I was a bit hesitant about Dolls Behaving Badly when I first looked at it. Based on the summary, it seemed like one of those books that I would either love or end up hating. But I decided to give it a shot, largely because I just couldn’t shake the curiosity I felt about it.
Now that I’ve finished it, I can gladly tell you that the novel falls into the “books I loved” category.
Dolls Behaving Badly isn’t going to be a book that everyone enjoys. Erotica and sex are fairly big elements in the novel, and I know that not everyone is comfortable with those topics – which, actually, also plays a role in how the novel plays out.
If you aren’t bothered by those topics, however, then this is a novel that I really think you should check out. It’s funny, and the main character, Carla, is so real that it’s difficult not to relate to her in some way. She’s not a perfect person with a perfect life; she’s unhappy, she has trouble with money, and she can’t quite let go of her relationship with her ex-husband.
The author, Cinthia Ritchie, does a great job of getting Carla’s feelings across to the reader. There are times when Carla herself doesn’t quite know how she’s feeling, and yet I found myself picking up on what she couldn’t. And while in some novels this can get to be a bit annoying, it didn’t bother me in this one. I can’t exactly explain how I felt about it, but it was something closer to conversing with a friend who was figuring out where she was in a life as opposed to where she wanted to be.
Goodreads summary
Carla Richards is a lot of things. She’s a waitress at Anchorage’s premier dining establishment, Mexico in an Igloo; an artist who secretly makes erotic dolls for extra income; a divorcée who can’t quite detach from her ex-husband; and a single mom trying to support her gifted eight-year-old son, her pregnant sister, and her babysitter-turned-resident-teenager.
She’s one overdue bill away from completely losing control-when inspiration strikes in the form of a TV personality. Now she’s scribbling away in a diary, flirting with an anthropologist, and making appointments with a credit counselor.
Still, getting her life and dreams back on track is difficult. Is perfection really within reach? Or will she wind up with something even better?
Miranda Burski 
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