Chick Lit

And the Crowd Went Wild

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by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

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I was afraid that Susan Elizabeth Phillips, although all her books except the last one were very entertaining, had kind of lost her mojo. I had given several of her books 4 stars in recent years, but she is an author that had been consistently 5 stars for me back in the day. And in looking back I think some of those 4 star reads had an element of “benefit of the doubt.” My least favorite of all of her books was the last one, Simply the Best, which it certainly was not. It had some good parts, but overall, it just was not up to snuff. There were problems, and I really really did not get on with the heroine’s brother Clint. When I saw that this one was Clint’s story, for the first time in decades, I did not buy her new book, but got it from the library. Mea Culpa. This one was her best book in 15 years. I am so grateful to be wrong. What a comeback!

The heroine is one of SEP’s “bad girls”, Or I should have said, not bad “just drawn that way”? Some of her heroines are likable and relatable from the get go, like Lady Emma or “Neely” Litchfield Case. But every so often she will throw in a gorgeous but very flawed and at first unsympathetic heroine. They might have done lamentable things in the past but have paid the price and when we meet them they are desperate. Add Dancy Flynn to the Sugar Beth Careys and Francesca Days of SEP-land.

Dancy is a washed up former Bond Girl who was married to a Tom Cruise level action hero until he traded her in for a younger model. When we meet her she is a border-line alcoholic whose plan for jumpstarting her career is about to cover her in such shame and humiliation that it is hard to imagine she could ever recover from it. To get out of the public eye, she flees to the only person in her past life that might provide a port in the storm: Her high school boyfriend, Clint Garrett, who is now the star quarterback for the Chicago Stars. So what if she hasn’t seen him since she broke his heart with her bad behavior 20 years ago? She is all alone in the world and he is “Saint Clint of the Gridiron,” a squeaky clean all around Mr. Nice Guy. Although Dancy is new to us, Clint was introduced in SEP’s previous book, and as I said, I was not impressed. But it has been 5 years since the events in that book, and Clint is no longer the whiny immature victim that I found him to be in Simply the Best. I really liked him. He has retreated to his vacation home on Lake Michigan to refocus and prepare himself for the upcoming football season after the last couple weren’t up to his usual standards. The last thing he needs is a troublesome Dancy distracting him from his work. But being the good guy he is, he can’t completely turn his back on the pitiful (but snarky!) mess that she is, so he allows her to stay on his property in an old semi-converted train caboose until she can make other plans. Overnight only. Yeah right.

I really liked both Dancy and Clint. And that’s half the battle to really loving the book. The more I learned about her history and saw how she reacted to things that she was confronted with I liked her more and more. Clint’s admirable character is established from the beginning although he has some lessons to learn as well. They each have each other’s number and give as good as they get as the relationship develops into friendship then love. The back and forth between them was funny and engaging. Dancy forms a friendship with another woman in the community and rescues a pitiful dog. Not one, but two bad villains emerge. Dancy has a bad set back which was so predictable, but she is never a victim.

She stumbled to her bedroom, tugged at her clothes, and got into bed only to stare at the ceiling. Minutes ticked by. She shifted her weight and pulled the covers up only to shove them back down. She didn’t want oblivion. She wanted revenge.

Every time I was going to put the book down there was a twist or a turn or a new character that kept me reading. Of course we also have some more than welcome appearances by characters in Simply the Best.

In the first pages when we learn that Dancy is a washed up mostly B movie actress, I was 89% sure she was going to end up getting an Academy Award by the end. I won’t say if she does or not, but rest assured, her triumph is complete and satisfying. It was a solid 4 ½ star book until the epilogue. I loved it. It wasn’t original: Emily Henry did the same thing to great success in one of her books. This was done just as well and was as cute as could be. 5 stars.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Catch of the Day

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by Kristan Higgins

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I enjoyed re-listening to The Perfect Match so much that I looked for another KH novel I hadn’t read or listened to in a while. This is one of her first books, and one of the first by the author I read. I was surprised to see that I hadn’t already done a review of it. Or maybe Goodreads swallowed it before I could get it on my blog. Although our heroine Maggie is straight out of the Kristan playbook, her hero is one of a kind. Many of her readers would say, “ Thank Goodness!” But I liked him when I wasn’t periodically shaking my head at the same things that drove Maggie up the wall. The two were complete opposites and in some ways served as antidotes to each other. When Maggie got too puppydogish for me, Malone was there to provide balance, and vice versa

Maggie, as many of her heroines are, is a warm and generous “giver.” She cuts her elderly tenants toe nails, she employs a developmentally disabled teen to help in her diner, babysits her niece at the drop of a hat. She pays her head cook more than she, as the owner of a diner, makes herself. She is a good deed doer and she is devoted to her dog. Kristan Higgins never describes her characters’ personalities but shows us what they are about by their words and actions. And almost all of the characters are layered with good and bad qualities like real people. One example is Maggie’s difficult mother. She is very unlikable and insensitive. Yet, she has a kind of endearing malapropism quirk. She’s always full of advice and helpful platitudes: “When the Lord closes a door, a window breaks,” and “A rolling stone gathers no dirt” come to mind. Later we find out there is more to her than meets the eye, although she will always be more Mommie Dearest than Marmee. You can’t hate a person too much who also makes you laugh. And their relationship at the end is in a good place. But I digress.

Maggie is a single 33 year old who longs for a husband and family of her own like her twin sister Christy. Three things have gotten in the way of this. She was rudely and publicly dumped in front of her whole town by her longtime boyfriend after they graduated from college. (Yet Skip and his sweet wife are a happy family with three daughters-so as always, KH doesn’t take the obvious path). The pickings of good eligible men in her home town of Gideon’s Cove are pretty slim. And she is in love with the local parish priest. And unfortunately he is Roman Catholic, not Episcopalian. After a series of disastrous and funny blind dates (which were to become a KH mainstay in her future books), she finally meets her destiny in Malone, “Maloner the Loner”, a local lobster man. This happens not until almost a third of the way into the book. Maggie has lots of other things to talk about to the reader. That’s another of her character traits. She is a blabbermouth. Not a gossip, but an over-sharer who starts to babble when she feels uncomfortable, which is rather a lot of the time. Malone is completely opposite to Maggie: very unsociable, brooding, and mysterious. He gives new meaning to “the strong silent type” hero. Neither Maggie nor the reader even know his first name till the very end of the book. Yet he is a very hard worker, is genuinely respected, even liked by the community, and has a daughter he loves and is seen to unbend with when she visits. Every so often Maggie thinks she detects a quirk in his lips that might be a smile and that he just might have a sense of humor behind his dour exterior. Also Maggie’s dog likes him, and he has come to Maggie’s rescue twice: Once on an 10 mile walk home after a bike crash, and once from social humiliation when she is stood up by one of her blind dates. After that incident, Maggie and Malone finally start seeing each other.

Most of the rest of their relationship consists of Maggie trying to get two words in a row out of Malone. He is very uncommunicative and Maggie has no idea what their relationship really is. The reader is similarly in the dark about what is going on in his head. Meanwhile Maggie is the opposite of that. For the most part, I loved this tension of their completely opposite personalities. Something had to give. Malone was very much an enigma and this fostered a lot of anticipation of what was going on. We know him and his feelings by his actions not his words. At one point, Maggie dresses up as her twin to confront Father Tim about something and no one sees through her disguise except Malone. From across the street.

On this re-read, there were some things that bothered me more than before. I don’t really have a major problem with Embarrassment Humor as such, as long as it’s funny. But there was an incident with Maggie getting drunk and hurtling towards public doom that was really yikes. I didn’t like it when she hears part of a conversation (while sneaking around and eavesdropping no less) and jumps to an insulting conclusion about Malone. She does not handle it well. I really did not like her for this part of the book. But Malone’s reaction when she finally comes to her senses was just as frustrating. I didn’t know which one to be more disgusted with or side with. Another character that bothered me this time was Father Tim. He was described as such a good, kind, and compassionate man and the perfect priest. But he takes advantage of Maggie’s generosity and willingness to volunteer her services to the church in the name of friendship. She wasn’t even an active member. He should have been doing his best to keep his distance, but he did just the opposite. It kind of gave me the creeps at times, although no lines were crossed. In the end, we see his loneliness and it’s a bit sad. Thankfully, although she still had a soft spot for him, her crush on Father Tim was pretty much at an end as soon as she gets together with Malone.

Maggie has a more clear-eyed view of herself and Father Tim by the end of the book. As lovable as she is, Maggie had some work to do on herself as well. As does Malone who has also learnt some things and changed for the better. I thought it was a nice touch that though she is far from religious, she realizes that church may have something to offer her besides a handsome priest. We get a peek at Gideon’s Cove and Joe’s Diner in a subsequent book and all is well with Maggie and Malone.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The Austen Affair

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by Madeline Bell

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A boy? Mom asks….And what do we say about crying over boys? “‘ Never cry over boys,’” I recite under my breath, wiping my eyes with the pad of my thumb. “We only cry over men, and a real man wouldn’t make you cry.”

You’re living out our dreams, baby, Mom reminds me. If you have to be stuck here for a little while, there are worse places to get stuck. Enjoy what you’ve got while you’ve got it.

This was fun. I am frequently attracted to Jane Austen-based books and movies and frequently disappointed. This one was interesting and well written by first time author Madeline Bell. But more than that, it was funny and a smart way to drop her couple back to Regency times. Experiencing that world is the dream of any fan of regency romances and JA in particular at some point in their lives. It’s ok. You can admit it. The romance was good, and Ms. Bell made the most of her premise.

Tess Bright is an actress who was fired from a popular but critically disregarded American TV series. She has improbably won the role as Catherine Morland in a prestigious British production of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. She must succeed, or “I’ll be lucky if I’m funneled off into the Hallmark-holiday-movie-industrial complex before fading into utter irrelevance.” The fact that she won two Teen Choice Awards does not qualify her for the part as well she knows. In fact, quite the reverse. She is looked at with contempt by her costar Hugh, the scion of a blue blood acting family. And, I must admit, with good reason. Because Tess is a mess. Before she won me over, I felt pretty much the same way about her as Hugh did.

More than twice a month in my childhood, Mom and I would order Chinese food for dinner because it came with its own utensils, and that meant we could put off washing the dishes for one more night. I think the first time I saw the floor of our living room was when I was twenty- three, on the day we started packing to move out….Every flat surface was cluttered with lipstick- stained coffee mugs.

I’m a little messy myself, but that’s not just messy. Yuck! Also, as she tells us, she was fired from her TV series because of unprofessional behavior, and is unlucky in love due to her falling for weak character guys with pretty faces. So not my favorite type of person. She is still grieving her beloved mother’s death (which functions as an excuse for her unprofessional behavior). She knows being cast as the lead in the movie is a chance of a lifetime and an incredible opportunity to redeem herself. Also, she and her mother loved Jane Austen, and she sees her performance as a tribute to her memory. Yet, yet, yet. We learn that she has already gotten a reputation on set as being careless with the expensive costumes and keeping her trailer in a state of disarray. So although she did not make a good first impression character-trait wise, I loved her bright sprightly voice right from the beginning. Her closeness with her Mom, who was also her best friend, was endearing. She is a people pleaser with a vengeance, which is not always a good thing. But when she says at one point, “I can make anybody like me with enough time. I’m a battering ram. I’ll wear her down with kindness.” I couldn’t help but like her attitude. “I will not not be liked.” At least she owns it.

The crux of the story, of course, is what happens when Tess and her disapproving co-star are sucked back to 1815 while filming on location near Jane Austen’s neighborhood which also happens to be the location of Hugh’s ancestral home. They are taken in by Hugh’s family and experience life in Regency times. Much of their adventures mirror scenes in Austen’s books. We have a day trip to Box Hill, the Lucy Steele/ Eleanor/ Edward love triangle, Emma’s ball at the crown Inn (where Tess saves a young lady from a Wickham-like character), and planning a theatrical like in Mansfield Park. Jane Austen herself even makes several brief appearances.
Hugh (who has his own personality problems) just wants to get home (we learn later why), but Tess embraces the situation with all of her heart, viewing it as a miracle.

As they find themselves in many funny and fraught situations, the two actors learn from each other, grow to appreciate each other and tackle their challenges as a team. It was still a bumpy ride but eventually we have lovers instead of enemies. The relationship development was supported and believable. I liked the tension between their struggles repressing their modern language and sensibilities so as not to get “chained naked to a wall” in Bedlam, and how they relax when they are alone together.

“Oh God,” I whisper, almost breathless. “That’s just… that’s just super fucked up, isn’t it?” “You took the words out of my mouth,” Hugh says, tone extremely dry.

You fucking misogynist. You really think I’m stupid enough to fall for Armstrong’s act? And better yet, you think you’re gonna swoop in and warn me just in time. Well, I’ve got a helluva better douche radar than you, and he gives off radioactive levels of toxicity… the most obvious Regency fuckboy this side of Mr. Wickham.

I loved the knowing winks to Janeites, including a reference to the almost universally despised recent version of Persuasion starring Dakota Johnson This is a light romantic comedy with a side of Austen. If this is your cup of tea, and you don’t mind bad language and a sex scene or two, it would be hard to find one better than this.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Let the Bells Ring Out

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By Milly Johnson

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Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous’, Einstein said. Freud disregarded such nonsense: everything could be explained was his mantra; whereas Jung believed coincidences were a manifestation of a deeper order in the universe. Certainly, after Clifford’s ‘experience’ he was more inclined to believe in the magic of them. ‘Accept the mystery, Jane,’ he’d say. ‘I am a happier man for doing so.’

One of Milly’s specialties is telling the stories of women (and sometimes men) who are victimized and dominated by their (usually narcissistic) partners who finally see the light and find the strength to stand up for themselves and escape. Usually into the loving arms of another man (or woman) who is kind, strong, and worthy of them. Although I love Milly Johnson’s writing and eagerly anticipate these characters’ final victories and the comeuppances in store for their abusers, it’s all starting to get a little old. Let me put this feeling about this aspect of Milly’s books in context. I have read every Milly Johnson book at least twice and some several times. Even when I first started reading Milly some of her female characters (usually self-inflicted) plights were way too much for me. But sometimes as much as the designated doormat in her cast of characters frustrated and sometimes even infuriated me, the situation was usually balanced out in some way. For example, an epic take down of the abuser( The Yorkshire Pudding Club), or the woman (or man) having the epiphany fairly early on, and determined and committed to her escape route (The Queen of Wishful Thinking.) What I can’t abide is what happened in this one.

We follow a diverse group of English men and women who are struggling in their lives in some way and are traveling for Christmas. Due to a rather mysterious storm, they end up snowbound together on a luxurious private train. This is very similar in structure to Milly’s 2020 Christmas themed novel, I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday. We first meet Tom, the attractive owner of a Taxi service who is chauffeuring a beautiful and posh young woman, Elizabeth, to a Manor on the outskirts of Durham where she is meeting her fiancé and their two sets of parents for their annual celebration. It is apparent immediately that her relationship with her fiancé is not only unhappy but toxic. Jane is an elderly woman who has been recently widowed and missing her wonderful professor husband and happy marriage. Wherever she is going she is not looking forward to it. It is clear that those who remain in her life do not appreciate her. Grace and Frank are a married couple and we learn that something happened in their lives that turned Grace from a lovely woman to a cold, snappish, and sour killjoy who holds something against her very nice and warmhearted husband. “Roo”, or Ruby, is a lively young woman who seems a bit eccentric but nice. She is not a fan of Christmas and has suffered a recent setback. Tim is a middle-aged man who is grumpy and standoffish. He is a big guy with a white beard who ironically works at playing Santa Claus at Christmas. As they make themselves at home on the train, they are surprised and delighted that every luxury they could wish for, from accommodations, to food, to drink is theirs for the asking. As they get to know each other and each other’s stories even the least sociable and closed down among them start to open up. With the others’ help and advice they start to understand and come to terms with truths about what has damaged them and their lives. Paths forward to healing slowly reveal themselves to each of them. As the 7 castaways become friends they start to notice strange things going on in some of the train cars. They are not alone.

This was a likable and enjoyable book in many ways, and of course happy endings abound at the end in true Milly Johnson fashion. There were some twists and turns I saw coming a mile away, but a few I didn’t. Unfortunately, Two of the main women characters, Elizabeth and Grace, got me so frustrated and angry that I almost wished they had been left with the unhappy endings they deserved! Almost. The story is told, as in most ensemble type books and movies, by visiting each character as they contribute to the present day plot while their backstory is unwoven. Most if not all of Milly’s stories involve (heavenly?) enchantment to some degree, but this one, like her other previously mentioned holiday tale, is all about the Christmas magic.

As usual Milly weaves good stories around each of the engaging characters. They deal with grief, estrangement from loved ones, disappointment in love, unrealized potential, or greedy or rotten families. All written with plenty of Yorkshire dialect, humor, and a light touch. My first problem was that every single time we came to Elizabeth’s turn in the spotlight, it was one horror after another showing how badly she was treated by her horrible family, her horrible fiancé, and his horrible family. She reflects on their horribleness, clearly sees how she is being gaslighted and bullied, but still never wavers from going back to her toxic environment. Even as a clear path to living her dream in life and love unfolds before her! She acts like a lifetime of misery is preferable to rocking her boat. She comes to her senses at the last second but even then has to be driven away by the nice guy. We never see her stand up to confront her rotten family and fiancé. I imagine they were all kinds of gobsmacked and irate over her rebellion, but we never have the pleasure of reveling in their downfall. All we get is a glimpse of them in the rear view mirror as they are sprayed with the gravel of her getaway taxi. Not even an engagement ring-toss out the window.

I’m not going to dwell on Grace, but she was a stone cold b***ch to her kind, popular, and patient husband. Yes, they experienced a horrible tragedy together, but to Grace it was all about her. She blamed her husband for something completely out of any human control. Both women held on to their painful circumstances much too stubbornly for me. They continued on their roads to disaster despite almost miraculous escape routes being provided right in front of them. To add to my exasperation, I even started to despise poor Frank for putting up with Grace so patiently for so long. I have never given any of Milly’s novels less than 4 stars, but sadly, I couldn’t give this one more than 3 in the end. It was Dawn in Summer Fling, my least favorite character in my least favorite novel by the author, all over again. Kind of a bummer, actually.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Great Big Beautiful Life

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by Emily Henry

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“I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”

I have had mixed feelings about the very ballyhooed Women’s Fiction/Romcom/Chick Lit author, Emily Henry. She is good, don’t get me wrong, but I do not understand all of the hype considering there are much better and more consistently great authors out there in the same genre. At least in my (not very shared) opinion. Case in point. I believe there are five of her books being adapted for the screen, the last I counted. I approached this one hopefully but not too confidently. I also did not have a great mindset when I started it as I was anxious to get it over with (it was a library book) so I could get back to the very involving historical fiction series I am in the middle of. But I thought it was excellent and right up there with her best. It would have even been 5 stars except for a lame temporary break up of the couple near the end caused by a totally unnecessary and silly inability to communicate what was going on. It could have been done without compromising anyone. I get enough of that irritating and overused plot device with Hallmark. It was out of place here, considering everything which had gone before. That brought it down ½ of a star.

It was a dual time line plot, which we all know can be tricky since almost inevitably the reader is lots more interested in one story than the other. But in this case, both stories were engaging and interesting. (I was surprised and prepared to kind of speed read through the back story one, but to my irritation I had to read every word. Haha.) Two journalists are given the chance to write the authorized biography of a famous former media star and tragic poor little rich girl heiress of yesteryear who has, until journalist #1, Alice, tracks her down, and journalist #2, Hayden, is summoned to her small coastal town, where she has been hiding in plain sight for 20 years. Margaret will allow herself to be interviewed by the competing writers for the right to tell her story in full. But it isn’t long before Alice and Hayden agree that there is something weird going on. Margaret is not telling the whole truth to one or both of them. Alice is a cheerful, gregarious, and likable writer for a light-weight People Magazine type publication. And Haydon is a Pulitzer prize winning serious biographer who is hard, reserved, and moody. You know the drill.

The romance between the two writers was sweet, well paced and believable. I really liked how Hayden opened up and fell so hard for sweetie-pie Alice step by step. It’s told from Alice’s point of view so we know her inner feelings, but Emily Henry did a wonderful job of showing Hayden’s developing inner feelings towards Alice by his words and actions.

“I murmur, “Tell me something no one knows about you,” and he’s quiet and still for so long I start to wonder if I’ve crossed a line. Then he tips his chin down to his clavicle to meet my eyes and says simply, “I’m in love with you.”

For me, authors need to bring a lot more to the table than just a romance, and EH delivered in that department as well. Margaret’s tale of her life, starting with how her great grandfather made his fortune, Her grandfather’s, grandmother’s, father’s and mother’s ups and downs, and then her own romance with a rock idol and her relationship with her almost pathologically shy sister went from at least tolerably interesting to fascinating and gripping. Additionally, as the story developed, some mysteries emerged both in the past and the present. I was in anticipation of the answers and resolutions and hoped for happy outcomes. Alice had a difficult relationship with her mother and the exploration and resolution to that also added a lot of interest to the story. To top it off there was a twist that I didn’t see coming in how Margaret’s narrative of her family results in a reveal about a main character’s history.

There were parts of Margaret’s story that seemed a little weak, especially some decisions she made concerning her relationship with her sister. Didn’t make a whole lot of sense and seemed to be manufactured to create drama. I also wished for more closure to Alice’s relationship with her largely “off screen” boyfriend. Definitely expected him to show up at some point so Alice could give them the heave-ho he so richly deserved. But on the whole, I thought this was almost her best book. But then, I lean towards women’s fiction with the romance not being the be all and end all.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Cover Story

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by Mhairi McFarlane

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I’ve only given one of Mhairi’s books less than 4 stars and that was a long long time ago. I’ve loved them all but the last 2 were 4 star reads for me and the one before that, although 5 stars, had some really uncomfortable unpleasant things happen to our heroine, and it was quite light in the romance department. This one is back to 5 stars, and I am so happy about that. Often a favorite author kind of plateaus for me for a while. Sometimes permanently, or even starts spiraling downward. The books are still good, sometimes great even, but with reservations. Sometimes I can tell it is really through no fault of their own, but I just get too familiar and less enchanted with their ways. I find myself giving them an extra 1/2 star or more out of loyalty.

MM’s stories, including this one, often rest on her often used foundation of a very competent, funny, charming girl in her workplace who runs into trouble. Family is usually a significant part of the story and she usually has one or more ride or die friends. Though humor is never more than a page or two away, serious issues are tackled, and things can get fraught.

This story was very layered with a lot going on in addition to a very satisfying romance. Our heroine, Bel, is an investigative journalist, and part of the story is her trying to take down a corrupt politician who also is a sexual predator. To do this, she has to go undercover and befriend a Paris Hilton type young socialite in order to get into her laptop. We meet lots of interesting well rounded people in this thread that surprise and entertain. There is mystery and a lot of suspense because there is a lot at stake. I was very invested in Bel’s hoped for takedown of this guy. And success was very much a long shot.

A new arrival to Bel’s two person office/outpost is Connor, a new intern who quit his previous lucrative but high-pressure career in finance to start over again as a journalist. His first impression of her is “Helena Bonham Carter via the police cell drunk tank.” Not surprisingly, they don’t get on. To Bel and her partner in crime, Aaron, Connor comes across as aloof, superior and disapproving, and they treat him accordingly. Connor and Bel’s romance is a slow long burn as they get to know each other and discover what’s behind the curtain. When Connor inadvertently walks in on Bel in the early days of her undercover work she is forced to not only take him into her confidence, but wrangle him into posing as her boyfriend.

And there’s more! Both Connor and Bel are both dealing with troublesome exes. Bel, with two, one being a very scary psychopathic stalker. And let’s not forget the family and friends!

Often when a book includes a few disparate plot lines, one or more become distractions. Often it is the romance part which gets sidelined. Not so in this one. Connor and Bel become involved key players in each other’s work and personal dramas, which put the romance front and center. Their investigation, and their personal lives both provide suspense, excitement and Mhairi’s always reliable laugh out loud humor. Even minor characters, if not all multi-dimensional or complex, are at least entertaining and interesting. We even have some mystery of the “ Yikes! WTF is going on here?!!” variety and some pretty surprising twists.

At around the 70% mark, I was about to put the book down and go to bed, when things got even more interesting and the ante got upped. I couldn’t put it down, it didn’t let up, and I finished it that night. Although there is an almost inevitable misunderstanding that threatens to keep the two from their happy ending, it does not last long, and one risks all by some timely soul-baring which becomes mutual. It was very satisfying and refreshing. I didn’t want to say goodbye to Connor, Bel, and their lives.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Same Time, Next Week

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by Milly Johnson

Timewise, I can never be too far from a Milly Johnson book. I’ve been re-reading them sporadically on Audible while waiting for a new one by her. This time, I ended up reading this new title at the same time as I was listening to an old favorite, The Woman in the Middle. Unfortunately the main heroine of the older book bore a great similarity to one of the main characters in this one in personality as well as her challenges and journey. So every time I returned to this one after listening to the other, I had to get my thoughts together and reset, so to speak. It wasn’t too difficult as “Middle” had only one main story to Same Time, Next Week’s fairly equally distributed stories of five women’s paths to love and inner growth.

Same Time… follows the lives of women who start out at, or soon reach, very low points in their lives. How they find their ways to happiness, success, and their just deserts is the very familiar foundation to any reader of Milly Johnson. It didn’t break too much new ground, that’s for sure. And I am more than fine with that. With Milly, it’s not the plot, but the writing, humor, and the way she makes you care about her characters. And you can’t beat the way she always makes sure the good guys triumph and the bad guys get what they deserve. With Milly, due rewards and punishments are super-sized. And that’s a good thing, because she really puts her characters through the gauntlet at the hands of their tormentors. When the character you grow to care about suffers, you suffer along with them. The fact that you know revenge and justice are coming for all makes it all worth it.

In this one, I would say the two main characters are Amanda and Mel. Amanda is in her 50s and suffering mightily from the symptoms of menopause. Milly gives us a play by play on this stage of life, and it’s not pretty. For those who have yet to go through this, I hope your experience does not mirror Amanda’s. Take hope that her experience is not a universal one. Some sail through with just a few blips. She is faithfully and lovingly taking care of her elderly mother who does not appreciate her and has never really loved her. On the other hand, she worships her worthless and immoral son, Bradley, who only cares about what he can get out of her and is eagerly anticipating his inheritance. The elderly, those that care for them, and their struggles, is an issue that Milly has tackled before. This one is more harrowing and heartbreaking than usual.

Mel has been married, she thinks happily, to Steve for 30 years. He goes to a highschool reunion and starts having an affair with a woman he meets there. My first question was why Mel didn’t go with him, but it is never even mentioned as a consideration. Perhaps school reunions are different in the U.K. It’s not a good idea not to accompany your spouse to a high school reunion, in my view. If Mel had gone with Steve, none of her story would have happened, and that would have been a bad thing. Bad for the reader, and, as it turns out, bad for Mel. Because life without Steve teaches her that she was not so happy in her marriage after all.

Astrid, Sky, and Erin round out the quintet of women who, through the friendship group that Amanda starts, become friends and supporters of each other through their trials and tribulations. The group meets in the newly opened Ray’s Diner, a new business in Spring Hill Square, a little center that has made a number of appearances in previous books. Sky is in her late twenties and haunted by a false accusation that her father was a serial killer. It ruined his life and keeps raising its ugly head. Her sweet and gentle nature is also being taken advantage of by her landlord from hell who moved in on her and is a creepy pervert to boot. This part of the story was very disturbing and I didn’t understand how this could have been allowed to happen. She is in love with her boss who is 20 years older and the ex-husband of…Erin. The two exes were and are great friends but were unhappy in their marriage. Erin is struggling with guilt and the death of the woman she left her ex, Bon, for. Astrid, who is a trans woman, played a prominent role in Afternoon Tea at The Sunflower Cafe and was also in The Mother of all Christmases., and The Queen of Wishful Thinking. She is struggling with the death of her husband and a lack of purpose. Astrid is a great character, a real “cracker,” pun intended. “Cracker” as in the British slang version, I hasten to add.

Once again, Milly expertly weaves a lot of threads together to fashion very entertaining and satisfying journeys of all her protagonists. And of course that includes finding love as well as their paths forward through grief of all sorts to the promise of happiness and fulfillment.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The Love Haters

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By Katherine Center

Katherine Center’s bright and sparkly authorial voice captured me right away, as it always seems to. Her heroines, who narrate their stories, are instantly relatable and likable. I also am a sucker for “direct address”, where the narrator speaks right to you as if she expects you to answer. The usual humor was present and accounted for. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Katie, who narrates her story, started to get on my nerves and I got very impatient with her.

The agenda in this book (and I don’t mean that in a bad or critical way) is to encourage body positivity. When Katie’s former fiancé became a big music star, she was exposed to the cruelty of social media commenting on how fat and ugly she was, when of course she was just a normal nice looking girl. If I remember correctly she starved herself and got really thin. Her fiancé cheated on her and dumped her, and then she started putting on the pounds until she became a little plump. Katherine Center is pretty vague about the weight loss and weight gain, and I understand why.

Katie makes corporate videos and posts mini-biographies of “Heroes” on her own YouTube channel. She agrees to go to Key West to interview and film her boss’s brother who is a hero in the Coast Guard, having famously rescued Jennifer Anniston’s dog who fell off a cliff. To do her job though, she has to get in a bathing suit and learn to swim. She is used to wearing black inconspicuous clothes that do nothing for her, so this prospect of what she has to do to do her job and get material for her personal YouTube channel fills her with horror. For me, her inner struggles with bathing suits and learning to swim got very tedious very quickly. And since her luggage got lost on the plane, she is “forced” to borrow clothes from her boss’s and his brother’s beloved Aunt’s store which are all brightly colored and very loud. Again, this is torture for her, as she is afraid of being seen and judged. Her fixation on her body came across as silly and shallow. “Oh the Humanity!”

I didn’t get what the heroic, beautiful, kind, and smart hero saw in her. She was kind of a cute nonentity. She was naive and she didn’t seem to be too bright either. On almost the first page she states to the reader that she couldn’t locate Key West on a map or know what the Coast Guard or a rescue swimmer was. Was she trying to be funny? I don’t think so. Because later in the book she is corrected when speaks of forming an “allegiance” with someone when she meant “alliance”.

**Spoilers**

Shortly before the halfway mark she is magically cured by a kiss from “Hutch” the coast guard hero and the love interest. Frankly, I was OK with that, even though I’m not sure what message that was sending. She decides to disagree with the ghouls on the internet and “be the kid who stands up for bullying victims-for myself”. My relief didn’t last long however. She knows her boss Cole, Hutch’s brother is a liar, but when he unexpectedly shows up in Key West, believes and lamely goes along with all of his lies to Hutch and his Aunt Faye. **End Spoiler**

It’s all a tempest in a teapot until a real tempest descends on Key West and Katie is blown out to sea in Hutch’s houseboat trying to rescue his beloved dog, George Bailey. Will she prove her mettle and come into her own?

This was well-written (of course) and perfectly enjoyable. It seemed lighter and fluffier than the four other books I’ve read by her. There really isn’t anything really serious at stake, as with her other books. But sometimes that is just what one is in the mood for. Since I’ve been reading Katherine Center I’ve enjoyed each book more or at least equal to the previous one. This one is a slight step back. But still 3 ½ stars.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an Advanced Review Copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. It will be published 5/20/2025

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Ain’t She Sweet?

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Susan Elizabeth Phillips

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“Hold it right there. The only agreement we ever had was that you intended to make me as miserable as possible, and I intended to courageously make the best of an intolerable situation like valiant Southern women have always done.”-Sugar Beth Carey

“They’re all mad, everyone of ’em” Said Rupert with conviction.
Georgette Heyer-The Devil’s Cub.

I have read this 2004 book by the great Susan Elizabeth Phillips a few times, and listened to it once before. The book is great. One of her best. It’s a stand alone, but mention of the Daphne the Bunny books from her Chicago Stars series tie it to that universe. Ultimate Chick Lit, it has all the ingredients I look for in that lightly regarded genre and with a delicious southern twang: Funny dialog, plenty of drama, suspense and anticipation, quintessential enemies to lovers, slow burn, true love, redemption, and justice for all. You name it. In Sugar Beth Carey, SEP has created one of her strongest and funniest heroines. And Colin Byrne, apparently inspired by Georgette Heyer’s The Duke of Avon is more than a match for her. But Sugar Beth is no worshipful Leonie sitting at the feet of Heyer’s Justin Alistair.

Sugar Beth is a one of a kind heroine who was truly a pampered mean girl and bully in her youth. In truth, she deserved every bad thing that came (and will come) to her in this book, and she knows it. The reader, however, soon learns she has reaped the consequences of her past foolish and bad acts and come through the flames a changed and better person. But her former friends and the townspeople, when she returns to her small home town of Parrish Mississippi, only know her as the spoiled rich girl who cruelly bullied and humiliated her shy illegitimate step sister. She’s the girl who dumped the popular hometown high school hero for a big time college athlete and left her provincial small town in the dust. She is still the beautiful and flirtatious teen who falsely accused a young teacher of sexual harassment and got him fired and sent home in disgrace. And who didn’t even have the decency to come back for her father’s funeral. I told you she was bad. But while life has not been kind to Sugar Beth, the nerdy step-sister from the wrong side of the tracks is now the heir of all their late father’s wealth and married to Sugar Beth’s former boyfriend. They are the power-couple of the small town and its social leaders. And the young teacher Sugar Beth ruined? He is now a wealthy and famous author who has returned from England to live in Parrish and who has brought it a certain fame and prosperity. And now Sugar Beth is back in town to find a valuable legacy that will hopefully turn her life around and save the future of a vulnerable dependant. And then get back out of the town which holds so many painful memories as soon as possible. Not gonna happen. Let the games begin.

As backstories unfold, and and secrets are revealed, we love and cheer for the very entertaining Sugar Beth while cringing at the person she used to be. But we also sympathize with and admire her sister and nemesis, Winnie Davis. This is a book with no “bad guys.” A really good romance has great side characters and every character in this one is a finely honed gem, and it is funny as heck.

With this listen on Audible, however, I regret to say that the narration by Kate Fleming got on my last nerve. It tainted large chunks of the book for me, including, unforgivably, the romance part. On paper, Colin Byrne is eccentric and affected but ultimately romantic and intriguing. An original in the 21st century, he is apparently based on an archetypal Regency or Georgian aristocratic romantic hero. In the hands of Ms. Fleming, he becomes a pompous and ridiculous ass. She does OK with Sugar Beth and the rest of characters most of the time, but she rarely lets up on the acid sardonic tone, even when it is not called for by the words or the story. Her southern accent is way over the top. I’m a southerner and when a southerner hears a southern accent that is way too southern, it is. Susan Elizabeth Phillips had the good taste and discernment to preface each of her chapters with an appropriate quote from a Georgette Heyer novel. What Kate Fleming did to those quotes was a train wreck of clown cars. She obviously has no knowledge of the characters that spoke the words of the iconic Georgette. Her reading added insult to the injury she inflicted to one of SEP’s best books. I have listened to other books by this author narrated by Kate Fleming aka Anna Fields and her interpretations have been spot on and wonderful. What the Heck happened, and why did no one stop her? The Book is 5 stars. The narration is unforgivable. But I’m not going to punish the book for that.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

In a Holidaze

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by Christina Lauren

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I was expecting more from this, especially after I started reading it. The premise, in which our main character keeps going back in time until she get things right, had a lot of promise. But the two main characters turned out to be disappointments, and a disappointment together. The very large and crowded secondary cast had no one entertaining enough to carry a secondary storyline to fall back on.

Andrew, our heroine’s love interest, was too much of a paragon. Perfect face, perfect body, and perfect personality. There was no room for growth, or change for the better, possible for him.

He smiles, and Lord, if the sun doesn’t come out from behind the clouds. Dimples so deep I could lose all my hopes and dreams inside them. I swear his teeth sparkle. As if on cue, a perfect brown curl falls over his forehead. You have got to be kidding me.

You’ve got to be kidding me too. The description reminded me of those old comic book representations of Superman. And that can be fine if he is the knight in shining armor character who has to rescue a victimized or seriously flawed heroine from a heinous antagonist. But this heroine had just failed to launch and needed to grow up. Besides, no disrespect to Superman, but I prefer Clark Kent. The love story seemed jejune and more of school girl crush. Our heroine, called variously Maelyn, Maisie, Mae, or Noodle, is 26. She had decided she was in love with “Mandrew” at 13 and has since only saw him for one week a year. Hardly a strong foundation for an enduring love story. Honestly, it had all the makings of “Girl thinks she is in love with the guy who checks all the boxes, but her real connection is with the less obvious underdog.” I would have preferred it if the love story started with perfect Andrew but ended with his flawed brother Theo, minus the gross face licking incident.

I glare across the table at him, but he doesn’t look up. He tucks into his Lucky Charms like a hungover frat boy. Theo is a dick.

Lots of room for growth and change there! A slow realization that Theo had been misunderstood and had hidden depths would have been much more interesting and romantic. But unfortunately the author(s) saddled him with some serious no-nos that eliminated that possibility and any suspense of who she would wind up with, despite my hoping for a miracle.

The second big thing that didn’t track with me was the time travel/Groundhog day thing. It didn’t make any sense, and I’m not even talking about “why this particular girl?” Although that would have been nice to know! By the way, our heroine had never heard of this modern classic Romantic Comedy, which did nothing to endear her to me. I was ok with her having 3 trips only which stopped at the halfway point. She was always whisked back in time right before she was about to be killed or maimed (or seriously injured.) At first I thought the universe was trying to save her life. The first time, an out of control truck is spinning towards her and feet from crashing into her car. The second time she is about to fall down the stairs. The third time, a heavy tree branch is about to fall on her head. But when the fourth time a life threatening incident occurred, nothing happened. She assumes the universe is trying to warn her she did something wrong (why?), which she didn’t. In fact, it occurred right after she decided to do something very right and be honest with Theo about Andrew. And throughout the book, it never seems to hit her that the first incident that triggered “Groundhog day” could also have killed her and her whole family. This possible tragedy waiting to happen (again) is never acknowledged.

Fairly early on, after the 3rd reliving of her cabin vacation, She actually learns the lessons she presumably is meant to learn, the secret to her being happy. She emails her boss and quits the job she hates, and is honest about her feelings for Andrew. But the penny doesn’t drop until almost the 80% mark.

I’ve spent years not trusting my ability to make decisions and quietly letting life just happen to me. It can’t be a coincidence that the moment I stopped being passive and followed my instincts, everything seemed to fall into place. I know what makes me happy—trusting myself. What a gift, right? I found happiness…
The only person whose expectations you have to live up to is yourself. When I thought it didn’t matter and no one would remember, I finally started living authentically. I quit my job. I was honest about my feelings. I went after what I wanted without fear.

I don’t know, it was all very confusing. But I won’t pile on about other things that bothered me.
The upshot is, that the premise could have been the foundation of a really good book with some depth and all sorts of interesting things going on, but the authors wasted it on what is only a light and frothy holiday (and pretty insipid) romance. It was like Christina Lauren purposely steered away from anything that could have made it substantial or really special.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.