Start with about three cups of Bridget Jones' clever wit and comical outlook on life. Add a few tablespoons of the touching display of sisterhood exemplified in In Her Shoes. To finish, sprinkle in a bit of the bewildered yet loveable personality of Andrea Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada. Bake for about 307 pages and you'll end up with Andrea Semple's sweet and refreshing The Makeup Girl.

Many people keep secrets from their parents. However, Faith Wishart takes the word "secret" to a new extreme. Anxious to please her mother and knowing that her real life will not suffice, she devises a pretend existence.

In real life, Faith is a single woman who works at the makeup counter at a London department store and lives in a dumpy apartment, drowning in low self-esteem and loneliness. She constantly compares herself to her younger sister, Hope, who leads the ideal glamorous life. Hope is known worldwide for her popular workout DVD and is engaged to a rich and famous celebrity.

In Faith's pretend world, she tries to match Hope's success. Just as she applies makeup to cover up her customers' flaws, she uses lies to cover up her own flaws. She invents a high-powered career at a public relations firm for herself and spends her free time with her imaginary beautiful, wealthy friends.

The most important part of the lie is her boyfriend of three months, an attractive but completely fictional lawyer named Adam.

Of course, the book's conflict emerges when Faith's mother asks to meet her so-called serious boyfriend. She has to scramble to find someone to fill the role of Adam for the performance that she is putting on for her mother. Faith, who is not the best decision-maker, is suddenly faced with a multitude of difficult questions.

How will she find the right guy? Will she get over the intense jealousy that she feels for her sister? And will she ever be able to stop her incessant lying and come clean with her mother?

Although the ending was right on track with the typical chick lit offering (read: "I love you's" are exchanged and the requisite happily ever after is a given), many parts of the plot were shocking and at some points, downright horrifying. The diversions along the way make this piece of chick lit a little less predictable and always fresh and entertaining. While Faith may find true love in the end, she first has to look in some unexpected places. Grade: B+