The Opposite of Me: A Novel

Goodreads Description- Twenty-nine-year-old Lindsey Rose has, for as long as she can remember, lived in the shadow of her ravishingly beautiful fraternal twin sister, Alex. Determined to get noticed, Lindsey is finally on the cusp of being named VP creative director of an elite New York advertising agency, after years of eighty-plus-hour weeks, migraines, and profound loneliness. But during the course of one devastating night, Lindsey’s carefully constructed life implodes. Humiliated, she flees the glitter of Manhattan and retreats to the time warp of her parents’ Maryland home. As her sister plans her lavish wedding to her Prince Charming, Lindsey struggles to maintain her identity as the smart, responsible twin while she furtively tries to piece her career back together. But things get more complicated when a long-held family secret is unleashed that forces both sisters to reconsider who they are and who they are meant to be.

First of all, I have to say that this book starts off very slowly. So much so that I almost gave up. But OMG...I am SO glad that I didn't because I really would have missed out on a really good book. I have to say that I am really shocked to find myself giving a book that started out the way it did 5 stars! The novel really picked up at about page 150 in the trade paperback edition. Then it took off and flew! I am excusing her slow start to the fact that this is her debut novel, but if this is the only problem then I simply cannot wait to read more of her writing as it matures.

I thought that the relationship between Lindsay and Alex very real. When you have two daughters, especially fraternal twins, there is most definitely going to be comparisons and jealousy especially when one, Alex, is obviously much more beautiful than the other. Of course Lindsay is going to feel ignored and almost invisible behind the shine of not only Alex's looks but magnetic personality. This is just real relationship stuff between sisters and anyone who has sisters, and it doesn't have to be a twin, has felt jealousy at some point of the other. And it definitely goes both ways. As Lindsay finds out throughout her transformation in the book and her renewed relationship with Alex, Lindsay realizes that Alex was jealous of Lindsay's academic abilities. Alex wished she lived an independent life in New York with a high powered job in a big time ad agency, but Lindsay was so wrapped up in her own feelings to ever realize that Alex may have some of the same feelings toward her. Alex and Lindsay were so real and fully developed that I felt like they could be members of my own family. I understood exactly what they were feeling and the problems that were keeping them apart. It's was just a shame that it took such a major event to get the sisters talking again and re-inventing their relationship.

One another note, I absolutely loved Alex and Lindsay's parents. They provided great comic relief during some tough times during the book. They were portrayed perfectly as an long happily married couple who bickered and fought hilariously throughout the book! They were great!

The major event that got the girls talking again was a mind blower. I can't say much more because I don't want to spoil the book but it was written with such love and bittersweetness. This was when the sisters truly started to re-connect. It felt so real and it truly touched my heart.

I can't say enough about this book! It was fantastic! I had my doubts at the beginning but the author redeemed herself with an excellent comeback with a wonderful story and beautiful writing with characters that were true and real. I highly recommend this book! Just stick with it if you are having trouble at the beginning. Trust me...it gets so much better. 5 stars!

I would physically have to tear myself away from this book otherwise I would have read the whole thing in one long setting which doesn't work with my life.

This author made a familiar theme both fresh and completely relatable. Having been assigned the role of the Smart One in my house from an early age I completely understood exactly where Lindsey was coming from. The expectations you put on yourself because that is what you think is expected from you really hit home with me. I too, rarely wear makeup because all eyes on my sister where ever we go anyway so I always figure, "Why bother?"

The book also somewhat explores the feeling of the Pretty One but only in the form of observations from Lindsey. How Alex feels about getting older and being pushed out of her career by younger, prettier girls. How she is dealing with having to rely on something other than her looks and personality as those start to fade.

This book is full of wry observations, laugh out loud situations, cringe worthy moments, and has a wholly satisfying end that leaves more to the imagination then just they all lived happily ever after. I look forward to reading much more from this author in the future.

I love the whole premise of this book - how the roles we are given when we are growing up stick with us. In this case it's about two sisters (fraternal twin sisters here) - one who is the smart one, and one who is the pretty one. Having grown up with two sisters, I can totally relate to the labels that our own parents, teachers, family and friends gave us. My whole life (even now into my thirties), I've been defined by those labels put on me (and the same for my sisters) when we were young.

This novel is about how Lindsay (smart one) and Alex (pretty one) begin to understand that those roles they were given, which caused them to feel very opposite of each other, may not be who they truly are, definitely not all they are, and that they have more in common than they thought.

Sarah Pekkanen has a fresh and funny voice, I laughed out loud many times and could relate to both sisters who were adoringly flawed and fantastic. The premise is that Lindsay, who was working in NYC at a high powered ad agency, gets fired (thanks to a comical bad decision and scenario in the boardroom) and goes back home to Maryland to get her ducks in a row. Back home, her beautiful sister Alex, who seems to have it all, is getting married to a gorgeous, rich prince charming. There's also the old high school flame and the very funny parents. Things unfold in a humorous way, at a good pace and even when things get serious and the story turns in a way that's unexpected, Pekkanen has the gift of balancing the right amount of humor and heart.

You will LOVE this book... If you love Jennifer Weiner, Emily Giffin and Allison Winn Scotch, then be sure to embrace Sarah Pekkanen because I believe her career in women's fiction (fun, relatable and real stories for women) is just taking off.

The Opposite of Me has a complexity to it that many critics of books about the interests of women deny is possible. They have a notion in their heads that these books are silly at best and dangerous at worst. If women writers want to be taken seriously, we're told, they have to write about serious matters -- as if love and family and the search for identity is the small stuff. Of course, slap a man's name on a lot of the books that get dismissed and they'd magically be seen as weightier.

I selected this because I saw the author on a message board and she seemed pleasant and mentioned to someone in the course of that conversation that Jennifer Weiner had been particularly kind to her and enjoyed the book. It was enough to make me buy a copy.

When we meet Lindsay, she is a workaholic bucking for a vice presidential position on an ad agency. The opening is fast and witty and very much what we've come to call chick lit. Soon the tone changes as things don't work out as Lindsay expects and she's forced to reevaluate who she is, how she ended up so driven, and where she wants to go with her life.

We discover early in the book that Lindsay feels competitive with her sister, Alex. Lindsay is the smart one and Alex is the pretty one, but the book tells us that this is too simplistic. The sisters are who they are because of who they perceive the other one to be -- but what if they'd been wrong?

I might be an only child, but I've spent time wondering how my childhood shaped me. Wondering how you sort through the lessons you want to keep and the ones you want to discard and find who you were really born to be and all of this is at the heart of The Opposite of me, a very appropriate title.

Read this one fast, stayed up all night to finish. Enjoyed.

I found this to me a well-written book, but some of the juxtapositions, some of the moments, seemed a little too perfect. Novels get to boil life down a little to the essence, but sometimes moments can be made trite if an author isn't careful. It didn't happen often here, but occasionally events were coincidental in a way that seemed artificial. Small criticism.

This is the first book I've read by Sarah Pekkanen and it was so good that I can't wait to read her other books! The book was well-written and the characters were quite believable. Lindsey is the narrator and is very relatable. I particularly liked watching her relationship with her twin sister Alex. They start the book as virtual strangers and we get to watch them grow into true sisters.

In fact, the whole story revolves around change and growth and what can happen when you step back and let life unfold instead of trying to take life's reins and try to force it to unfold the way you think that it should.

Really good book. Highly recommended!

I am so excited to find a new author whom I enjoy very much! This is Sarah Pekkanen's first novel and it was very easy and fun to read! I will admit that it took me 12 days to read the first half but then only two to read the second half. I found myself strongly identifying with Lindsay, the main character. Even though I don't have a sister, she like myself found herself at a crossroads in her life. She could stay with what she knows, the line of work she knows, working in an ad agency, or she could do something completely different and reinvent herself. This topic really hit home for me, reminding me that I can stay with what I am comfortable with or maybe, just maybe, I can look deeper inside myslef and find who and what I am really supposed to be doing. I love that this book had a couple different themes going on (labels we are given as children, sibling competition) yet still felt like a good light read. I highly recommend it, a great summer read!

I have mixed feelings with this book. It is not bad, but I didn't like it that much, either. It is bordering okay and nice, I guess? I love flawed characters. You can see through the cracks of their armor and the depths of their souls (if written effectively). But the thing about reading REALLY flawed characters is that it takes a while for me to warm up to them. Such as the case in The Opposite of Me where it tackles about Lindsey, a rich, successful, workaholic 29-year-old who has spent her entire life (and probably 2/3 of the book) getting insecure and jealous of her gorgeous, flawless, born-with-a-spotlight-shining-through-her twin sister Alex. All of a sudden, Lindsey's life came crashing down, and she has become more obsessed on hating her sister. I understand where the envy came from, as the author digs deeper into Lindsey's past. Alex always takes the spotlight without even trying ever since they were kids, so it became Lindsey's motivation to work hard and carve her identity as the "smart" sister. While it was a good motivation, that part of her life came when she questioned herself: "Is she who she is now because she wanted it, or because she has become competitive of her sister?" I love Lindsey's journey of self-reinvention, but everytime her sister comes to the picture, she returns to this immature, jealous bitch and I started to hate her again. My patience was tested as I waited for her to redeem herself, and when this family secret was revealed (as stated in the book blurb), I was like, "That's the secret?" To make it look like a telenovela, a sub-plot was injected more than halfway through the book, acting as a buffer like, "Okay, Lindsey. You can feel better about yourself now." And what's the point of introducing this male minor character midway through the story? Still, I like the author's narrative. It sucks you to the character's minds and feelings, gaining your attention quickly. I'd still recommend this to people who have patience of reading flawed characters, and those who questioned themselves who they really are.

I found the premise of this book interesting, how you are given a certain role in life and how the main character tries to find out who she really is and who she wants to become. There are some supporting characters that are really funny and enjoyable, others that are way too much of a stereotype (Cheryl and Alex). I could totally relate to the main character and pretty much struggled with her at the beginning of the book. The first half of the story was great, but I felt that the second part wasn’t that good. There was unnecessary drama (a brain tumor? Come on people, this is not a soap opera) and the” big family secret” didn’t do much for the story (there wasn’t that many repercussions). And all of a sudden, I got to the end of the story and felt that it ended way too abruptly, especially in relation to her love life.