband Eric, perhaps one of the most inadvertently amusing characters I've come across in a long while), far-fetched but believable underlying premise, and the strong plots, combine to create an absorbing and enjoyable whole.
Better known for her Shopaholic series and the previously reviewed The Undomestic Goddess, I think this is her best work to date. Great fun! - Alex

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