I recently came across this author, Maria Murnane, and her book, Perfect on Paper: the (Mis)Adventures of Waverly Bryson, when I was researching indie-published book award contests (Murnane won a load of them, before being picked up by Amazon Encore, Amazon’s new publishing house).
It’s a really lovely book, sweet and funny with a cast of characters who are definitely very relatable — the annoying guy who just seems to be everywhere you are, the bitchy competitive co-worker who seems intent on stealing your job, the hot guy in whose presence you just can’t seem not to make an ass of yourself, etc. After being jilted at the altar by her fiance, Waverly sets out on a series of hilariously bad dates in an attempt to overcome her heartbreak and find that ever-elusive Mr. Right. But in the process, she finds herself instead.
Of course there are lots of bad date / overcoming evil ex novels, but what’s original here is Waverly’s knack for coming up with clever little sayings, sometimes darkly comical, that speak well to the single urban career girl, such as, “Ever had to work with a total nightmare? Honey, just wait until the company holiday party. We’ll see who’s all alone in the corner.” And, “Not everyone can have a cookie-cutter family, right? Honey, I’d cut your losses and settle for the cookies.” Waverly eventually creates a line of greeting cards bearing said clever sayings, and voila, her real calling emerges. Also, Waverly works in sports PR (as did Murnane — I like it when authors put their job details into their books; you can learn a lot about other walks of life that way) so there are some interesting, amusing scenes about the sports world — making this a book not only for women, but for men as well.
Basically, a great summer beach / plane / park / outdoor cafe — wherever you read when it’s warm out — read. (Above, my copy at Tatiana’s on Brighton Beach, where I always celebrate the first warm day of the year with red caviar and champagne.) And you get a lot of double-takes with this book in your hands, I’ve found. People are like, “What’s that?” Kind of fun reading something only available on Amazon!
Now, Murnane has her own line of the “Honey Notes” out, available in her Honey Shop, along with t-shirts and tote bags. C’est unique!
