My review of chicklit book The Perfect Find by Tia Williams (with some self-promotion at the end)

 

A shallow description of The Perfect Find by Tia Williams makes it sound like a generic chicklit book.  Woman with a glamorous career in New York City falls for a hottie, issues ensue, she reevaluates her life choices, and comes out stronger and better.

But The Perfect Find is chicklit at the top of its game.  The romance in the book is between Jenna Jones, a woman in her late 30's whose biological clock is ticking like a timebomb, and Eric Combs, a man in his early 20's who needs to spend the next several years of his life focusing on making a career as a film director.  Usually I would hate a story like that, because it's obvious that there's no way it can, or should, work out between the two of them.  But I really enjoyed how Williams did not cheat with her characters or cut corners with the conflict.  Jenna and Eric are at different stage in life, and those stages are incompatible with each other.  Rather than being annoyed by this, I found myself genuinely curious throughout the book how they would make it work.  Let's just say the ending didn't cheat either.  

I did have my usual nitpicks.  The villain of the story is Eric's mother -- who he, a grown man, lives with, and lives off of in significant ways, all the while believing that she is evil.  That was a character flaw that was never addressed.  He should have gotten a cheap apartment with roommates like every other ambitious, broke young person who can't stand their mother instead of using her and complaining about her. 

And--GIANT SPOILER HERE:

 

 

 

Jenna should not have had and raised Eric's child without telling him.  It's a testament to Williams' talent as a writer that when I read this part of the story my first reaction wasn't complete disgust.  Williams had set up these characters and their situations so well that it just seemed like the right thing to do.  But my second reaction, when I stepped back from the book, was absolute dismay.  That kind of behavior is just not okay, even if you are convinced that you know what is right for the father of your child -- even if you actually know what is right for him.   Even if the father of your child agrees with you when he learns the truth.  Just don't do it.

And now onto something completely different:  I'm not sure if I can call it shameless self-promotion if I'm giving away my books for free.  Today is Sunday, December 5, 2021.  It's the last day that you can get a free kindle copy of my smutty short story, My First Submissive Adventure.  The blurb:  

Ginny is newly divorced and anxious to explore her submissive side. But does Tom have what it takes to get inside her defenses?

Consider this my gift to you.  If you like it, and you want to return the favor, please consider telling your friends about it.  Or writing a review.  Or take a look at my new book, The Mature Woman's Guild to Desire, which includes My First Submissive Adventure and three other smutty short stories.  Or at Mindgames, my dark dystopian novel about naked sex slaves.