Review: Perfect Timing by Jill Mansell

When you meet the man of your dreams on girls night out, it's hardly perfect timing!

In this fresh and funny contemporary romance by bestselling author Jill Mansell, Poppy Dunbar's whole life gets turned upside down after a chance encounter with a handsome stranger...

Never a troublemaker, Poppy had always been content with the way things were supposed to be done—which included marrying predictable Rob McBride. But that was before she met Tom Kennedy the night before her wedding. Could she really be falling in love with a stranger?

Unable to forget Tom, or go through with the wedding, Poppy runs off to London. Her new life and colorful friends are anything but predictable. Misunderstandings, family secrets, and jealous quarrels ensue, but can Poppy stop running long enough to figure out what—or, rather, who—is in her heart?

Reading Perfect Timing, I kept thinking how come this book wasn't available on the American market sooner. It is a by numbers chick lit book that still sports enough surprises and good-natured humor to be distinguished from the overcrowded market. The best part of the book are the characters - Poppy being the girl next door everyone knows, Caspar being the hunky artistic type, and Tom... Well, I'm not giving that one away!

Although sometimes the book feels crowded with characters, I must mention Ms. Mansell's ability to create believable characters and put them in believable situations. Although the book lacks the social commentary of, for example, Candace Bushnell's books, or may not feel fresh at all times, it is still a great book to curl up with when it's raining cats and dogs outside and you want to be transported to a world with happy ends.

RATING: 4/5