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February 26
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Kaye
gave
 
to:
For Better or For Worse (Paperback)
by Diann Hunt
bookshelves:
2008-reading-list,
cba
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in February, 2008
Kaye said:
"****SPOILERS****
I picked up this book primarily because it's a contemporary romance that revolves around someone involved in the wedding industry. With my own contemporary romance featuring a wedding planner set to release in January 2009, I'm ve...more
****SPOILERS****
I picked up this book primarily because it's a contemporary romance that revolves around someone involved in the wedding industry. With my own contemporary romance featuring a wedding planner set to release in January 2009, I'm very curious about the seeming influx of books in the past few months (and coming out over the next few) that center around weddings/the wedding industry.
In For Better or for Worse, Wendy Hartline is a forty-four year old widow who runs a wedding chapel in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. Her husband of twenty years died three years ago. She has a twenty-three-year-old daughter whose husband just walked out on her and a nineteen year old son who's away in college. Wendy is dating college professor Logan, whom I'll discuss in a moment. However, it's Marco Amorini who is of primary concern. You see, the playboy divorce lawyer has just purchased the building next door to Wendy's wedding chapel. He's converting it into a "Lodge" which includes a restaurant and hotel/honeymoon retreat--in direct competition with the four honeymoon cabins Wendy owns.
Though Wendy finds Marco attractive, her opinion of him is originally colored by Logan's nasty attitude toward Marco. Marco was Logan's ex-wife's divorce lawyer. In the way of most romance novels, Wendy and Marco are constantly thrown together by circumstances. And it doesn't matter when or where they're together, whether they're having a pleasant conversation, whether Wendy's legs have just given out on her (she has a condition) and she's in Marco's arms, or whether Wendy and Marco are at each other's throats, Logan is sure to show up. So sure, in fact, that it gets downright annoying--a little too over-the-top when it comes to creating conflict. It made me feel like Logan may be a stalker.
Not only does Logan show up at very inopportune moments, he is one of the most selfish, self-centered, immature characters I've had the displeasure of reading in a very long time. When Marco invites Wendy and her entire family, including Logan, to dine at the Lodge, Logan, like a petulant three-year-old, gripes about everything, from his steak being tough to his coffee being cold. He's rude to Marco and snaps at Wendy and ends up walking out. Not only does he never apologize to Wendy for his behavior, his behavior and attitude toward Marco worsens.
From the beginning of the novel, I didn't understand why Wendy would have been seeing someone like Logan--he had no redeeming qualities that were shown to the reader. But as his behavior worsened, I found it harder and harder to want to continue reading the book. Wendy came across as a codependent pushover when it came to Logan. Though it was part of her character arc for her to go from being the kind of person who wants to please everyone at her own expense to someone who'll stand up for herself, I still found it highly unlikely--and unlikable--that Wendy would put up with Logan as long as she did. Especially once he started dropping by unannounced, calling after he said he wouldn't (and calling multiple times, demanding an explanation for why she hadn't been home when he called the first time) and, basically, showing all the signs of being an overbearing, possessive, manipulative, jealous STALKER.
In the last quarter of the book, when Logan goes away for a conference, my enjoyment of the story really picked up. Wendy and Marco, aside from owning businesses next door to each other, are brought even closer together when they discover his daughter and her son (the nineteen-year-old) are engaged. At first, Marco wants Wendy's help to break them up. But Wendy, who married even younger and had a happy marriage (Marco's ended badly), ends up supporting the kids (though makes a big mistake and nearly breaks them up after making the decision to support them--which was very realistic and well-written conflict).
Here are the reasons why, even though I enjoyed reading this book, I couldn't give it five stars:
--Logan. I hated him. His character was way over the top when it came to his attitude, jealousy, and STALKING of Wendy. And it took her until just a few pages before the end of the book to finally break up with him. If this hadn't been on my reading list, I might have put the book down about halfway through out of frustration and not finished reading it.
--POV. The book is written in first person, present tense, my LEAST favorite POV (of course, that's because I've never been forced to read anything written in second person).
--Not really wedding-industry related. Wendy really could have been the owner of any small business threatened by the hero opening a similar business next door. No weddings played any role in the story. And aside from putting Marco at odds with Logan--because Marco was the ex-wife's lawyer--the fact that Marco is a divorce lawyer doesn't really have any impact on the story.
--At one point in the story, when Marco and Wendy are discussing Logan's attitude toward Marco, Marco hints that there's more to the story, that Wendy shouldn't believe everything Logan says about what happened when Logan's wife left him. But this is never followed up on, leaving me wondering if Logan's wife left him because he was an overbearing, possessive, manipulative, jealous STALKER.
What I did like:
--Subtle, realistic Christian worldview. In the very end, when Wendy is trying to get her daughter to pray, to choose to develop a relationship with God, she does push a little bit, but it was in a very realistic way. The daughter, however, told Wendy that she (the daughter) couldn't have a relationship with God just because Wendy (the mom) did; again, very realistic. Wendy's spiritual journey is subtle, as is Marco's (in fact, Marco's reconciliation to God is really just hinted at and never actually expounded upon).
--Once Logan was out of the picture, the story picked up pace and seemed less oppressive.
--I read in the acknowledgments that Diann thanked her crit partners for forcing her to put her characters into conflict, and not to hold back or let them out of it easily. While in one area (Logan) it was overdone, the rest of the conflicts in the story were relatable and made me truly sympathize with Wendy. Some of them were quite predictable, while others came out of the blue.
A good read that I would recommend to anyone interested in reading a romance that's more on the "hen lit" side of the genre than an actual "romance."...less
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February 22
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Kaye
gave
to:
Miss Invisible (Women of Faith Fiction #17)
by Laura Jensen Walker
bookshelves:
cba,
contemporary-romance
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Kaye said:
"(This review was originally posted on my blog 3/30/2007)
“One size does not fit all…”
How many times have I thought that upon seeing a OSFA label in a garment?
I knew when I read this opening line of Laura Jensen Walker’s late...more
(This review was originally posted on my blog 3/30/2007)
“One size does not fit all…”
How many times have I thought that upon seeing a OSFA label in a garment?
I knew when I read this opening line of Laura Jensen Walker’s latest inspy chick lit, Miss Invisible, that I was in for a treat. As with the first LJW novel I read (Dreaming in Black & White), by the time I got to the bottom of the first page, I wanted to shout, “Get outta my head!”
Freddie (Frederika Heinz) is a large woman, but smaller than a 22/24 we learn when she first meets Deborah, a flamboyant, larger-than-life (and Freddie) African American woman. Freddie is a cake decorator at a bakery in the small Northern California town where she grew up.
This is a part of the book that struck me on a deep level. Freddie returned “home” to this town after several years (and a broken relationship) in Chicago. She grew up here, but her only friends are her current coworkers and Deborah—after Deborah makes Freddie her friend. Though it is never said in the text of the story, this is one of the symptoms of Freddie’s invisibility—no childhood friends that she hangs out with and reminisces with over the “good times.” Very much like when I moved away from the small town where I grew up and went to college out of state, it was “out of sight, out of mind”—I never really had contact with anyone I grew up with again. I don’t know if LJW set out to show this or if it just happened, but either way, it gave me a deep connection with Freddie.
I read an article recently that mentioned how “coming of age” stories are very popular in the literary genre right now. MI isn’t really a coming-of-age story—though Freddie does turn thirty in it. It’s more of a “coming to terms” story. After a lifetime of being told she’s fat, ugly, good-for-nothing (mainly by her father and stepmother) and being ignored or discriminated against, Freddie has to come to terms with who she is (a beautiful, beloved child of God) and that the resentment she’s carried around about this for years has made her not only bitter but it’s made her reverse-discriminate against “skinny” girls.
Deborah, who owns a catering company, becomes Freddie’s Mr. Miyagi, taking her shopping for clothes in some color other than black (I did this about six or seven years ago) and gets her moving—water aerobics, swimming, walking (the only forms of exercise I will do too). My favorite scene in the whole book is the first time Freddie has dinner at Simon’s restaurant.
As Freddie’s confidence grows through Deborah’s friendship, mentoring, spiritual guidance, and positive encouragement, others start noticing Freddie. Now she’s no longer invisible—in fact she has two men fighting over her!
While the spiritual lesson is important (God loves us just as we are) it is never preachy. However, there was one section that did make me skip over a couple of paragraphs because it seemed more like a lecture than a natural flow of dialogue—and that was when Freddie and Deborah are talking about Californians’ obsession with weight and dieting and the problem of childhood obesity.
Something else that pulled me out of the story a little is that Lydia has her baby late one night and is home the next day. Are women really sent home without staying in the hospital at least twenty-four hours after giving birth? Or did I skip a couple of pages or something?
The story did wrap up a little too neatly for me. By the end of the book, Freddie has gotten so completely over her body-image issues that wearing a swimsuit at a pool party doesn’t give her a moment’s hesitation—and she’s still about the same size (though a little more toned) than she was at the beginning of the story. No matter how much spiritual and emotional healing she’s done, something like body-image issues or self-consciousness doesn’t go away that quickly. Even just a brief hesitation before taking off her wrap and then reminding herself of the lessons learned would have helped the ending be a little more realistic for me. Some emotional scars (like a lifetime of verbal abuse over being fat) run a little too deeply for just a couple months of new-found self-confidence to heal.
Don’t let my one problem (and it’s only my opinion) scare you off this great read. I highly recommend this as a fun, light read—LJW has given us another winner!...less
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February 09
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Kaye
gave
to:
Shadow Music: A Novel (Hardcover)
by Julie Garwood
bookshelves:
2008-reading-list,
aba,
historical-romance
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in February, 2008
Kaye said:
"I must admit, I had a really hard time finishing this book. The setup is way too long and tedious. There are so many characters, it's hard to keep straight who's who. The hero and heroine don't meet until around page 160. There is so much unimportant...more
I must admit, I had a really hard time finishing this book. The setup is way too long and tedious. There are so many characters, it's hard to keep straight who's who. The hero and heroine don't meet until around page 160. There is so much unimportant backstory in the first 100 or so pages that I found myself either setting it down after a page of tedium or choosing to pick up something else to read instead of this.
I used to be able to knock out a J.G. historical romance in one or two evenings--and usually stayed up until the wee hours of the morning because I couldn't put the book down. I'm not emotionally invested in either of the main characters, nor do I care about the conflict that has brought them together. Then, once they do come together, their interactions are cliched *shadows* of the same dialogue, same physical reactions, same physical descriptions, same actions (of course he drags her onto his horse in front of him and his thighs are warm and rock-solid) as in every other historical romance out there.
As a professional editor and freelance critiquer, if this story had come across my desk as a manuscript, I would have lopped off the first 100 pages, suggested she condense the setup to about ten pages, get Colm and Gabrielle together much sooner, cut out the cliches, keep the story to just their Points of View, not name and give backstory to every single minor character who walks on stage, and focus on their relationship, not all of the "intrigue" that's not in the least intriguing. I also would have corrected the blatant and glaring copy-editing mistakes/slip-ups, such as using the present-tense "bid" when the past-tense "bade" was needed, or use of a homonym, such as "aid" (to give support)for "aide" (a person who supports).
This book didn't deserve to be published, when there are so many other superbly written manuscripts languishing on publishers' desks simply because the authors don't have the name recognition of Julie Garwood. I was very disappointed in both Garwood and the publisher....less
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February 08
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Kaye
gave
to:
The Darkest Evening of the Year (Hardcover)
by Dean R. Koontz
bookshelves:
2008-reading-list,
aba,
general-fiction
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in January, 2008
Kaye said:
"I read about the first third of this book and then took it back to the library. It was my first try at reading Dean Koontz and I was highly disappointed. Much of the narrative comes across as Mr. Koontz writing a nonfiction book about Golden Retrieve...more
I read about the first third of this book and then took it back to the library. It was my first try at reading Dean Koontz and I was highly disappointed. Much of the narrative comes across as Mr. Koontz writing a nonfiction book about Golden Retrievers. The villain, whose scenes were written in a different style POV than the protagonists', was so far out there, so vulgar, sadistic, and psychologically twisted, that I didn't want to read his scenes. I might try reading another Dean Koontz book sometime in the future, but I was extremely put off by this one....less
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