Rating: 
Summary: More, Please!
Review: Give me more of the Schast sisters, please! All three are smart, funny, and ultimately flawed (in the best possible, most relatable, laugh-with-me) kind of way. Unlike some other fictional NYC women, this trio of unlikely heroines is neither sexier, more clever or hipper than thou. And there's a minimum of coy product placement. What there's a maximum of: interesting characers you root for, a plot with just enough complications and some informative insight about the complexities of emotions inherent in being married, single, and widowed. A great feel-good read on a cold day.
Rating:
Summary: this should be a best seller
Review: I could not believe how good this book is. Funny, sad, characters I loved and a complex involving plot. I was expecting a chick-lit romance novel, but got much more than I'd hoped for, or paid for. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Start out well, totally drags by the end
Review: I enjoyed this novel in the beginning, and really envied Frieda the chutzpah to go after Sam and get him, but then she becomes this whiny, insecure shrew who trades zing for security.
It is partly the fault of Ilene, who thinks she knows best about everything, until she fries her own marriage and then goes into denial.
The third sister is Betty, who thinks she has met THE ONE, only to find out he wants to do a Professor Higgins on her Eliza Dolittle and seems to make a hobby of it with hopeless fat women as he calls them. Gross. Not to mention all of his other kinky activities she finds out about one by one.
The character of Peter is adorable, though one could perhaps sympathize more with a female character trying to lose weight; Betty's struggles are put in the shade. Ilene's angst is not moving at all because she did it all to herself.
The sudden revelation of how she has screwed up Frieda's life when she is waiting in the line in the post office is sheer cliche. I adore Sam and Frieda, and would love to see Betty live happily ever after, but Ilene deserves a kick in the tuckus and certainly not what she gets.
The fact that Ilene is mentally unfaithful to her hubby with David is really offputting, and the fact that Betty is willing to take David (and possibly even Peter) on the rebound is gross. Though how I can like David after he only wants to get married to get his daughter into a good school courtesy of Frieda and sibling rules, I have no idea. Are all New Yorkers so shallow? Give me Sam any day!
The ending was a muddle, rather silly. Why focus on Ilene and Peter when it is supposed to be Frieda's book? I want to see Sam and Frieda live happily ever after too, not just vanish into thin air. This is yet another author who does the wacky as soon as she gets within a couple of chapters of typing THE END, and cheats her readers as a result.
Rating: 
Summary: Full of Fun and Charm
Review: I love a good romantic comedy - in movies and books. So, I was really happy to hear that Valerie Frankel had a new book out. I love her stuff... I find it really funny, charming and romantic. "The Not So Perfect Man" was a real treat. The story of these sisters had me rolling on the floor laughing and thrilled to my toes with my Sunday afternoon of reading. Frieda Schast is a wonderful heroine and I really enjoyed her way. I think that Ms. Frankel has come even farther in her talent and I eagerly anticipate her next offering. Cheers!
Rating:
Summary: Full of Fun and Charm
Review: I love a good romantic comedy - in movies and books. So, I was really happy to hear that Valerie Frankel had a new book out. I love her stuff... I find it really funny, charming and romantic. "The Not So Perfect Man" was a real treat. The story of these sisters had me rolling on the floor laughing and thrilled to my toes with my Sunday afternoon of reading. Frieda Schast is a wonderful heroine and I really enjoyed her way. I think that Ms. Frankel has come even farther in her talent and I eagerly anticipate her next offering. Cheers!
Rating:
Summary: Full of Fun and Charm
Review: I love a good romantic comedy - in movies and books. So, I was really happy to hear that Valerie Frankel had a new book out. I love her stuff... I find it really funny, charming and romantic. "The Not So Perfect Man" was a real treat. The story of these sisters had me rolling on the floor laughing and thrilled to my toes with my Sunday afternoon of reading. Frieda Schast is a wonderful heroine and I really enjoyed her way. I think that Ms. Frankel has come even farther in her talent and I eagerly anticipate her next offering. Cheers!
Rating:
Summary: interesting character study
Review: Only thirty-five, Widow Frieda Schast, owner of a picture frame store, still feels the loss of her husband Gregg, who died from cancer thirteen months ago. From the deathiversary day that Gregg was interred, Frieda's older sister Ilene has felt it is her quest in life to travel from Manhattan to the Brooklyn frontier to find her sibling a husband whether Frieda is interested or not. Her latest find entomologist Professor Roger O'Leary can only be the "Two" since Gregg will always be the "One". Ilene's husband Peter Vermillion wants her to stop matchmaking her younger sister. Ilene counters with wanting the overweight Peter to watch what he eats especially that extra cannoli. As she does with Peter, Ilene nags until Frieda is on a date with Roger the Bugman, but Frieda does not even make much of an effort. While Frieda's other sister spinster Betty may have finally found a man who turns up the juices of her body, actor Sam Hill enters the widow's shop to have a review article of a play he performs in framed. Frieda finds the youngster (not even thirty) quite exciting as he offers a sexual healing with no commitment strings. THE NOT SO PERFECT MAN is an interesting character study that looks deep into the varying woes of three New York City siblings, the men in their lives, and another couple. The myriad of subplots offer insight into eight living people and the late Gregg is well written, but contains too much baggage to keep track of who suffers from what. Still Valerie Frankel provides a fine relationship tale that showcases love hurts, but anything less is loneliness. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: interesting character study
Review: Only thirty-five, Widow Frieda Schast, owner of a picture frame store, still feels the loss of her husband Gregg, who died from cancer thirteen months ago. From the deathiversary day that Gregg was interred, Frieda's older sister Ilene has felt it is her quest in life to travel from Manhattan to the Brooklyn frontier to find her sibling a husband whether Frieda is interested or not. Her latest find entomologist Professor Roger O'Leary can only be the "Two" since Gregg will always be the "One". Ilene's husband Peter Vermillion wants her to stop matchmaking her younger sister. Ilene counters with wanting the overweight Peter to watch what he eats especially that extra cannoli. As she does with Peter, Ilene nags until Frieda is on a date with Roger the Bugman, but Frieda does not even make much of an effort. While Frieda's other sister spinster Betty may have finally found a man who turns up the juices of her body, actor Sam Hill enters the widow's shop to have a review article of a play he performs in framed. Frieda finds the youngster (not even thirty) quite exciting as he offers a sexual healing with no commitment strings. THE NOT SO PERFECT MAN is an interesting character study that looks deep into the varying woes of three New York City siblings, the men in their lives, and another couple. The myriad of subplots offer insight into eight living people and the late Gregg is well written, but contains too much baggage to keep track of who suffers from what. Still Valerie Frankel provides a fine relationship tale that showcases love hurts, but anything less is loneliness. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: More, Please!
Review: Picked this up the day it was released and read it non-stop until the last page. The story covers a year plus in the lives of three sisters in New York City--one widowed, one married, one single. They each have a romantic storyline with a beginning, middle and (happy) end, all overlapping, all having an influence on the romantic destiny of the others. It's an amazing bit of storytelling, actually, where the smallest early detail is relevant and pivotal on another sister's life pages later in the novel. Which isn't to say that The Not-So-Perfect Man is too complicated to keep track of. The short chapters keep the plot humming along. I would decide I related best to the single sister, and then I'd get more involved with the widow, and back and forth. Although each of her character certainly has her share of problems here, Frankel is as funny in this one as in any of her other novels. The Not-So-Perfect Man, though, goes deeper. For me, that means better.
Rating:
Summary: my first amazon review
Review: Picked this up the day it was released and read it non-stop until the last page. The story covers a year plus in the lives of three sisters in New York City--one widowed, one married, one single. They each have a romantic storyline with a beginning, middle and (happy) end, all overlapping, all having an influence on the romantic destiny of the others. It's an amazing bit of storytelling, actually, where the smallest early detail is relevant and pivotal on another sister's life pages later in the novel. Which isn't to say that The Not-So-Perfect Man is too complicated to keep track of. The short chapters keep the plot humming along. I would decide I related best to the single sister, and then I'd get more involved with the widow, and back and forth. Although each of her character certainly has her share of problems here, Frankel is as funny in this one as in any of her other novels. The Not-So-Perfect Man, though, goes deeper. For me, that means better.
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