Tag Archives: chick lit

August 13, 2011 · 8:55 pm

Love Letters by Katie Fforde

I sometimes choose to read books for some really superficial reasons: I saw this at the library and liked the cover (although it annoys me that the author’s name is larger than the title…), and I wondered if Katie Fforde was related to Jasper Fforde. For those of you wondering, she is, although not directly.

Anyways, this book is about Laura. The bookshop she works in is closing, but just at the same time, she’s roped into helping to organize a literary festival in a small English town. Unfortunately there’s a small error in communication and all of the sudden she’s in charge of trying to get Dermot Flynn to be a part of the festival - a famous Irish author who is notorious for refusing to make public appearances. He’s been her favorite writer for years, but she decides to try to meet him and talk him into being a part of the lit fest. But he’s surly, uncooperative, and annoying attractive…

As you can probably tell, this is more in the chick-lit genre, which usually isn’t a favorite of mine. Good new though – I enjoyed this book. I love that it takes place in England and Ireland, and that it was so literary-themed. I love it when books are a major part of a storyline in a book. Seems silly, but it’s true. Laura was also a likable character – she was sweet and kind of funny. I definitely cheered for her, and envied her life surrounded by such book-lovers. I notice that in all the books I read that take place in Britain, reading is always of importance. Is reading just more highly valued in England? If so, I want to go there like yesterday.

The romance between Laura and Dermot was a bit lacking for me. The inital attraction is there and evident, but I felt like they were apart for so much of the book that a real relationship seemed unlikely and that it made their eventual pairing up seem rushed. Also, there’s a question during the book of what Dermot’s feelings really were, and it was frustrating me that Laura was too shy to really ask him what the deal was. I’m more of a straight-forward person, so that was irking me a bit.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. There were a lot of interesting and diverse secondary characters. I love the bookish-ness of the story, I loved the setting. I looked up the author on Amazon, and some of her other books have gotten higher ratings than this one. Next time I’m in the mood for something enjoyable and fluffy, I’m definitely going to look for another Katie Fforde book.

Sarah Says: 3 stars

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Filed under 3-star, British, Fiction, Fluff

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July 24, 2011 · 3:45 pm

DNF: Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand

Ahhh… my very first DNF post. Normally, when I decide to quit a book I just don’t bother reviewing it. After all, I didn’t finish it so how can I give it a fair review? I’m doing it now because this is one of the books that won my July poll. I had actually been looking forward to this book for along time; the premise sounded interesting, and I’ll admit it – the cover totally lured me in.

Basically, three women (along with two little kids) go to a beach house on Nantucket to try to escape their problems for a bit and get themselves sorted out. Vicki is a married mother of two young boys, who just found out that she has lung cancer. Brenda (Vicki’s sister) was recently fired from her job as a professor for having a relationship with one of her college students. And Melanie (Vicki’s best friend) after being told by her husband that he’s having an affair, learns that after years of trying she’s finally pregnant. These women meet a young college student named Josh, and together they all try to heal, and enjoy their summer on Nantucket.

That’s a whole lotta drama, but it all sounded really interesting. Now, I only got through the first 100 pages (book is about 400 pages), so here’s why I’m stopping…

1. All the characters sound the same, including Josh. And there aren’t really any chapters, so when the story was switching points of view among the characters it was really confusing.

2. One-fourth of the way in, and I have to say that I don’t like any of the characters. Vicki strikes me as really negative, self-centered, and kind of stuck up. Melanie is acting like a doormat – her husband confesses to an affair, and instead of raging at him, kicking him out, and divorcing him, she wallows in self-pity and he moves into the guest bedroom. And while I kind of like Brenda for saying what she’s thinking and being honest with herself, I can’t sympathize with her too much because of course she caused her own problems.

3. The book (well, at least what I’ve read) occurs for the most part in each character’s head – they’re thoughts and responses to what’s going on. And yet whenever something interesting started to happen, like two of the women arguing with each other, it was glazed over.

That’s pretty much it. I don’t mind books about tough issues, but this just wasn’t for me. It was at turns boring me and annoying me.

Anyways, for those of you that voted for Barefoot… sorry. But July’s almost over, and I have a lot of other books I want to get to. I don’t want to spend my time dragging through this one. I am open to trying something else by Elin Hilderbrand though, if anyone has a favorite by her that you can suggest.

Since giving this one up, I decided instead to start Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. I’m about half-way through it, so that review should be up in a day or two.

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July 13, 2011 · 8:25 am

Stay by Allie Larkin

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Hey all. OK so Steph from StephTheBookworm and I are lucky enough to live in the same city, and recently Steph asked via Facebook if any of her friends were interested in forming a book club with her. Since I’ve never been in a real life book club before, I signed up pronto. Our first meeting is at the end of this month, and the book we all chose was Stay by local author Allie Larkin.

Stay is about Savannah “Van” Leone, who just watched her two best friends Peter and Janie get married. The problem is that Van’s been in love with Peter since they first met about 6 years ago. After the newlyweds take off for their honeymoon, Van drowns her sorrows in Kool-Aid & vodka and watched reruns of Rin Tin Tin, and accidentally (drunkenly) orders a German Shepherd puppy online. Though he’s bigger than she was counting on, she names him Joe and starts to get over her heartbreak.

Joe is an adorable puppy, and my favorite parts of the book were about him. He only responds to commands in Slovak, he’s big and goofy, and he’s instantly fills the role of girl’s best friend.

Van on the other hand… she’s not my favorite character. At first, I really liked her. I sympathized with her and her night of getting smashed on Kool-Aid vodka was kind of hilarious. But throughout the book it became obvious that she kind of causes her own problems, and I didn’t see any character growth from her during the book. And here’s why she didn’t grow as a character… (highlight to read the spoilers)

Everything is handed to her on a silver platter. Van causes her own problems by constantly getting drunk and lying when she should just be honest. She “loves” Peter even though he has no real redeemable qualities and in fact acts like an ass pretty much the whole time. And any problem that Van has to face is instantly solved for her… she gets $175,000 to leave Peter alone, which she should have been doing anyways. She accidentally buys a $6000 dog, and has to move out of her condo because of it, but all of that is no problem since she has this huge check. A too-perfect vet named Alex falls for her, and hooks her up with a house at half the market price (only $40,000) and even though she lies to Alex, he of course decides to forgive her without any explanation for her behavior. She gets to stay friends with Peter (not realistic at all), she makes up with Janie, and even makes up with Janie’s mother, who she’s had issues with ever since childhood. All of this seemed WAY too easy and honestly, since Van didn’t really have to work for any of it, I don’t think deserved such a happy ending.

Anyways, I would have been happier if the book focused more on her relationship with Joe and dealing with his crazy puppy antics. Van and her personal life were just a little too frustrating for my taste.

I did overall like the book. I enjoyed the references to Rochester, my home town (YAY Wegmans!). And the book was a really quick read. I’ll gladly try out the next book that Larkin publishes, because I really did enjoy her writing. And the characters she creates were really memorable. There’s a secondary character named Louis that just cracked me up. If you’re a fan of chick-lit (I’m thinking along the lines of the Shopaholic series), then you’ll probably enjoy this. If you’re considering this because you’re a dog-lover or pet-owner, you might want to take a pass.

Sarah Says: 2.5 stars

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