Pursuing the Times

Pursuing the Times by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I was given this book by the author in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. No monetary compensation for this review at all.

Very very rarely do you come across a book that has you grinning only a few pages in and laughing out loud a few chapters later. Mercury Lauren, the Chick Lit writer desperate for a review from the New York Times Book Review, is a chaotic, spazztic, witty, bright woman who definitely knows how to go after what she wants. She describes herself as once being a "mousy book clerk" but I fail to see how this is possible because this woman has got PERSONALITY.

The whole premise of the book is about Mercury's passion for a NYT Book Review blurb, how she doesn't write "Chick Lit" but stories about "the human condition" and as she runs into one person after another, we truly see that human condition.

The glimpses into the world of a burgeoning author (well, I guess I should say well established as she is into her fifth book) and her relationship with her agent, book tours, ARCs, and insecurities was fantastic. There were frustrating moments of her believing the slimeball, but I think it was even more frustrating for me because I am so often the victim of being too trusting myself.

Mercury's neuroses were just non-stop. It did get to be a little much at times because you just know she can be an energy drainer! I liked the golf scene where a certain someone admires her chutzpah, and I liked the vulnerability she shows at the book signing.

This was a fun, witty, laugh out loud read with a nice bit of romance, including a modern little White Knight to the Rescue bit. The bantering of emails had me snickering, her inner dialogue that quickly turns into a panicked phone call to her agent had me shaking my head, and her antics had me laughing out loud.

Thank you SO much, Lauren Baratz-Logsted!


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Tomorrow, the blog will have a little something special! I've got TWO excerpts and a link for a FREE e-book for you, no matter what kind of reader you have!