The Status Of All Things by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke

You know how sometimes it's good to try something a little different than what you've been reading - step a bit outside of recent selections?  Well, have a I got a book for you!  First of all, let me tell you that I love romantic comedies.  I have a list of them that I've watched over and over.  Movies like You've Got Mail, While You Were Sleeping, Clueless, 13 Going On 30, Legally Blonde - you know the type.  There are times when a favorite romantic comedy is just the ticket.  And as 'light' as they may seem to be, most of the time, there are some great life lessons included in them - between the bubbly humor and the good music - they always have a good soundtrack.

The Status Of All Things is just such a book.  Written by longtime best friends Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke, it asks the eternal question - if you had the power to rewrite your life, would you?  Kate is a typical woman of today.  She's an executive with an ad agency.  Her life revolves around her job, her fiance', Max, her best friends from college, Jules and Liam, her wedding planner, and her Facebook status.  As our story begins, Kate, Max, their friends and their families are in Hawaii.  It's the night before Kate and Max's wedding, the rehearsal dinner in fact.  All is well and then it definitely isn't.  Max asks to speak to Kate alone and he tells her that he's so very sorry but he can't marry her.  He has, in fact, fallen in love with her co-worker, Courtney.  Seriously??  Kate can't believe her ears.  He tells her this at the rehearsal dinner?  Now?

As I said, Kate is pretty much addicted to her Facebook status.  She shares a lot, always carefully edited and cropped and filtered pictures and words.  She has spent months planning the wedding so that everything would be perfect.  She worries a lot about perfect.  And whether things could be better if she just tried a little harder or figured things out a little better.  She has a mostly normal life.  Until she doesn't.  After her humiliation of having to listen to Max telling everyone that the wedding is not going to happen, Kate can't imagine what kind of status update she will type, 'Feeling sad. Got jilted.'  She wishes that her life was as perfect as what everyone posts on Facebook.  And she gets her wish granted.  Whenever Kate updates her status, life reflects that reality.  She decides to go back in time and fix her relationship with Max before it goes wrong.  While she does that, she'll help a few of her friends with their problems as well, with the best intentions.

So, how do you suppose all of this works out?  Well, I did say it could be a romantic comedy, so there are hijinks and laughs and tears and misunderstandings.  And finally, there is growth and realization and a happy ending.  All ingredients of the best romantic comedy.  I was pleased and I did enjoy The Status Of All Things.  There were those nuggets of wisdom and a pretty good assessment of what people put on their social media.  I liked the style of this duo of authors and want to read their first book, Your Perfect Life.  I suspect that it too will have a few good things to say about life and also a few laughs.  I'll leave you with a quote that says it all:

Sometimes you just have to let your arm look fat in the picture.