Review: Pinch Me

By: Adena Halpern
Publisher: Touchstone
Release Date: Aug 2, 2011
Genre: Chick Lit
Source: NetGalley
Format: eBook
Pages: 288
Rating: I really enjoyed it. It is a fun and easy summer read.

LILY MARRIED THE MAN OF HER DREAMS. THEN SHE WOKE UP.
“Never marry a man unless he’s short, bald, fat, stupid, and treats you badly.” That is the advice that twenty-nine-year-old Lily Burns has heard her entire life from her grandmother Dolly and her mother, Selma. Despite this, when she meets Gogo, the handsome, successful pediatrician who treats her like a queen, she has no choice but to let her heart take over. When she agrees to marry him, Dolly and Selma are inconsolable. They decide it’s time to tell her the truth: their family is cursed. If she marries for love, there will be unimaginable consequences.

Nevertheless, Lily and Gogo elope. Unable to believe her good fortune, Lily asks Gogo to pinch her—to make sure all this isn’t just a dream. The moment he does, Lily finds herself transported back to the house she lived in when she was single. Gogo is gone. When Lily tracks him down, she finds that he’s married to someone else and has no memory of her. In this modern fairy tale, Lily must find a way to break the curse and turn her nightmare back into a dream come true.

My thoughts
Pinch me is an easy, entertaining story about a woman who's family's curse ruins her life. One minutes she is a happy newly wed and the next minute she is single, back in her old house and her husband is married to someone else and has no idea who she is. The entire story follows Lily as she tries to break the curse and get her husband back.

In the beginning of the story Lily lists all the things that makes Gogo perfect but almost halfway through she lists all the things that drive her nuts about him. That... was something that I enjoyed, a lot. So many books create these characters that are perfect and flawless and at first I started to feel like that was the case with Gogo. However, Lily goes on a rant for a few pages on the little things that Gogo does that bother her, like the fact that he can never admit when he is wrong or that he is a hoarder and cannot seem to throw anything away because they might have a use for it later.

There were a couple of times in the book where, and I will admit it, I yelled at the computer screen. You need to give this woman credit, Lily is relentless on trying to get her man back, to the point of embarrassment. Very rarely do I react so strongly to a book but I just couldn't help myself. I was very glad that the Mr. wasn't home because I am sure he would have looked over at me like I was a lunatic. Here I am all quiet reading and then Lily does something so embarrassing that I smack my face with my hand and groan "Oh no, what are you doing?!?" -Yeah it was that bad. HaHa

However, this book does have flaws. Throughout the entire book I could not get the grandmother and mother straight. The two, in my mind, were more like twins than Lily's mother and grandmother. They were too active and all over the place (physically) that I just couldn't picture someone like my grandmother doing that stuff. Like for instance, creating a fire pit and rotisserie spit in the front yard and lugging huge heavy logs out there for it. I just don't see it happening, so I was always confused thinking "wait is Selma the grandmother?" Also, the other thing I didn't care for personally was the ending. I really wanted to be surprised or just... something. I felt let down because the book was so crazy and kooky that I thought that for sure the author was going to end the story with a bang. Oh well... what can one do?

Either way I found this story to be entertaining and polished it off pretty quickly. It is the perfect summer book for when you are out at the beach and just want something light and fun.

My favorite quote
"I am so sorry about all of this. I am so sorry that all of this happened to you. This is all my fault, a curse on my family that has affected you, and this is something that I have to live with. This whole thing started because my great-great- grandmother stole my great-great grandaunt's fiance. I love you so much Gogo, but someone in my family has to put a stop to this cycle of misery. I would rather spend the rest of my life alone than cause another woman to feel pain that deep. If there's anything that I've learned from all of this, from my own heart, from Emmalina's heart, it's that losing someone is the worst pain imaginable. In Emmalina's case, it was so painful that it gave her the ability to curse Astrid's entire bloodline. I couldn't do that to another person. At this point, the only option I have is to leave you alone. I am a strong person. I will go on with my live without you. It won't be easy, but at least I'll have the knowledge that somewhere in this world, someone loves me."