Lisa G. (wndrngrl) - , reviewed on 5/21/2005 + 107 more book reviews

Rachel Pixley has escaped from her less than ideal past and recreated herself as Olivia Joules, journalist extraordinare. Oliva, as the title points out, does indeed have an overactive imagination, and this prompts her editor to stuff her into the Style section of the paper. It seems Olivia has come up with such unbelieveable stories that the paper is concerned she's a liability. When Olivia is sent to Miami to cover a face cream launch, she is introduced to Pierre Ferramo, a Europian playboy and alleged film director. Is it Olivia's healthy imagination, or does he resemble Osama Bin Laden a bit? Trying to write her assumptions off as post 9/11 paranoia, Olivia eventually feels compelled to follow her gut instinct. Especially when the Oceans Apart cruise ship/apartment houseboat blows up and CNN confirms that the government believes it to be a terrorist attack. Now Olivia begins to believe her own hype: Is Ferramo just a womanizing letch luring young girls under the guise of being a "director"? Or is he an Al-Quaida operative, staying in Miami under the guise of being a "director"?

Olivia's instincts take her all over the world as Ferramo whisks her away to places unknown. As you can probably guess, Olivia (much like her predecessor Bridget Jones) gets herself into many a mess due to her "overactive imagination", and the predictability of this plot took away 1 star for me. However, the novel is genuinely entertaining and timely, although never exploitational. It's also nice to see Fielding break away from Bridget's body obsession and give Olivia an "I don't care what anyone thinks about my body" attitude. Great fluff reading when you need a break from everything

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