The Middle-Aged Virgin*
Death of a Friend Triggers Heroine to Change Her Life Plan
Sophia appears to have it all. She has a thriving public relations business and has been in a long-term relationship with a decent guy. She’s busy all the time, jetting around the world for her clients. After the death of her good friend and mentor, Sophia realizes that she is not living as full of a life as she could. She is a workaholic, and there has been no spark (and no sex) between her and her boyfriend for a very long time. She decides to change this and writes herself a new life plan.
How will Sophia’s business fare when she decides to change things? Will she find passion (one of the items on her list)? Will she be able to fulfill her new plan?
This book follows the well-trodden path of certain chick lit novels. A woman, whether by choice or circumstance, decides to strike out on a new and potentially frightening course to see what more life has to offer her. The book had interesting secondary characters, and Sophia’s new life had all sorts of twists and turns that I enjoyed reading about. Her thoughts and reactions were a little off-kilter at times, which seemed to point up that, while she may be approaching 40, she isn’t as sophisticated or knowledgeable as she’d like to believe.
There were some odd tense and voice shifts in the section where she is writing her plan for her new life. The book is written in the past tense, and this part shifted into the present. In this section, too, it felt like the wall between reader and character was knocked down unintentionally by using *you* or making it seem as if Sophia was speaking directly to us, the readers. I found these two things a bit jarring in an otherwise enjoyable book.
