For Every Solution, a Problem by Kerstin Gier, Erik J Macki (Translation)

This is a cute, funny read with a lesson within the pages. I mean, really, people are always saying you should be happy with what you have and la la la la, but at the same time, shouldn't those same people be happy with who we are?

If that doesn't make sense, it will once you read this book.

Gerri has hit rock bottom. Her family is ashamed of her; they won't even tell people she writes books for a living. Her mother nags her constantly. She can do nothing right in her mother's eyes, can't wear the right clothes, date the right men, set a plate properly, cannot compare to her sisters... This mother is a piece of work. Seriously.

A new company has taken over Gerri's publisher and is replacing all her medical romances with vampires. She may be out of a job.

In a nutshell, this Gerri girl has just been a doormat for so long and she's tired of it. She makes the most of her last week on earth and plans to kill herself with 37 sleeping pills...but a very annoying friend accidentally hinders her...and OMG, these brutally honest letters are already on their way to everyone's mailboxes...and these letters confess things she wouldn't dare confess if she wasn't planning to off herself.

There are crazy family members--the really devout, the nags, the rich, the belittlers. There are annoying friends, the repeaters, the ones with kids, the deluded. There are former online dates, the liar and Mr. 12 or 13 inch... I absolutely loved the heroine's sarcastic wit. There's a romance but it's def not the sole focus and comes rather late in the game.There's really a lot going on here. Summing it up is impossible. I will say I find it well written, engaging, humorous, and as I said above, there's a lesson. 

Quit trying to please others and just please yourself. You'll just go crazy otherwise.

Frankly I think the whole "write everyone a letter before I die and just get this out in the open" was a superb idea. The letters were some of the funniest parts. My only quibbles with this story are...1. The characters fell kind of flat, one dimensional. That could be something to do with translation though. There was a serious lack of emotion at times. 2. I would have preferred to the mother/daughter relationship resolved. I don't feel there was a resolution there at all. The mother was still downright nasty in the end. I was hoping that would change. I'd have liked the heroine to stand up to her the way she did her father. I felt some things needed saying.

Favorite part: And what on earth is this sentence supposed to mean: "Her breasts rose and fell breathlessly." Breathless breasts? HELLO?

I got this via Amazon Vine.