The Opposite of Me

November 2, 2009
Veteran journalist Pekkanen debuts with a promising yet pedestrian post–chick lit novel about a successful New York ad exec who's passed over for a promotion then unceremoniously canned. Workaholic Lindsey Rose leaves Manhattan for her family's Maryland home, resuming her role as the smart, capable daughter. Years of jealousy surge into overdrive at her beautiful twin sister Alex's engagement party when she watches her lifelong friend Bradley, possibly the guy that got away, begin to fall under her sister's golden spell. After the obligatory ugly duckling makeover, Lindsey, no longer the plain daughter, continues to hide her new look from her family. Away from them, however, a newly confident and gregarious Lindsey emerges, one able to parlay her advertising skills into a new position at a matchmaking service. It takes a terrifying medical diagnosis and a visit to her parents' musty attic to complete Lindsey's transformation. Though the story is Lindsey's, Alex also plays a large part, though her selfishness is so relentlessly portrayed, it's difficult to determine just who she is. The pace is slow, and the story just adequate.

January 1, 2010
An unemployed New Yorker moves back to her parent's house and finds her hopes for a fresh start complicated by a strained relationship with her gorgeous twin.

Workaholic Lindsey has long prided herself on being the"smart" sister. Fraternal twin Alex may be an ethereal-looking model, but Lindsey has a high-profile gig at a Manhattan advertising agency and her eye on a big promotion. So it's doubly humiliating when, after a crafty colleague lands the position"because she was sexier," Lindsey ends up in a compromising clinch with a subordinate and gets fired. Making up a story about heading a new firm in the capital, she heads back to the D.C. suburb where she grew up, just in time for the engagement dinner for Alex and her rich, hunky fianc. The sisters' rivalry reignites when Lindsey discovers that flirty Alex has developed a friendship with Bradley, a laid-back photographer who was close to Lindsey when they were teens. Thinking that Bradley might actually be the one, Lindsey plots her next move and takes an unlikely but surprisingly enjoyable job as a professional matchmaker. Trading in her sober suits for a foxy new image, she starts to take more risks but still struggles with feelings of inadequacy next to Alex, especially where Bradley is concerned. With a sudden family crisis adding to the upheaval, Lindsey discovers some information from her childhood that casts everything she thought she knew about herself in a new light. Along with this knowledge comes an opportunity for the sisters to heal their rift before it's too late.

Pekkanen's involving debut could do without the melodramatic plot twist, but it's an honest examination of the limits we place on ourselves, with well-drawn female characters.

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October 15, 2009
In her debut novel, Pekkanen mines a familiar trope: sisters who are opposites. Lindsay is the smart, ambitious sister, a high-powered ad executive living in Manhattan. Alex is the gorgeous, charming sister, a model living near their childhood home in Washington, D.C. When Lindsays controlled life falls apart in spectacular fashion and shes forced to move home, she uncovers some revelations that call into question the identities she and Alex have developed their whole lives. With the help of her new boss, an earth-mother type who runs a matchmaking service, Lindsay undergoes a reinvention that actually brings her closer to her true self. While Pekkanens themes of family and identity are familiar, her fresh, appealing approach is a welcome addition to the chick-lit canon. Both sisters are fully realizedflawed but likeable, and the story is at turns funny and poignant.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)