Book 29 My Not So Perfect Life & Bared to You

My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella and Bared to You by Sylvia Day fulfilled the category “Two Books Set in Sister Cities” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge.

I’m supposed to create one post for each book. But… Sigh. I’ve read four titles for the two prompts. I didn’t like two of them. Unfortunately, the two left are not from sister cities. So, I’ll post all four, and let you settle it out in the wash. I try hard not to include negative reviews on the blog. I want to share books I think you will love.

Here goes.

My Not So Perfect Life took place in Somerset and London. It’s a funny romantic tale about a woman on the outs with a life plan. Katie Brenner scored a great new job, has a new romance budding, but gets fired for no good reason. She’s forced has to go back home to her parents’ farm. Unfortunately, her parents have turned the family farm into a glamping site. Katie sucks it up and tries to make the best of it, helping her parents succeed. Then her old boss shows up.

The story was fun and interesting. It held notes of women’s fiction and romance. I loved Katie and her not-so-perfect life. Once she gave up trying to be the person she presented on Instagram, life got better. The story kept my attention and didn’t go the expected route of an evil boss and the lowly worker’s triumph over them. I loved this story and highly recommend it.

Bared to You took place in London’s sister city, New York City. It was not my cup of tea. It’s an erotica book from the Fifty Shades era. The novel originally came out in 2012 before the “Me Too” movement. It has many elements a reader might expect in an erotica with a BDSM theme. The characters are more about dominant and submissive behavior than whips and chains. Gideon is a billionaire businessman, and he decides he wants Ava. And he tells her in some vulgar language. That shut me off from the start.

I’m okay with a dom/sub relationship, but the whole “man demanding what he wants and the woman submitting” didn’t sit well with me. As in any erotica, sex drives the story. Every time they get together, it tears them apart. But the book stretched the “conversation” trope too far (i.e. when the couple should talk rather than have sex in the limo). The two did nothing but have sex and fight. At some point, I needed Ava to stand up and ask for what she really needed. In a true dom/sub relationship (in my understanding), the sub has all the power. I didn’t see that. It bothered me.

The book was all the rage when it first came out, and many people recommended it. I didn’t care for it. I didn’t like the relationship between the two characters, and I saw few redeeming qualities about the hero. He was arrogant, demanding, and selfish in my opinion, but the sex was hot.

I give My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella Five Yurts with all the Pillows.

I give Bared to You by Sylvia Day Three Limos with a Giant Backseat.