This book was certainly unique. Usually in books about divorce, there is a lot of emotional introspection and guilt -- this isn't that kind of story. This is about a marriage where the novelty has long since worn off, and infidelity and deception have become intricately interwoven into their daily lives.

I loved the characters -- (Bad) Kassie, who is rapidly losing her cool as her plans implode; douchebag Mike, who is charmingly typical and benign despite his masculine manipulations; and her lover Chris, who feels like he's gotten in over his head with a fickle older woman. I also loved that this book featured older characters with healthy sex drives.

The genre here was a mishmash of so many things. There were gems of women's fiction spilling out even in Mike's moments -- some hilarious: his casual over-dependence on his wife for very basic things, and his wide-eyed amazement at where things in the house were located (after 30 years); but there were also some passionate romantic moments and some dramatic shockers, as well as an overall comedic wit stringing it all together.

Despite the plethora of deceit, resentment, anger, and other negative emotions, there was still a deep love -- or at least a lingering fondness -- and this made the characters relatable and lovable. Their contradictory behaviour is realistic -- as Kassie said, to assuage Mike's worries: "I'm divorcing you, not deserting you." Overall, this was a wickedly fun read, and entirely engaging in its soap-opera-esque style of storytelling.

Admittedly, there were some clunky bits of narrative where too much exposition hindered the storytelling. Also a little unsettling was the frequent jumping between viewpoints, not all of them necessary -- Chris' and Kassie's mother's were lacklustre by comparison to the others. At one point, I half-expected to jump into the mind of Topher the cat, because he was all over the place in just about every scene (NOT a con, by the way -- he was wonderful)... but that's how crazy the narrative was going, at times! Nevertheless, these hiccups did not spoil the overall ride.

This was a zany, witty telenovela of a women's fiction, about the lies we tell each other and ourselves. The novel was engrossing, even as it veered into the territory of ridiculously coincidental. The characters were all fabulously flawed, but these flaws made them come alive, and connect with the reader.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone, but especially middle-aged, married, female readers -- because of the kernels of truth we can all see in ourselves as we read these unapologetically deplorable characters. I look forward to reading more by this author.