Karen BergreenReseñas

Someone is killing the affluent, unbearably snobby mothers of private school preschoolers. One mom, still battling post-postpartum depression determines to solve the case. A fun tour through the maddening world of upper crust private nursery schools.
Karen Bergreen's second book is as much fun as her first. I look forward to her next release!

I really enjoyed this book. I was a little uncomfortable with her following (stalking!) at first. After awhile I found it funny and that I could even relate with her. Alice Teakle is a "Stephanie Plum" character - funny, witty, and a bit bumbling but always comes out ahead. The story was entertaining, not predictable, and believable.

Perfect Is Overrated is a great novel. The main character, Katie, is smart, witty and very real. The book starts right after the murder of a fellow elite pre-school mother. She had spent most of the past three years in a deep post-partum depression and as a former assistant District Attorney, the murder has gotten her up and running. Great plot for the murder, I honestly did not see the killer coming until about two pager before Katie revealed the killer. However the ending for Katie, I called from chapter two.

Since I was looking for a light read, I found the perfect book. I would definitely read other books by Bergreen.

This book wasn't perfect or overrated (groan). I loved the author's Following Polly, and this wasn't as good, but still OK (I gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars, which for me is decent). Kate is a former prosecutor now raising a child. Her marriage to an NYC cop has fallen apart, but he still lives in the same building. This comes in handy when moms in her daughter's posh preschool start dropping like flies.½

Alice loses her casting agency job and with nothing better to do, begins following her much more successful Harvard classmate Polly around Manhattan. When Polly ends up dead, Alice becomes a suspect and ends up hiding out with her school crush, Charlie. This sounds bizarre, but unfolds realistically and with great humor. Liked it a lot.½

Story kept me entertained. I would read another book by the author.

I loved this book! The main character, Kate, is so real. She is flawed, raw and worth caring about. Her story is that of many mothers and women and tackles some heavy topics without being too heavy. It is about motherhood at its best and worst, it is about marriage with its highs and lows and it is about maneuvering relationships of all forms. I could not believe how much of Kate's experiences, minus the murders, are similar to mine. I loved the humor, depth and storytelling in this novel. It has mystery, great characters and an ending I loved. I highly recommend this book and rate it 4.5 stars!

Weird no chapters. Decent read but the writing style was a bit off putting½

It took a little time to get used to the writing style of this author; but it was an easy read. The story kept my interest enough that I read it in two sittings in order to find out who did it and if the girl would get the guy in the end.

This book is an interesting mix of romance, mystery and the effects of post-partum depression. I liked it because it was a bit different than most mysteries. The romance part was a big formulaic and it was easy to see how it was going to go the way of the typical, there's a horrible misunderstanding that tears the couple apart and once it's resolved . . . .well, read the book to find out. I enjoyed the mystery part because it wasn't obvious who the killer was or what the motive might be until quite late in the book. This isn't great literature, but it is a cut above most mysteries out there in terms of character development and uniqueness, and the writing is smart, engaging, and for the most part well-paced. It's intriguing, sometimes funny, chick lit. I enjoyed it!

Who knew murder could be so invigorating?

After years of suffering postpartum depression, Kate Hagen finally feels a renewed interest in life. All it took was the murder of a fellow Hawthorne Preschool parent.

The opening scene of ‘Perfect is Overrated’ by Karen Bergreen finds Kate in bed huddled under her daughter’s princess comforter (her own has been in the laundry for two years). She perks up on hearing that a fellow Hawthorne Preschool mother has been murdered. The ‘gruesome details’ even get her out of bed. And so Kate begins to reengage. Throughout the novel she reclaims the person she had been before depression took hold.

Kate was a successful Assistant District Attorney in New York, married to a NYPD detective, Paul Alger. They were madly in love and excited to start a family. Kate’s first pregnancy ended tragically in a miscarriage; her second pregnancy ended with an emergency C-section and her daughter, Molly, a premature baby in the NICU. Molly was sent home with an excellent prognosis, but Kate herself slipped into a depression that lasted years and destroyed her marriage. We meet her as fellow Hawthorne mothers are being killed, and subsequently Kate’s own interest in life is being rekindled.

Ms. Bergreen’s has a marvelous writing style – she doesn’t feel compelled to spell out every thought, emotion, and conclusion. Rather she assumes an intelligent reader who can draw conclusions from the evidence of the characters’ actions. She allows events to speak rather than providing lengthy, unneeded exposition. With admirably spare description, Karen Bergreen paints a fully realized scene. She also can put a wealth of implied social commentary in just a few words. Describing the competitive nature of the preschool application process, her protagonist Kate notes: “Rejection meant a life of homeschooling and a college degree from the internet.” With one sentence the author skewers a whole class attitude toward education.

The dialogue was equally wonderfully written and the reader is left with a very clear mental picture of the characters. The mystery, too, is skillfully constructed. And the end was a shock! Yet all the steps leading to the first murder are there; their significance obvious upon rereading. (And rereading is a pleasure, which is in and of itself a great comment on the enjoyable nature of the novel!)

But ultimately, one of the best aspects of the book is simply that Kate, herself, is an incredibly likable person. She has a wry sense of humor and is refreshingly honest and humble about herself and her motives. She’s also just plain funny. When she heard about the first murder she comments about the victim’s daughter, “I, too, feel sorry for the child, but on the bright side, Bitsy will never again have to wear bloomers.” Remembering meeting her future (ex)husband, Paul, Kate says, “I sounded, I’m not proud to admit, like a fourth-grader looking for a school-project buddy.”

Kate is a self-aware and thoughtful narrator; one always has the feeling that she is fully sentient of the absurdity of her own foibles and therefore largely tolerant of others’. Upon learning that a fellow Hawthorne mom was an authority on bears before having children, Kate thinks, “I had regarded her as only a mother who failed to discipline her kid. Maybe she was raised without boundaries. Perhaps this is what gave her the confidence to live among the beasts. Maybe Caleb is, or at least was, destined to do something great.”

The novel’s author has been/is an attorney and a stand-up comic, and both of these experiences contribute to the success of the novel. This is an incredibly fun book to read. I grinned my way through every chapter. There are many, many chuckle-out-loud moments. For example, Kate contemplates one of Molly’s preschool classmates, Woodrow, who was “the most overdressed person in the school. The kids wore a bow tie every day. I was tempted to call my friends at Family Services and tell them to come and collect him.”

I didn’t want this novel to end, mostly because I wanted to spend more time with the characters. I didn’t want to close that last page. And I can’t think of a better recommendation than that.

"Perfect is Overreated," and a little bit slow.

ADA, wife and mom, Kate Alger's life is thrown into disarray when she develops postpartum depression. No longer a ADA, no longer a wife, but the best mother she can be after several years Kate slowly starts to pull herself out of her depression. What this former ADA needed was to sink her teeth into an investigation, but maybe one not so close to home. A string of mothers being murdered of kids who go to her daughter private pre-school has everyone on high alert, but Kate can't help but want to figure out whats going on.

I found "Perfect is Overrated," to be a good story, but a bit slow, and I didn't like how the story kept going back and forth from present to past to present so much. Trying to figure out who was the murder was, was the only thing really that kept me reading, and I will say I would never of guessed who the culprit was. Now, they say not to judge a book by its cover, but this one I did. It has a dog all dressed up on the cover and there was no a dog in the story and i kept waiting for her to get one, and was slightly disappointed that there wasn't one.

This book did a good job at touching on postpartum depression from the point of a view of a woman who seemed to have it all – good job, amazing husband, beautiful baby and the obligatory best friend who drives you crazy. Not to mean to sound gory, but I liked the fact that what brought Kate back around was the rich, snobby murders of the mothers in her daughter’s school. As an attorney, Kate was at attention and did what she can (including breaking into her ex-husband’s computer and pretending to be an interested party to buy a huge mansion).

The murderer turns out to be totally unexpected and many good and unexpected twists are sprinkled throughout the book. I thought this was a well written and book and was excited to receive it.

It is odd to write "humor" and then "postpartum depression" one right after another (in the tags), but this book pulled it off. It's hard to pin down in some ways -- on the surface it's a mystery, but the mystery was entirely besides the point. This was really about a woman who is trying to fight her way back into a world she recognizes. There are people who care about her, people who are trying to help her back up, and she knows it, but she just can't get there. And then these things begin happening and they give her something else to think about for the first time since the birth of her daughter.

About the mystery plot: In some ways, this was one of the more realistic amateur mysteries I think I've read. The heroine actually had a background that made her 'detecting' make sense in a way, say, the owner of a crochet shop doesn't at all. And she kind of stumbled into things but wasn't the lynchpin in a way that I think is actually the way that might play out. So I liked that, too. The ending kind of came out of nowhere for me, and although it made sense when I thought about it, it was definitely a kind of ... "Huh?" But, honestly, I didn't care. By that point, I couldn't have cared less who the killer was; I just wanted to find out what happened with her ex, with her life.

Along those lines, however, the author entirely delivered. I loved this character and I loved the people around her. I loved how she loved her daughter so very much -- and how much humor there was about how debilitating that was. It was an illuminating look into the world of postpartum depression, but Karen Bergreen presented it in such a way that it wasn't threatening or, oddly, even depressing in any way. I think anyone who knows someone struggling with this issue -- yes, even though their child might be four or five years old -- should read this for a little bit of insight into the darkness even amidst the joy of loving a child.

I'll certainly be looking out for other books from this author. I'm excited to see what she does next.

Kate Alger has suffered from post-partum depression since her daughter Molly was born four years ago. She is finally starting to make her recovery when another mom at Molly’s school is murdered. Instead of driving Kate back to her bed, the murder invigorates her.

A former Assistant U.S. Attorney, Kate’s instincts for catching bad guys kicks in and she starts snooping into the murders. Unknowingly helping her is Kate’s ex-husband, Paul, an NYPD detective living in the apartment above hers, and her good friend Peg, also a prosecutor.

As the murders start piling up, the pre-depression Kate breaks through more and more and she starts to confront the issues from her past that kept her in her depression.

Perfect is Overrated really surprised me, I picked it up thinking I was going to have to trudge through and not get any enjoyment and I was happily surprised that I liked it.

Aside from the fact that Kate has been suffering from post-partum depression for four years – really, her mom is a psychologist and no one thought to put her on meds, or anything? I think Bergreen does a good job with Kate, I came to really like her character and as the story developed more and more of Kate’s backbone appears.

There was a lot of backstory involving how her and her ex-husband met and fell in love (they both knew immediately they were going to get married and three dates in he tells her he wants to have babies with her), her pregnancy and scenes from her depression. At first I was annoyed at all of the backstory but I realized Perfect is Overrated is not so much about the murders but a woman’s descent into post-partum depression and her rise to overcome the depression which aside from the four year part, I think Bergreen handled believably.

Bergreen writes with a snarky wit that I really enjoyed. Kate has a lot of good liners that had me chuckling, most of them involving her ex. The writing is fast and the story is intriguing with enough twists and turns to leave you guessing.

My only issues with Perfect is Overrated was the four year depression that no one did anything about. In some ways it is resolved, but still leaves me shaking my head a bit. The reasons for the divorce of Kate and Paul had me internally screaming to just talk to each other! I suspected what really happened and wanted to shake both of them for lack of communication. For two people who were so in tune with each other that they knew after their first meeting they were going to get married this is unfathomable.

Problems aside, I think it was a really good beach book. I was interested enough to fly through in just a couple sittings. I liked the characters and the murders kept me guessing who dunnit until after a couple tries I landed on the right character. If you’re looking for a light read on the last days of summer, or even after! Perfect is Overrated is a good choice.

I received an ARC of this book, and I was up into the night reading it.
It's not a book that will "stay" with you forever, but it is a page turner that will keep you guessing and laughing.
I liked certain characters and couldn't stand others...they were well done and you rooted for certain people.
The book touched on post partum depression while being humorous and a cozy type mystery...I know it doesn't seem like these can all go together, but the author manages to do it.
Very enjoyable read.

Following Polly has many funny passages, including an especially humorous Manhattan party crashing scene that is up to the level of Woody Allen's New Yorker pieces. I thought Following Polly was merely going to be a breezy chick-lit diversion. However, it is a fine novel with an intriguing murder mystery and hilarious comic turns. It is chick lit with an unexpected emphasis on the "lit." What elevates Following Polly is its treatment of the down side of life in Manhattan, when it feels lonely and loveless and cashless to boot. Manhattan is almost a character here (also like Woody) as Polly tries to clear herself of a murder charge while evading the police and finding herself. She is dogged by the highly inconvenient fact that she was sort of stalking the murder victim, a former college classmate who is prettier and much more successful than Polly, and was never very nice to her, at the time the victim is found dead. This also turns out to be a love story, and of course love solves all. Read this book!

I liked the book, I really did. But, I felt it was predictable the entire time. I found myself a little annoyed with the relationship between husband (ex-husband) and wife and how there was really nothing wrong in the first place. The plot had some fun twists and turns, and there was quite a bit of fun even though there were murders within the book. I'd definitely recommend, but I can't say I absolutely LOVED the book.½

I love Karen Bergreen’s Following Polly. I love her writing style in the first book and I was excited when I found out about her new book, Perfect is Overrated. But the first thing that irked me is the cover. I didn’t like it. If I haven’t read the first book, there’s a huge chance that I wouldn’t read the second one (I still couldn’t understand what that dog on the cover got to do with the story).

Perfect is Overated is something that I would recommend if you’re looking to a light/cozy mystery. I have to say that Karen Bergreen is really good in plotting her mystery. I think that she had successfully thrown me off in guessing who the murder is. Karen Bregreen’s writing style is highly entertaining and funny. (Although, I do think that the first book is funnier than this one). There were a few parts which are a bit confusing. Especially when Kate revisited her past and talked about how she and Paul met. I thought it would be great if the book is divided into chapters to separate some scene. Which reminds me... why isn’t the book divided into chapters!!?

91. Perfect is Overrated by Karen Bergreen

A single mom, living in the apartment below her ex-husband, finds that working to solve the murders of moms( at the prestigious private school her three year old daughter attends) is helping to lift her out of her postpartum depression and find herself again.

I really enjoyed this book-the author clearly understood mothers and children (the three year old's voice is spot-on), as well as depression. The mystery was excellent as well-I didn't guess the ending until about a paragraph before it happened.

Excellent book! It's all about a single mom who has an ex who lives in the apartment above her. She is a former DA suffering from post-partem depression. it takes a good juicy murder mystery to help her overcome her depression and realize her life is still worth living. Enjoyable book with interesting characters and a mystery that will keep you guessing.

This book was a great beach read. It did flash back and forth between the present and the past often. The ending was not one that I had expected. I really like the characters and the authors descriptive touches for many of the details.

I liked the premise of this book, but found it a bit confusing at times. Kate was very likable, and the author's portrayal of her postpartum was nicely done, yet I could not find myself enjoying the book.

After the birth of her daughter Molly Kate Alger not only suffered from postpartum depression but the collapse of her marriage. Kate is slowly recovering and getting her life back together when her world is rocked by the murder of the mother of one of Molly's classmates. Kate used to be an Assistant District Attorney and can't help but become interested in the case. Soon she thinks she knows who the killer is but she's been wrong all too often in the recent past.

“Perfect is Overrated” is a wonderful novel that pulled me into the story right from the beginning. In many ways the novel shouldn't have worked. It is a combination of many different things that seemingly don't mesh well together – murder, romance, depression, friendship, culture clashes, betrayal, mistakes - yet they blend together beautifully. Another thing that could have been disastrous yet works well is the tremendous amount of flashbacks - they could have been annoying but somehow blend seamlessly into the story. Author Karen Bergreen does a wonderful job with the character of Kate - her recovery from postpartum depression is handled delicately and sensitively. This novel is really Kate’s story as she begins to make her way back into the real world, stumbling a few times on the way – she is a very real character. Some of the other characters, particularly Miriam, border cartoonish at times - but Bergreen never quite makes them unbelievable enough to be annoying. The mystery itself at times becomes secondary to Kate’s story but there are enough surprises in the story to keep it interesting (one character does seem to appear late in the book as a convenient plot device). Finally, the end of the book is guaranteed to make readers smile as they read it.

“Perfect is Overrated” may not be perfect but it comes pretty darn close.

What's it like to be one of the alpha-women, the high-power career women, among the elite women in NYC? The competition for perfection is fierce and it started as early as in kindergarten. How does one maintain that "perfect image"? Well, if you don't have one, then make one, and hide the flaw and ugly past at all cost. And what would someone like Kate do after she got married, pregnant, then suffered postpartum depression which led to divorce-that-should-never-be? It's been four years since her daughter was born and the onset of this depression, Kate's gone through the usual steps that most clinically depressed person would go through, in denial, in therapy, medicated, coping and dealing with it. But not quite cured. In Kate's case, what would cure her depression or got her out of it most effectively, (who would have guess) that it would take three serial murders of the mum in her daughter's kindergarten to pull her out of this dark cloud and dusted her skills as assistant DA, put on her suit and started do some investigating of her own, nosing and snooping around to find "who-done-it". This is a twisted, dark but funny contemporary suspense/romance novel all blended into the insane world of the rich women in NYC who're obsessed with perfection, image, reputation, compete to get there and get it at all cost, and then some. All in all, a good read, though the main character suffers depression, but I still feel it's a light reading and funny enough to make you chuckle at idiotic things people do or think important in their lives.
One note here is that I found the motive of the murderer a bit weak, especially of the cases of victim number 2 and 3. I can only assume (by a small hint in the story) that after the murderer got a taste of killing, found out that it's got talent for it, started liking it, and decided to hone the skill after the first victim? It just seems unnecessary and (literally) "overkill" to expend with those victims just to get to and find what the murderer wanted. Hence, my theory.