Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella

From the back cover: When twenty-eight-year-old Lexi Smart wakes up in a London hospital, she’s in for a big surprise. Her teeth are perfect. Her body is toned. Her handbag is Vuitton. Having survived a car accident—in a Mercedes no less—Lexi has lost a big chunk of her memory, three years to be exact, and she’s about to find out just how much things have changed, Somehow Lexi went from a twenty-five-year-old working girl to a corporate big shot with a sleek new loft, a personal assistant, a carb-free diet, and a set of glamorous new friends. And who is this gorgeous husband—who also happens to be a multimillionaire? With her mind still stuck three years in reverse, Lexi greets this brave new world determined to be the person she…well, seems to be. That is, until an adorably disheveled architect drops the biggest bombshell of all. Suddenly Lexi is scrambling to catch her balance. Her new life, it turns out, comes complete with secrets, schemes, and intrigue. How on earth did all this happen? Will she ever remember? And what will happen when she does?

Sophie Kinsella has a formula that works - quirky young English girl entangled with filthy rich English stud. It's a formula that results in fun - madcap adventures, lots of expensive name dropping, great English slang. It's fluff but it's right up my alley. I had to laugh when I went to Sophie Kinsella's website and there was a reading guide for the book. If my book club chose this book, there would be no discussion. It would be a quick, yeah, that was fun, where's the wine? How can you have a discussion about fluff? Well, I guess I am writing a post about fluff so it may be possible.

I had high humor expectations for this book and, unfortunately, it fell just a little bit short of the mark but I think that has everything to do with my expectations and not so much to do with the book itself. It was the same humor level as Undomestic Goddess - solidly funny. It was not laugh out loud and snort and make your family keep asking you, "Having a good time with that book, Mom?" funny like Can You Keep A Secret was. I wanted Can You Keep A Secret funny so I was a wee bit disappointed. But it was better than the never ending sequels of Shopaholic books so that is good! And, BTW, the original (and best) Shopaholic book is getting ready to come out as a movie - release date is Valentine's Day 2009.

The one bit of "deep thought" I could throw out about this one was the story's moral that you can't pretend to be something you're not and be happy. I have personal experience with this one. Having been a chronic "mover" with Ex-Marine and even in my younger days with my father's somewhat transient job, I have had my share of opportunities where I thought I could just reinvent myself in the new place. I could be the bigger, faster, stronger version of me. That never worked. I'll never forget one particular move when I resolved that at my new job, I would be healthy. On the day of my orientation, my new supervisor offered me a Diet Coke as I was filling out papers That was like offering kibble to a dog - diet Coke was one of my main sources of sustenance. But the "new me" was going to be healthy. So I replied, "No thank you, I brought a bottle of water with me." To which the mew supervisor replied, "Oh God, you're one of those", laughed, and walked off. I kept up the charade for maybe a month before falling utterly and completely off the wagon. The new supervisor ended up being a pretty good pal but her 44oz diet Coke from the 7-11 each morning hung in the air between us like raw meat dangling in a pool of piranhas. Finally I couldn't take it and I was chugging my 44 oz right beside her and, next thing you know, I was smoking too. You just can't pretend to be something you're not!