Book of the Week: Love Struck

I thought the premise of Chantel Simmons' second novel, Love Struck, was intriguing so I was quite happy to get my hands on a copy from KeyPorter to read and review. On the same day that image consultant Poppy overhears a conversation while getting a mani-pedi, and finds out the cheating husband being discussed is actually her supposedly perfect life partner, said lying dog is struck by lightning. Amazingly, or implausibly, Poppy's husband suffers short-term memory loss after getting struck. As Poppy discovers at the hospital he doesn't seem to recall his mistress or even having an affair.

Which leaves Poppy with an interesting conundrum. Kick the cheater to the curb or pretend nothing happened and try to fix what's broken? Poppy chooses the latter option and takes it one step further. In an attempt to keep her husband's newfound interest Poppy tries to transform her Gwyneth-esque elegant self into a Megan Fox-ish voluptious sexpot. Truth be told I found Poppy's struggle with fake nails and fake tans more sad than entertaining, but it did beg the question, what would you do in the same situation?

I think the knee jerk reaction would be, torch the jerk's clothes and slash his treasured sports magazines to ribbons, but I think sometimes its easier said than done. Especially if you're married and seemingly happily at that. My motto is never to judge unless you've walked a mile in someone's shoes and, thankfully, I've never been faced with Poppy's situation. While I do think its counterproductive to try to transform yourself into someone you're not I can almost see where that drive comes from, as anti-feminist as it may seem.

Thing is, even though I didn't really start liking Poppy until the end of the book, she is an intelligent, successful, professional woman. She is also a woman who has--even before the affair--moulded herself into the person she thought her husband wanted. And who hasn't been in the middle of a relationship and found that you've lost yourself somewhere along the way?

The book is an easy read and I really enjoyed the fact that it was set in Toronto and didn't try to hide the fact. I think its fun to read about the place you live. I wasn't always sure who to root for and I suspected the ending, but I was never bored. By the end of the book I really hoped that Poppy would find happiness and the freedom to be herself, which is really what we're all looking for, isn't it?