The Art Of Undressing

Rating:
Summary: Another Amazingly Awesome Read by Stephanie Lehmann!
Review: After finishing this third wonderful novel by Stephanie Lehmann, I've discovered a few things. First off, she is near the very top of my list of favorite writers. Second, there is a definite trend with her books. Not only do they all have daring titles that cloak true gems of the stories within the pages, but they feature main heroines that are flawed in some way, but are also seriously likeable.

In this third novel, "The Art of Undressing", we have Ginger Levine. She lives with her ex-exotic dancer mother (named Coco) in Manhattan, attends cooking school paid for by her wayward father, and has just broken up with her boyfriend Ian, who seemed more interested in her mother anyway. Ginger is the complete opposite of her beautiful, outspoken and feminine mother. She dresses much more plainly and is afraid to open up and be "sexy" around men. Ginger's main problem seems to be that she is overcompensating for her mother's outrageous activities. She feels that she is too plain and un-sexy for a man to like her, but she doesn't know what to do about it.

Not only that, but a guy she likes in her cooking class seems to be spoken for by a gorgeous girl, and the instructor Jean-Paul seems intent on making Ginger miserable enough to quit the class. Meanwhile there are issues to be dealt with at her father's house. Will Ginger give up on her cooking class, and men in general? Or will she realize the help she needed was right in front of her, all along, and that things aren't always what they seem to be?

I enormously enjoyed this novel. Lehmann has used her signature style of subtle humor, straight-forward storytelling and realistic characters to spin yet anther delightful and touching tale. She has a way of taking the most ordinary of characters and making them into someone that everyone can identify with on some level.

Overall, I very highly recommend this book!