Three Chicks and Their Books: Release Blitz: The Perfect Life by Callie Anderson

Title: The Perfect Life

Author: Callie Anderson

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: September 12, 2018
Cover Designer: Kari March

I had a perfect life.

The loving husband, the sweet little boy, I even had the white picket fence.

If someone took a picture of my family, I’d be the epitome of what they envisioned for themselves. I’d smile for the camera, laugh when it was appropriate and carried on with my life like there wasn’t anything wrong.

I was happy.

But it was all a lie.

Everything I knew or believed was a lie. I wasn’t happy. I was broken despite having everything anyone could ever want. I’d lay awake imagining a world where it would all vanish. Maybe then I wouldn’t feel so alone.

To the outside world, I had the perfect life.

But inside all I had were fragments of what I used to be.

A loving husband, a sweet little boy, and a white picket fence.

My life was perfect.

But it was all a lie.

3.5 stars
Review by Lisa Kane

Stephanie Johnson had it all-the perfect life. Perfect marriage, perfect child, perfect house. Only things were not as perfect as they seemed. Her husband Bruce centers his attention on their son AJ. All the love and attention he showered on her before the baby came, seems to have been redirected. Heated words are spoken, the silences are more frequent and then a tragic loss occurs.

By the time AJ was six months old, I felt as though my husband was no longer attracted to me. I had never truly understood the difference between being alone and being lonely until then.

Four years later, Stephanie finds herself back in her old hometown. In the house she and Bruce owned. Only her son is now starting school and her life is changing. A little accident brings AJ and Stephanie to the ER where a gorgeous doctor named Dr. Luke Dixon treats her little man.

He looked different than that last time I'd seen him, younger, closer to my age, more handsome than I remembered.

It would seem Stephanie is slowly thawing out. Chance meetings with Luke give him the opportunity to let her know that he is more than a little interested in her. Stephanie still has so much guilt from Bruce's death and she has trouble with her mother-in-law. She's lived without a man for so long, why complicate things?

Maybe because he's hot, and smart and is interested in you!

"If I'm Aj's doctor, it's unethical for me to ask you out to dinner."
"I don't date," I blurted out. It was God's honest truth. I hadn't been on a date in over ten years.

Luke is almost too good to be true and he knows he's going to need a lot of patience if he wants a relationship with Stephanie. She's giving things a chance, but in the back of her mind, she's waiting for the other shoe to drop. Is she just being overly cautious or she right to be so concerned?

I knew my walls were built high. I spent four years making sure they were bullet proof. I never planned on letting anyone back in.

The Perfect Life is a sweet read with a little angst. In the past this author has decimated my heart with her books. She can write the hell out of drama and conflict. I think I just needed more from this story. I had trouble understanding why Stephanie was so guilt ridden and why anyone would allow themselves to be so verbally abused by the in-law from hell. She's had years of counseling and I would think at some point she would start to see things more realistically. I wanted to connect with her on so many levels, but I struggled to do so.

"No one is perfect, and there's no perfect life. But for whatever reason, I've been given a second chance at love, and I need to seize the moment. I know first hand how precious love can be."