Title: Sex, Lies and Bonsai
Author: Lisa Walker
Published: HarperCollins AU December 2012
Synopsis: Have you ever felt the need to start again? Dumped by text message, Edie flees Sydney for the refuge of her childhood home, taking only a wilting bonsai as a reminder of her failure. But in this small coastal town, shy, awkward Edie has always lived in the shadow of her surf champion father. How can she move on from her ex — and from her past? Her best friend and life-coach, Sally, is full of dubious advice, but Edie finds there are many ways to mess things up all by herself. A new-found talent for erotic writing, a job drawing crab larvae, unrequited lust for a professor with hidden depths and a maddening musician with troubles of his own add to her swag of problems. And then things get complicated
Status: Read from December 12 to 14, 2012 — I own a copy {Courtesy the author}
My Thoughts:
Sex, Lies and Bonsai is a contemporary romantic comedy by Australian author Lisa Walker. Edie has returned home to the small coastal town of Darling Head after being unceremoniously dumped by her boyfriend of over a year. Besieged by insecurities, Edie wallows in her misery until her best friend insists she makes an effort to change her life. So Edie jettisons poetry for erotica, develops a crush on her boss and falls in love with a troubled musician, and then things get complicated…
Awkward and introverted, Edie has always felt like the odd one out, imagining her true self to be somehow deficient. Though it’s evident Edie is crushed by Daniel’s rejection, it quickly becomes clear that low self esteem has been an issue for Edie all her life and her emotional pain, which she charts daily, reflects far more than her immediate heartbreak. While Edie definitely engenders the reader’s sympathy, I could not help but feel for her, I have to admit I found her negativity frustrating at times. She is often her own worst enemy, over-thinking the simplest of things and succumbing frequently to self doubt.
Edie’s journey to self acceptance is not an easy one but luckily she has the well meaning, if sometimes over enthusiastic, support of her best friend, Sally. Inspired to become a life coach, Sally experiments on Edie, setting small daily tasks designed to bring Edie out of her shell. Though the results are mixed, it is Sally’s coaching that inadvertently prompts Edie to take a chance on revealing herself to Jay.
Jay and Edie have similar histories so it is understandable they are drawn to each other. They are both the children of legends (Edie’s dad is a surfing champion and Jay’s dad is a rock star), both are victims of a relationship break up that left them reeling and they have a unique bond, through Edie’s absent mother. Though the relationship between Edie and Jay is complicated by their own neuroses and is slow to develop, it is lovely to see them both gain the acceptance they crave.
There is plenty of humour in Sex, Lies and Bonsai, despite all the emotional angst. Between Edie’s imaginary conversations with her bedside Bonsai, her father’s girlfriend’s propensity for gardening naked and the establishment of the Crab Sex Institute, Walker’s idiosyncratic cast will have you smiling.
Sensitive readers shouldn’t be too concerned about the erotic content, I thought it mostly amusing rather than sexy, though be warned, Walker does on occasion use reasonably explicit language, and a lot of bizarre euphemisms.
If you have ever felt no one quite gets you, and maybe no one ever will, then this novel will give you hope. Lisa Walker is a talented writer and Sex, Lies and Bonsai is a quirky, engaging story of self discovery, love and life.
Click here to read an excerpt and a word or two from Lisa Walker
Sex, Lies and Bonsai is available to purchase
In digital format from today: @HarperCollins Australia I @Amazon Kindle
Pre-order the print edition due Jan 1st 2013:@HarperCollinsAu I @Booktopia
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Enter to Win
1 of two signed print editions of
Sex, Lies and Bonsai
(Open to Australian Residents only)
Click here to read Chapter 1 of Sex Lies and Bonsai
and then
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Entries close December 31st 2012
Winner drawn via Random.org
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Book’d Out 
I can see I’m going to be invested in all of these characters. Fabulous thank you.
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I am adding this to my TBR – I think I would like it from your review. Thanks for the giveaway opportunity to win a copy.
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Sounds likes the type of book that interests me. Quirky characters and an unusual storyline are always more interesting. Thanks for the win a copy opportunity.
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I love life-affirming novels. Many, however, tend to be serious rather than comedic. It is the obvious talent Lisa has for making readers smile and not be too serious that makes this novel stand out as something different. At least that’s how the review and promise reads. For this reason I think Sex, Lies and Bonsai would be great read. Nice review.
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