Confessions of a Call Center Gal

by Lisa Lim

[Kim Deister]

Confessions of a Call Center Gal is the debut novel of author Lisa Lim, and it is a fantastic start to what I hope is a long line of books. I loved just about everything about this book! I was hooked from the very beginning and just couldn't put it down. The book is a wonderful mix of humor and even some sadness and bittersweet moments. Maddy and her best friend Karsynn are fresh out of college and neither girl can find a job. Sick of living off of her mother and completely bored, Maddy decides to visit Kars in Idaho, and that visit becomes a permanent move when the girls get jobs as customer service reps in a call center.

There were times when I was just laughing out loud at some of the phone calls Maddy recieves in the call center. I frequently went back and reread them just to giggle some more. There were others that were sweet and cute, even some that were heartachingly sad. Much of the book centers around the call center itself, and the people Maddy meets there, but there is plenty to the story outside of it as well. Maddy's crush on Mika, a co-worker, was fun to read about, although there were times that I just wanted to scream at them to get to it and get together! But the inevitable bad timing and misunderstandings just added to the anticipation of the story. There was a subplot with Kars that injected a bit of seriousness and no small amount of sadness into the story, and my heart wanted to break for her.

The characters in this book were wonderful and easily believable. Definately in the light-spirited tone of the book, near the end of the book there was a memo sent out in the call center that had character names that had me laughing hysterically. All of the characters were great, although I think Truong and Hilary were among my favorites of the supporting cast. I had a perfect mental image of Hilary that stayed trhoughout the book, and Truong had me laughing out loud!

This is a fabulously fun read that I highly recommend! The characters are great and the call center stories will give you an entirely different point of view. A really fun book!