The Woman Who Met Her Match by Fiona Gibson

I normally love Fiona Gibson's books but I was left feeling distinctly underwhelmed by this one and I can't really put my finger on why - well, that isn't strictly true.  I spent most of the book mentally screaming at Lorrie to stop ignoring what was right under her nose and plain to those of us reading this tale and just get on with the business of loving the right man.  All this faffing about and mooning over her teenage crush doesn't sit well on a middleaged woman and I just wanted to shake her.  Fortunately she saw sense in the end.

My other issue with it was the whole employment thing.  I have no issue with her working on a beauty counter.  I have no issue with her trepidation when the company is taken over by a large corporation and the way they are expected to work is changed.  What I do have issues with are the seemingly seamless way she scuppers their plans and then just happens to have a good relationship with the two elderly women who sold the company who (despite being in their late 70s) are starting a new venture and just so happen to offer her a job for when they open.  Definitely all felt too contrived and unrealistic.

There are moments of humour in the book.  Especially the descriptions of her handful of dates from datemylovelymum.com.  I also found her relationship with her mother quite amusing - there's something about mothers that turn us all back in to spotty 13 year olds shuffling our feet and hanging our head.  Yes, her mother is overbearing but there is a real sense that she is doing her best for Lorrie, even if it doesn't always come across that way.  Lorrie's relationship with her teenage children is also a refreshingly good one with them all exasperating each other in the way only family can.

The relationship with the enigmatic Antoine is sweet in the flashback to 16 year old Lorrie, strangely chaste and romantic cloaked as it is in the rose tinted hues of remembrance.  When she meets up with him again he is all that she remembered and, sadly, he is so much more.  You never really become invested in Lorrie pairing off with her Frenchman and I did find him quite offputting as a character and really couldn't see what she saw in him.

Not one of Ms Gibson's finest but it did entertain in places and, on the whole, felt relatively realistic.  A good read for long lazy afternoons when all you need is a long, cool drink and some non-taxing distraction.