Anu Desai is living a good life. She married her high school sweetheart Neil, and they have a daughter—Kanika—that they both adore. She went to nursing school at the behest of her parents, and now she works part-time, even though Neil’s salary at his IT job is enough to pay for their life in Vancouver. She has the time and energy to help build the Christmas set for her daughter’s kindergarten class holiday pageant. And she has two good friends to drink and talk with.

It’s a good life. But Anu can’t help but feel it’s someone else’s life.

Now she’s in her 30s and wondering if the decisions she made along the way were the ones she wanted, if her life is about her purpose or about her parents’ and her husband’s and her in-laws’ ideas of what her purpose should be. Growing up as a part of a close-knit Punjabi community made it harder for Anu to hear her own voice.

But she’s already taken the first step—she stood up to her husband, whose inattention to her and to their home made her decide to choose herself over their relationship.

And then she took a yoga class.

Although she’d been doing yoga since she was 15, Anu mostly practiced at home. But one evening, on a whim, she found herself standing inside Mags’ Yoga Studio with young teacher Imogen, taking a class in yoga and remembering just how good it made her feel. She remembered when she was younger and wanted to take a course to become a yoga teacher. And when she finds out that Mags is wanting to find someone to buy the studio and take it over so she can retire, Anu follows her gut and signs the papers.

This impulsive act changed Anu’s life, and she suddenly found herself on a bigger journey. She hops a flight to London without notice. She has a one-night stand. She starts to figure out who she is away from her family, away from her daughter, away from her friends. And as she does that, she finds the strength and the freedom to go after her own purpose.

Grown-Up Pose is the story of one’s woman journey to find herself as an adult. The second novel of Sonya Lalli, who also wrote The Matchmaker’s List, is about how we all struggle to figure out who we are as individuals, and who we are with those we care about. It is only by being true to ourselves that we can bring the best of ourselves to our relationships, and Grown-Up Pose is about the mistakes, the missteps, and the instincts that help us find our way home.

I liked this book. I really enjoyed spending time with Anu, and I could relate with her wanting to make her parents happy with her life choices. Although I wasn’t raised in as close a community as she was, I still felt the pressure to do what other people wanted for me, and sometimes I had to fight to keep my own voice from wavering. I’m not sure I agreed with all of Anu’s choices, but I admired her courage and I loved taking the journey with her. This is a fun, character-driven story, and I strongly recommend it to others who are searching for identity or for those just looking for a really fun read.

Galleys for Grown-Up Pose were provided by Berkley through Edelweiss, with many thanks.