Meet Tabitha Gray, a delusional girl from Topanga, California, who redefines what it means to be a truly hopeless romantic. Tabby suffers from an aggressive strain of cock-eyed optimism – no amount of failure, embarrassment or humiliation can dent her fierce belief that real, true, lasting love is just around the corner.

Where most people think, fantasize and dream, Tabby says, feels and does. Whether waiting in her lingerie for Harrison Ford to open the door of his hotel room; declaring her love, aged nine, for Ernesto the gardener; encountering Al Pacino in a Russian bathhouse; seeking passion with a blind man on the advice of a wise old woman with dementia at her grandmother’s home for the elderly; or sending intimate photos to a random sexter with an apparently charming dick, Tabby refuses to be crushed by her many misadventures.

In this warmly witty debut novel, Sophie Kipner takes a satirical look at the extremity of romantic desperation, and pays wry tribute to the deep human need to keep on heroically searching for love despite our manifold absurdities.

Review:

Unique, quirky, and outrageously funny!

The Optimist is an exceptionally charming, highly entertaining story that takes us on a journey with the positive, determined Tabitha Gray as she sets out to find true love and ultimately “the one.”

The writing is witty and light. The characters are affable, self-reflective, and genuine. And the plot is a humorous, clever, flirty mix of embarrassing moments, awkward situations, laughs, romps, familial dynamics, friendship, entertaining hijinks, and a touch of tenderness.

Overall, I would have to say that The Optimist is an adorably romantic tale with a lot of humour and heart that does a beautiful job of highlighting that even in a world that often seems pessimistic we still have an innate desire for companionship, intimacy, and love.

This novel is available now.

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