Somebody to Love (Gideon's Cove, #3) in Around the World in 80 Books

Sep 08, 2012 Nadine in NY Jones rated it liked it

Shelves: romance, contemporary-romance, stayed-up-way-too-late, beach-cover

Home alone Friday and Saturday, what better to read than a sappy romance? I've got some misgivings about this one ... the writing is very chick-lit-ish, which I hate (you know what I mean ... constant descriptions of what people are wearing, a lot of descriptions of textures of fabric, protagonist is perfect, doesn't own a regular old Tshirt and sneaks, throw away reference to Manohlos, her only flaws are really strengths, she and her BFF sit around drinking fine wine and act worldly ...) So far Home alone Friday and Saturday, what better to read than a sappy romance? I've got some misgivings about this one ... the writing is very chick-lit-ish, which I hate (you know what I mean ... constant descriptions of what people are wearing, a lot of descriptions of textures of fabric, protagonist is perfect, doesn't own a regular old Tshirt and sneaks, throw away reference to Manohlos, her only flaws are really strengths, she and her BFF sit around drinking fine wine and act worldly ...) So far the heroine is an idiot. It's possible that she's SUPPOSED to be an idiot, and the point of the book is how she grows and changes and wakes the FUCK up, I don't know. I'm waiting. The actual story doesn't really get started until about page 77 - everything up to that point was set-up.

At around page 100-120 (I could be more specific if I would go get the book and check ...) this book sank its claws into me and wouldn't let go. I stayed up until 4am reading (and didn't quite finish it). So okay, fine, I became invested in the romance and I care about the characters and yes James is hot even though I feel like we really don't know him. The heroine still seems to be a superficial idiot, but somehow it's not bothering me that much. This really is a 2 star book, but it gets an extra star for keeping me up so late.

Plot in a nutshell: Parker is born rich - like, REALLY rich. James is her father's personal lawyer. Parker is drop-dead gorgeous and thus James has been toting around a massive hard-on for her for years now. Parker thinks James is hot enough, but she's got too much other shit going on to stop to think much about him. She's got her 5 year old son, for example. Then Parker's father blows every cent of the family gajillions, and goes to jail, leaving Parker with "just" $100,000 in the bank, and a decrepit house in Maine left to her by a great aunt. Parker heads to Maine, James follows to help her out, at Incarcerated Dad's behest.

There are some funny scenes. I especially liked Parker's freak out after a mouse crawled up her leg. (My BIGGEST fear - but really, it just doesn't happen - mice skedaddle when humans are around, they don't RUN UP YOUR LEG. And how loose are Parker's jeans that the mouse was able to run across her ass INSIDE her jeans????)

Things that would have improved this book:
*Cut the first 50 pages down to about 5 - enough with the boring backstory! Fit that in as exposition later in the book, if you MUST.
*Explain to us a little more clearly from the beginning that Parker resents her father's assistants because she feels neglected by her father, and he is closer to James than he is to her. You can let us wait to find out WHY, but tell us the resentment exists. Because as it stands now, she just comes across as a childish bitch.
*Drop the Thing One crap - it's fine to use when she doesn't know James very well, but it's not "endearing" or "quirky" (which I suspect is what the author is going for), it's a demeaning nickname and Parker just comes across as a childish bitch. Oh, did I say that already?
*Throw in a mention about the pot plant having a smell - it's ridiculous that the odor would not at least give her pause. They smell really strong. Not that I'd know or anything ...
*NO LUPINES AS TABLE DECORATIONS AT THE WEDDING. Anyone who's held a bouquet of lupines knows they smell like skunk! (kind of like, ahem, the pot plant mentioned previously)
*MAKE PARKER LESS OF AN IDIOT. Or at least make her angrier at her idiocy. She's got millions - MILLIONS - in an account run by her father's investment company, and she never bothered to sign the forms so that SHE actually owns this money, or her son's trust. Sure, I can see if she doesn't pay attention to how Dear Old Dad invests the money. I can see if she doesn't know exactly how much she's got (hey, what's one million more or less, right?). But I can NOT understand why she wouldn't have, at some point, made herself sole owner. I mean, come on, she hates her dad. She doesn't trust him!!! Why would she let him OWN her money????? And once she realized her mistake, I would have liked a little tantrum thrown - she IS really childish, after all.
*Along the same lines, a little angst about living in Dad's mansion would be nice - if she hates her dad, I'd like a throwaway line or two about how she considered getting her own place, but didn't for whatever reason.
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