The best Emma retelling since Clueless! This sexy romantic comedy follows Georgina as she dives head first into the NYC swingers’ scene in an attempt to save her marriage … and meddle in everyone else’s.

Georgina Wagman has it all–a great marriage, a great job at a prestigious law firm, and great friends. She’s living the life she always wanted, and everything is perfect. Until, that is, she walks in on her husband Nathan in a compromising position with a junior associate. Georgina has a moment of crisis. But divorce is not a part of the five-year plan, so she comes up with an idea to save her marriage and recapture the spark. She and Nathan are going to become swingers.

Georgina isn’t going to embark on this adventure alone, though. Her friends Felix and Norah and their respective partners decide to tag along for the ride. They’ve got relationship woes of their own that swinging just might fix. Georgina, convinced Felix and Norah belong together, is thrilled. What better place to reignite romance between two people destined to be together than a swingers’ party? Her plan is foolproof, until she runs into a college ex at the first party. When they reconnect, Georgina will find herself torn between her head and her heart, with her very happiness hanging in the balance. Full of heart and humor, The Lifestyle is a sexy, hilarious novel from a bold new voice.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for letting me read this book prior to its publication. My opinion is 100% honest, unbiased, and my own.

Let me start with this… “The best retelling of Emma since Clueless”. Excuse me? No. Sorry, but no. Hell no. I am a die-hard fan of Jane Austen and if you are going to read this book expecting it to be a retelling of Emma, let me tell you that that’s not true. Not every book that includes a character who likes to do matchmaking among their friends is a retelling of Emma. Let’s be serious here. And that’s the only parallelism that I could find between Emma and this book. So please stop trying to jump onto the bandwagon of Jane Austen’s popularity.

Once said that, I calmed down and I decided to read this book for what it is. For what it really is, and that is a humorous romance story with a main character who may or may not resemble the Emma created by Jane Austen. So I found it entertaining, though not the laugh-out-loud read that was hinted.

Georgina is the typical character who thinks she has everything figured out but then she discovers her life is quite a mess, actually. And despite the mess her life is, she still believes she has to, HAS TO, force her friends to make major changes in their lives according to what she thinks it is best for them. Obviously, all kinds of situations unravel from her meddling, and all that leads to her final epiphany, when she finally realises what she needs in her life.

I liked most of the characters, but I found Georgina utterly insufferable. The pace of the story was the usual one for a romance story and it was a quick read.

If you are looking for a funny story to read during the weekend, this is your book. But if you expect to find something resembling Emma, turn around and run.

So, for all of that, I give this book… 3 TEA CUPS!