Jaclyn’s Review: Not Perfect by Elizabeth LaBan

Not Perfect
written by Elizabeth LaBan
published by Lake Union Publishing, 2018

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Target, Book Depository, Goodreads

Did I enjoy this book? This book had some promise. Tabitha wakes up to find that her husband is gone, she has no income, and her husband has left a note threatening to expose her secret if she tells anyone that he’s gone. So many potentially cool plot points! Except, you find out that her husband has only been gone for a matter of days before she resorts to stealing food for survival. (She really has no food, toilet paper, or light bulbs in her pantry in this upscale Philadelphia home???) Her cable has been cancelled already for non-payment–after one missed bill??? This part of the story is completely not plausible.

Then we move on to her secret.

*** SPOILER ALERT***

She ran a side cooking business out of her apartment, didn’t properly label her ingredients, and sold something cooked in peanut oil to a man with a peanut allergy. She’s convinced that she’s killed him, even though she has absolutely no proof and her husband (a lawyer) destroyed any evidence linking her to the guy. So even if she did accidentally kill him, her lawyer husband is the one who knowingly committed a crime.

***SPOILER OVER***

Then there is the love interest. They barely know anything about each other and somehow end up in this relationship. And don’t get me started on her weird relationship with the old lady.

This book has a bunch of promising plot points, and they are all poorly developed and completely unbelievable.

Would I recommend it? Nope. Do not waste your time here!

 

About the book – from Goodreads: From Elizabeth LaBan, the acclaimed author of The Restaurant Critic’s Wife, comes a captivating and very funny novel about a wife and mother’s fall from grace, and why keeping up appearances is not her biggest secret.

Tabitha Brewer wakes up one morning to find her husband gone, leaving her no way to support herself and their two children, never mind their upscale Philadelphia lifestyle. She’d confess her situation to her friends—if it wasn’t for those dreadful words of warning in his goodbye note: “I’ll tell them what you did.”

Instead, she does her best to keep up appearances, even as months pass and she can barely put food on the table—much less replace a light bulb. While she looks for a job, she lives in fear that someone will see her stuffing toilet paper into her handbag or pinching basil from a neighbor’s window box.

Soon, blindsided by catastrophe, surprised by romance, and stunned by the kindness of a stranger, Tabitha realizes she can’t keep her secrets forever. Sooner or later, someone is bound to figure out that her life is far from perfect.

 

 

 

* This post contains affiliate links.

** This post first appeared on Every Free Chance Books (everyfreechance.com) on September 24, 2018.