I find myself thinking about Palmer's characters and their careers throughout the day. And often laughing aloud to myself. I'm in the kitchen cooking, thinking about becoming a pastry chef in a French village, or watching a UCLA basketball game, asking myself "Who do I know on that team?" All from the book.

The world the characters live in is too much fun, but their emotional challenges, and short comings, are all too real. Seeing Me Naked is an easy pleasure to read, and stays with you the way a good story should.

It's been awhile since I've read a book that's made me laugh out loud like this one did. I could really picture some of the scenarios, like the baby shower!
You know it's a good book when you hate to say goodbye to it.

Another great Meg Cabot recommendation. Last time she led me to the funny and quirky novels in verse of Sonya Sones. Now I find myself completely immersed in Liza Palmer's second novel, laughing out loud, wiping tears from my eyes, as DH stares at me warily and scoots a bit closer to the far side of the bed. The title, cover, and marketing indicate your standard chick lit fare. But I found SEEING ME NAKED to be a distinct cut above the rest.

Elisabeth Page is a pastry chef at the most exclusive restaurant in L.A. She chose the culinary arts as a way of escaping the overpowering influence of her father--a double Pulitzer prize winning Norman Mailor/Truman Capote/Ernest Hemingway composite. Elisabeth and her big brother Rascal (full name: Raskolnikov. Yeah.) have spent the majority of their privileged lives trying to get out from under dad's shadow. As a favor, Elisabeth donates a set of baking lessons at an auction for one of her mother's charities. Enter Daniel Sullivan: newly transplanted from Kansas assistant basketball coach at UCLA. Daniel bids on the lessons after Elisabeth rather snobbishly questions what a guy like him would do with baking lessons. And, just like that, we have a recipe for conflict. Elisabeth and Daniel have nothing in common and, after the first lesson, Daniel seems quite keen never to set foot in a kitchen again. But. He doesn't know who her father is. He's kind and funny and oh so far away from the cutthroat, upper crust, grin and bear it world Elisabeth has been living in. Plus (if she can manage to quash her knee jerk overeducated patrician reactions, aka Big If) he just might help take her mind off Will Houghton--her war correspondent boyfriend who she sees once every two years for one night at the most. A host of interesting and funny side characters fill Elisabeth's life and keep the story interesting.

This book is a treat from cover to cover. The characters are complex and carefully rendered. There is no black and white in the intricate web of family relationships they navigate. Difficult, messy, and painful as they are, Palmer shows how such relationships shape us, how influenced we are by our roots, and how, despite all this, we are still capable of becoming more than the sum of our parts and of allowing more people into our hearts than we thought they could hold.

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time! Once I pick it up, I have trouble putting it down, and when I am not reading, I look forward to being able to continue reading. The problems each person deals with are legitimate problems and aren't exxagerated and don't seem fake like with many other books. The book is entertaining and you just really want Elisabeth to succeed in life. Liza Palmer has a great writing style. I look forward to reading more of her novels in the future.

Not only was it impossible to put down once I started, but I found myself thinking about the characters and the family dynamic after I finished. (Lisa, I would love to see what happens to Will and his alcoholic mother!) I will recommend this to everyone and eagerly anticipate future books.

Seeing Me Naked is a fun book and I enjoyed it enough to read it in just a couple days. The main character, Elizabeth, had many traits that made me feel like she was someone I'd like to know and her family relationships really rang true, especially the way she relates to her father. The recipes that Elizabeth creates sound so tasty that I found myself wishing the restaurant she works at in Los Angeles, Beverly, was a real place. All in all it was a good read but it was not the laugh-out-loud kind of book some other reviews had lead me to believe it might be.

I'm not the type of person who is a big reader but I decided that I would start reading books for fun instead of sitting and watching TV all night. I picked up this book and I couldn't put it down. The hours passed by and I kept reading. By the time I knew it, it was morning and I was completely done the book! It has all the drama that relationships have but, as always, love is found when you least expect it.

I really enjoyed reading Liza Palmer's first novel, so I was very excited to see her newest work on the shelf in my local bookstore. I very much enjoyed the character development throughout the book and felt like I was evolving with the character. I couldn't help but connect some of the heroine's familial issues to my own -- we all have some kind of crazy in our families! (Don't we?!?!) Overall it was a good, fun enjoyable read. I highly recommend it.

Elisabeth Page lives in the shadow of her father and brother who are mega famous authors and her mother who comes from old money and has perfect manners. Elisabeth chose to pursue her passion and become a pastry chef which consumes all her time and energy and leaves her with no social life and all the confusion of what is really important in life.

I can't say enough about this book. The storyline is terrific. The writing is superb. The humor is fresh and wonderful. The romance is real and not over the top. A MUST READ!