My Review:

A perky, outside the box read that had me both laughing and raising my eyebrows.  This fabulous girl Tabby had some outlandish adventures that had me rolling with laughter.

Tabitha is a young girl from California, who is growing up fast and always looking for love.  She is the ultimate “optimist” and she sees things in people that she wants to see.  Some may call her delusional in her pursuit of love and happiness.

Many have fantasies, but Tabby takes it to another level (my cheeks are turning red now).  She has no fear and just goes for it.  She acts without regret and bounces right back from any failures.  She approaches life situations in her own unique way (she is what I call chill).

Each chapter follows Tabby on another unusual and sometimes hazardous adventure.  A mix of satire, witty humor and some quite preposterous situations gave me plenty of laugh out loud moments.  This was quite a wild romp of a read.

Book Description:

Meet Tabitha Gray, a delusional girl from Topanga, California, who redefines what it means to be a truly hopeless romantic. Tabby suffers from an aggressive strain of cock-eyed optimism – no amount of failure, embarrassment or humiliation can dent her fierce belief that real, true, lasting love is just around the corner.

Where most people think, fantasize and dream, Tabby says, feels and does. Whether waiting in her lingerie for Harrison Ford to open the door of his hotel room; declaring her love, aged nine, for Ernesto the gardener; encountering Al Pacino in a Russian bathhouse; seeking passion with a blind man on the advice of a wise old woman with dementia at her grandmother’s home for the elderly; or sending intimate photos to a random sexter with an apparently charming dick, Tabby refuses to be crushed by her many misadventures. She has to keep believing, because if she gives up, what then? Ill-advisedly armed with the words of Dorothy Parker, Tabby knows that her own ferocious optimism is the only thing keeping her heart-sore, wine-swilling mother and cynical, single-mum sister from giving up on love altogether. She is their only hope. If Tabby can find love, then they too will believe…

In this warmly witty debut novel, Sophie Kipner takes a satirical look at the extremity of romantic desperation, and pays wry tribute to the deep human need to keep on heroically searching for love despite our manifold absurdities.

How to Build a Girl meets Lena Dunham in this brilliant, hilarious novel about coming of age and the agony of modern relationships

PRAISE FOR THE OPTIMIST “Funny and upbeat, quite simply the best women’s fiction I’ve read in years.” The Sun

“Hilarious… Kipner writes beautifully, is emotionally intelligent and has a keen eye for detail – the more absurd the better. I loved every minute.” Daily Mail

“Imagine Bridget Jones. On a sugar high. Constantly… If you’re looking for a romping romcom with which to escape the knocks of everyday life, this one’s your guy.” The Pool

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Visual artist and author Sophie Kipner grew up in Topanga, CA. A graduate of University of Southern California, she writes and illustrates her own stories, which have appeared in Kugelmass: A Journal of Literary Humor, Amy Ephron’s One for the Table, Forth Magazine and The Big Jewel, and her artwork, most recently her series of blind contour portraits,DONTLOOKUPDONTLOOKDOWN has been shown and sold internationally. She lives in Los Angeles, and The Optimist is her first novel.

http://www.sophiekipner.com/@sophiekipner

VISIT ALL THE FABULOUS STOPS ON THE TOUR

Thanks Anne Cater for inviting me on this fantastic blog tour!