Recession Proof: Kimberly Lim

Helen has a job that sucks the life out of her, a boyfriend of 6 years that is safe and does nothing else for her, that she doesn't even live with, and with no time for it is on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Something has to give, so she moves in with her boyfriend to see if that can save their relationship, her best friend is pregnant and her fiancé is sick, leading Helen to shift some of her focus away from work.  Not long later she finds herself unemployed, boyfriend less, ands the support system for a single mother. But, Helen finds that she is finally happy and maybe it is time to consider what she wants and find a career that brings her happiness. So, Helen heads down that path fumbling in love on the way and considers waiving up a few times. But, with her friends and families support she can find and keep her own happiness.

I flew through this book. The characters and the writing style made me want to keep going so I could find out more, and how they were going to deal with the situation they were faced with now.  Though there were times where you really wanted to be like, duh you shouldn't have done that or that is so cliche don't do it. But, overall those elements made the character seem real and were responses that would happen in real life.  Though outside the situation when you see them happening you still want to say don't do it.

One of my favorite part about this book was how time passed in the book. It took place just over a year. And the breaks and then pickings up caught me for a moment the first few times but once I got use it it I could just go with ok, so three weeks/two month/ etc has passed and nothing really happened.  The nothing happening was important as it showed the need for something to happen which is where we were picking up at something happening.  Time frame is always something I struggle on in writing, so I could appricaate how it was used here. Also, since Helen went through some big changes it was nice to see those take place over a reasonable timeline rather than look I grew up and learned to x in the process of a month like plots can fall into sometimes.

Another, strong part if this plot was the supporting character. Yes, Helen is the main character and the one we expect to do the growth and change. But, I think all of the supporting characters learned something and did some growing in the plot and I appreciated that.  Even if you had trouble relating to Helen change there was her sister's growth, her ex boyfriend figure stuff put, and more that you could also relate to. I give this book 4 stars and would suggest it to friends as a new way to look at chick lit, it is not oh my life is horrible/let's go shopping or win my ex back, but my life if just ok and I think I need more than that. It is hard to get to more than that, but have to try.

This review is part of chick lit in the new black blog tours.

I was provided a copy of the book for review, but the summary and thoughts on the book are mine.