Chick Lit

Dolly All the Time

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by Annabel Monaghan

“Well, hello, Dolly,” says Grant, at the head of a table for eight. If I had a nickel.

And what do you do, Dolly?” asks a woman whose name I’ve already forgotten. “I teach kindergarten in Boston.” “Ah,” she says, resting her hand on the golf ball–sized emerald around her neck. “You two are like Charles and Diana!” It’s a grim comparison to say the least. “Well, sort of. Except he cheated and she’s dead,” I say, and look up at Stewart, who winces a bit. I could have just said nothing. Nothing was the thing to say. I feel a little blush creep up my neck.

There were times when I was reading this that I just loved it. I liked the brand of humor and I was actually a little excited about the similarities with at least one of my favorite and most dependable authors. I really liked Dolly and continued to like her throughout the book. I loved the set up of a romance between two socially and financially unequal partners. It is called the “punching up” trope and is one of my favorites. So many humorous and dramatic possibilities as well as opportunities to develop or reveal character. Some of my favorite authors incorporate this dynamic: Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen, and old timey gothics as well as some great rom-com movies including Pretty Woman, Notting Hill, Sabrina, and Crazy Rich Asians,-book and movie. and lets not forget dramas like Downton Abbey, North and South (Elizabeth Gaskell) and Titanic.

Overall, this one did it well. Dolly is a single mother whose father owns the local fish store in the New England tourist town of Whitfield, Rhode Island. She works as a Kindergarten teacher in Boston, but as the novel begins she has been called home to help her father and her mentally disabled brother when the roof of their beloved family home has to be repaired due to a fire. They do not have the money. Yet. While delivering fish to the local “nobility” she comes across the handsome scion of the family stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire. Stewart Whitfield of Whitfield is having a very bad day. His beautiful socialite fiancé has just publicly dumped him and has made him look like a victim in the eyes of his family and society. The timing is particularly bad as he is up for a hotly contested promotion in his family’s real estate firm. When a picture is snapped of Dolly changing his tire for him and goes viral, it is a hit to his image that he can’t afford. Can Dolly can play along and pretend to be his public girlfriend so as to avoid having him look like a helpless rich-guy dumpee? With two side hustles, helping at the family fish store and taking care of her family, Dolly doesn’t have time for such foolishness. But when he offers to pay her, she tells him she will do it for $60,000, enough to fix the roof plus a little extra. Also a clothing allowance for the hoity-toity functions that she will be required to attend.

As the romance progresses, we are treated to a bit of a makeover courtesy of Stewart’s nice sister, a supportive if a little giddy ride-or-die friend, interactions with Stewart’s powerful family where we meet both good people and bad, Dolly’s lonely son, Gus, whom Stewart takes under his wing, and Stewart’s conflicts and challenges with the direction the family business is taking. And that is just a random sampling that just scratches the surface. Lots happens in this book. Being with Dolly helps him enormously and starts to change his priorities from giving everything to his career to carving out time for a personal life and relationships. His mental health has suffered because of the enormous pressure he has put on himself.

And it is somewhat the same with Dolly. Ever since her mother deserted them when she was only 11, Dolly took on the caretaker role in her family, which has led to an estrangement with her younger sister Paula. Reading between the lines of Dolly’s narration, we see that despite her strengths she takes on too much for the sake of her loved ones. This has not been good for her or them.

I really could not have asked for a more likable heroine than Dolly. In addition to her voice and her wry observations, I loved the way she was unapologetic about her rather pedestrian background. She was not defensive or even proud of it either. When snooty people at the various social situations would ask her, she was just very matter-of-fact and up front about things in her life that some might, shall we say, not be able to relate to. And sometimes, she finds some kindred spirits when she didn’t expect to.

*Spoilers*

The romance proceeds smoothly. So smoothly that it started to get a little boring. Of course there is no doubt about Dolly’s feelings. She repetitively spells out her physical and emotional attraction to him for the reader. Not a fan of this tendency in romantic comedies. Stewart’s devotion to Dolly is not in question either, by his words and actions. Which makes it such a shock when does a 180 with a very hurtful and confusing ghosting, betraying everything she and the reader had come to believe about him. Similar to the MMC in the author’s Nora Goes Off Script he behaves abominably. But it didn’t bother me as much because it didn’t stem from an idiotic and inexcusable misunderstanding, but from internal psychological issues he had been struggling with. The drama ends up being a good thing for him. As for Dolly, the whole experience ended up giving her insight into how her own behavior had not been helpful to her or to her family. The repair of her relationship with her sister Paula was very satisfying, though I was hoping for an appearance of and confrontation with her much talked about mother. That didn’t happen, but I was mostly satisfied with the way her abandonment was dealt with. Of course, Dolly and Stephen are reconciled in the end, but not without her giving him a piece of her mind first. It was a turning point and I liked that she was ready and willing to move on before he came back hat in hand, though it was a whole year after the initial parting of ways. But maybe it had to be. I believed in their happy ending. After three of Monaghan’s books, this is my favorite so far. I had some reservations, but not nearly to the extent as I had about the other two.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Love Across the Aisle

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By Todd McGee

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I make a point of not reading books that are not from “real publishers”. With all of the choices out there, I have to have a few filters. But I was asked to read this one by a friend and review it if I felt like it, so I shrugged and said “OK”. After the first couple of chapters Todd McGee’s good writing, intriguing premise and amusing dialogue soon made me forget my prejudices and I started to get involved in the story and care about the characters.

Romances between odd couples have always attracted me. Opposite stations in life, physical attractiveness or personalities all make for reliable sources of comedy or drama. This one features a take I have not personally ever run across in a book: a romance between a conservative republican and a liberal democrat set on the political stage. Milly is a very attractive and charismatic former athlete running for the Pennsylvania state senate as a Republican. Mark is a political operative working for the incumbent, a liberal but stodgy democrat with a comb over, “who talked— mumbled, really— like he had a mouthful of loose teeth and was afraid one might fall out.” Newcomer Millie Blair is very much the underdog who shocked the good ole boy network by winning their party’s primary. Her small team is on a shoe string budget as they run a grass roots campaign going to any venue they can get. But from one church basement and school auditorium to the next their campaign is slowly and surely building momentum on the strength of Millie’s eloquent and rousing speeches, charisma, and photogenic appeal. Mark is covering her semi-covertly to uncover missteps and weaknesses his side can exploit. As Millie starts whittling down what started as a huge gap in the polling numbers, Mark’s candidate, Senator Phil Cooper is getting antsy. Mark has yet to expose Milly doing “anything stupid.”


She’s a saint… Highschool valedictorian, Tennis scholarship to Penn State. Academic all-american…The closest thing I’ve found is a speeding ticket. The judge ordered her to perform twenty hours of community service for a local non- profit. She worked more than one hundred, wrote a business plan and held the organization’s most successful fundraiser ever. After she finished her service, they elected her to the Board of Directors and named an award after her.” “Geez, this woman is like a nun.” “With the body of a swimsuit model. You stare at her and think all these impure thoughts and then feel guilty about it and ask for absolution.”

But one day, during a campaign stop Mark inadvertently films a wardrobe malfunction that might possibly provide that one loose thread that could unravel her campaign. But instead of sharing it with his bosses who would probably use it to their advantage, he stops filming and warns her in time to prevent her from embarrassing herself. Mark is a good guy, and he has sisters. He deletes it in front of her (at the police station-because in the confusion her security guys call the cops) and Millie is grateful and impressed. Mutual crushes and growing feelings are not far behind.

The growth of the romance is well done and, well, romantic. It is a slow burn because they both struggle with their personal admiration and feelings for each other in the face of their adversarial professional relationship and political differences. Their attraction is of the heart and head rather than involuntary physical chemistry. That is there too, but unlike so many romances these days, it is not boringly dwelt on ad nauseum. It is complicated by Milly’s relationship with her campaign manager which had been getting romantic, and the recent death of Mark’s fiancée in a car accident. He was deeply in love with her and she was wonderful. Usually a past relationship that the main character is recovering from has some flaw or other to make the romance at hand shine all the brighter. This is one of the many cliches that the author avoids falling into and boy did it make for a refreshing read.

In addition to the romance there was plenty more in the story to keep my interest. Will Milly’s inexperience trip her up eventually? Will Mark play a part in it? A debate between the two candidates is agreed to. How will that go? Milly finally has the attention of the national Republican power brokers. Can she stay true to herself? Will Milly and Mark’s developing feelings for each other be exposed? That would not end well. Finally, we are introduced to Mark’s sister Carolyn who turned out to be the strongest character in the book and very funny. I loved her. The main crisis occurs when the video that Mark deleted somehow makes an appearance online and goes viral. How did that happen and who is responsible? Mark is innocent, but of course he is blamed. How will the fallout affect Milly’s growing momentum? Or will it backfire and derail her opponent’s campaign? Will his good name be cleared? Whoo. That’s a lot of questions. But I was there for it and it really kept me turning the pages.

Amazingly, despite the political backdrop, the author managed to avoid revealing a personal political agenda. Both sides were gently skewered. Liberal Democrat or conservative Republican readers alike should find nothing here to offend them unless you are one of those who think all Democrats or all Republicans are inherently either evil or saintly. It reminded me of some of the best of the old category romances back in the day, but I certainly see why the political dynamic is rarely tackled in light rom-coms. Especially these days. If you’re looking for a light old fashioned romance that does not follow the usual tired beats, you couldn’t do better than this one. There is no spice, just two people falling in love. After reading it I turned to a best selling chick-lit romance by a top author in the genre. After 17%, I put it aside. I wonder if I would have had more patience with it if I hadn’t picked it up so soon after enjoying this one.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Once, Again, Always

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By Amanda Gayle

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The amnesia trope in books and movies has always intrigued me and resulted in some favorite, (or at least greatly enjoyed) reads and watches. I recently finished re-reading Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella and liked it very much (again.) What Alice Forgot by Lianne Moriarty is a favorite and definitely on my re-read soon list. The old movies Love Letters with Jennifer Jones and Random Harvest with Greer Garson are both favorite movies. This book was very romance forward and very much slow burn. Usually like the latter, but not the former. So take my review in that context.

Briefly, Molly awakes in the hospital with the past 6 years of her life a blank. She finds herself married to a man she last knew as a mean bully, but is now a good guy and a devoted husband. She has the same friends as she did, and some new ones as well. She reluctantly goes back to their apartment with him and starts to try to get acclimated to her “new” life and her marriage, hoping that her memory will return.
A good portion of the book was flashbacks to “Before” detailing Molly’s toxic teenage relationship with Aster before they got together. Every flashback to “before” piles on how nasty the now nice Aster used to be. There was no slow reveal of his character beneath the surface, explanation, or development. He was just stuck as a nasty piece of work from the first flashback to the last. This is how she remembers him. It was not a good choice because it was so limiting. We are given the facts, in the present day, of the beginnings of how the Molly-Aster romance started, but we do not see it first hand on the page at all. This would have made some good reading, but there was no payoff to all of the anticipation. I would have loved to see the stories of how the friends of Aster and Molly reacted to the change in their feelings for each other, and became friends themselves. It was just a strange choice for a romance and a book about relationships. A lot of opportunity for comedy and drama unrealized. Speaking of relationships, where is the story of that fateful and disastrous Christmas Dinner with Aster’s parents? Aster’s mother seems to be wanting to reach out, but is apparently under the thumb of her husband. Where’s that story? At the end, we are again fed hope and anticipation for another possible plot development I would have liked to read about, but again it comes to nothing.

This is a review of an advanced reading copy for Netgalley so I don’t want to get into too many details because of spoilers. But so many questions. The only Aster Molly has ever known is as a spoiled super-wealthy snob. They now live in an average apartment where the smell of the dumpsters permeate their living space. But Molly never thinks to ask, “Where did all your money go, Aster?” “Why do we live like this?” I was certainly curious! But not Molly. She never asks what he does for a living. Or what she does for a living. WTF? One of the first things Aster does is to “curate” the photos, conversations, and contacts in her phone, hiding large swaths of information about her life from her. He locks the door of their extra room and won’t let her in. He is trying to “protect” her, he claims. He acts like he is hiding something nefarious and unspeakable. But this is not a Domestic Thriller or Horror story. So no, it’s not a murder, cheating, or any other unforgivable act by either one of them. It is very guessable from the very beginning but I thought it couldn’t be that because Aster was being just so weird and controlling. And Molly acts like the infant he is treating her like by not putting her foot down. Attempts to justify were made, like the author knew something was off, but it just wasn’t enough.

The romantic parts were well done and the writing overall was good. I liked the friends, what we know of their lives and personalities, and their contributions. The way Molly’s favorite book, The Count of Monte Cristo, was incorporated into the end was a nice touch. It kept my interest and the parts were all there. Unfortunately aspects that would have been most engaging and interesting to me were strangely not written about. When I found out this book started its life as Fan Fiction shipping Draco and Hermione, it made me thing back about it. As such it was kind of brilliant. But as a novel standing on its own, not quite.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon/ Harper Voyager for an Advanced Review Copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

The Paris Match

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by Kate Clayborn

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Layla, a doctor who has been divorced for a couple of years, accepts an invitation to the Paris wedding of her young ex-sister-in-law who was like a little sister to her. Paris is important to her whole ex-family, in fact, it is where Jamie and she spent a happy honeymoon. She is reluctant to attend but feels she must because she was close to the whole family once and especially to the sunshiney bride-to-be, Emily, to whom she had promised to remain close, but hasn’t. To make it worse, Jamie is bringing his new serious girlfriend, and though their divorce was “amicable”, and she is “fine,” Layla is concerned this will make her the object of speculation, worry, and “compassion.” Layla does not like to be spotlighted in any way, especially in these circumstances. On the plane over, while tending to an emergency medical situation, she meets a dark, intimidating, and strangely attractive man who looks at her with disapproval and dislike (for some reason.)Despite this, Layla is “electrically” drawn to him. To Layla’s dismay, it turns out he is the best friend of the groom and the Best Man. This is not a grumpy/sunshine romance. Layla is not particularly sunshiney, though she is selfless, good-humored, and kind. Griffin is not just grumpy. He is dark and brooding, surly and rude. Physically he is badly scarred and he obviously bears mental scars as well as physical. He is described throughout the book as a Fae Prince, a smokestack, and a column of smoke. Overused metaphors were sometimes a problem. Soon, trouble looms. After spending a night out on the town with Layla and her maid of honor, Emily starts to have doubts even to the point of possibly calling off the wedding. Michael the Groom is heartbroken and confused. Griffin is on the warpath because nothing must come between his friend and his happiness and he blames Layla. Layla is confused because she knows Emily loves Michael and that she didn’t do or say anything to make Emily change her mind. Can this wedding be saved?

While I liked the concept, the plot, and the care the author took with the development of her characters, her writing style was kind of a drag for me. It seemed very self-conscious like she was tying herself up in knots to express herself a certain way: a way in which clarity, straightforwardness, and effortlessness was something to be avoided. When she fashioned a metaphor or tried to convey a feeling or a thought, I often had to pause to re-read to fully grasp what she was trying to say. And usually what she was trying to convey was not as complex as the way she chose to say it.
Please bear with me while I try to put into words why this good writer’s writing just did not work for me this time. Here’s one example, though it’s throughout the whole book all the time. Layla’s ex-husband has finally arrived in Paris with his fiancée and Layla is explaining to Griffin that she feels like everyone is watching her for signs of jealousy or heartbreak (which she honestly doesn’t feel-it’s complicated) “the Is Layla Looking at Jamie show” as she calls it. Somehow she thinks that her being this distraction is going to prevent them fixing Emily’s doubts about the marriage. Seems like a distraction might be a good thing, but whatever. And why should Layla even care about what these people who are not in her life think? Griffin’s solution is for Layla to “Look at me” instead. We learn Layla response, “Look at you how?” not until the next chapter and while Griffin is recalling this conversation of the night before. During this recollection, we have Griffin’s long contemplation about how he feels like he is Quasimodo in Notre Dame’s Bell Tower. (although he never says that in so many words-just talks all around it very metaphorically and elaborately.)

He pretended it [Notre Dame] was still in ruins. That no one would ever come back to fix it. If that were true, he knew, he wouldn’t be able to stand this close to it; he knew it would be surrounded by barricades and warning signs and probably French policemen. But that little hurdle was no match for his apparently still-skilled pretending brain.
…His eyes drifted to the other bell tower, the one he hadn’t been looking at, and he pictured his wiry, hardy mother, brown-gray braid down her back, scrubbing its walls clean. Shouting out of one of her stone arches a few times a day, asking whether the monster across the way was up yet.

The reader looking for a conclusion to this conversation and Layla’s “Okay” will have to wait 12 pages, Griffin having a long phone conversation with his mother, a lot of internal sturming and dranging, and a trip to Versailles the next day. The upshot is they will not only work together behind the scenes to help and support Michael and Emily, but pretend to be “friends” so Layla does not appear to the others to be lonely. When I read contemporary romance I do not want the kind of book where the plot and character come second to the author trying to impress with her thought provoking prose. I want my thoughts to be about the plot and characters, the drama, suspense, mystery, and humor. This book has all of that, but it’s buried under too many words and too much eloquence. Lots of which didn’t even make sense. In describing Griffin, Layla is thinking how complicated he was: A complicated man. Bold but cautious, demanding but flexible, stubborn but still curious. So of course, I had to stop and try to figure out how “curious” was somehow the opposite of “stubborn.” And for that matter, shouldn’t “stubborn” be paired with “flexible” instead of “demanding?” My reading was brought to a standstill constantly and it became tedious.

I liked the slow burn layered romance and the building of the tension. When they finally do come together it was shattering and very erotic. Griffin has nothing but contempt for Jamie for losing Layla. We feel that their one time love that Layla shrugs off pales in comparison with Griffin’s love for her:

He would say it close enough for her to hear it loud and clear. “There shouldn’t be anything amicable about losing you,” he said. There should be a war, he thought. An army of stone gargoyles, ordered to be alive. All to come get you. All to show you that you should never shrug like that again.

That’s good writing.

And I was also kept turning the pages by the questions and mysteries that arise. What were the circumstances of Jamie and Layla’s divorce? They both seem so nice. Why has Layla ghosted his family? Is Jamie over Layla? Why are Michael and Griffin so close? How did Griffin get burned? How bad is the pain? Can he ever get better? I really came to care about him. Why does Emily have doubts about Michael? What is the secret? What could Michael not tell Emily? Will they end up getting married? would that be a good thing? How can Griffin and Layla be happy when there is so much to overcome? Why do Michael’s parents, especially his father, hate Griffin?

Towards the last part of the book, story elements picked up and it got easier to read. I don’t think it’s because I became accepting of her style, but because the author herself got more concerned with the story and character and forgot about “writing” to within an inch of her life. That was my impression anyway. I also liked some of the choices she made with the characters. I thought that Griffin was going to do the martyr trope thing and leave Layla for her own good. They part temporarily, but it was good.
The writing style was just so frustrating when I really loved almost everything else. 3 stars.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Lift Me Up

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By Milly Johnson

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I did enjoy this long short story/novella. It is a pretty typical Milly Johnson novel only instead of 3 women sharing the spotlight, we have just one. I had just finished a reread of one of her older novels and went right into this one. So yes, although some of her characters do get on my last nerve, I am still a fan. In fact some of my disenchantment with some of Milly’s “ways” stem from the fact that I have re-read many of her books multiple times because I am such a fan. As with most of her books, it’s light on the romance, but a romance is included to provide our heroine a hopeful happy future.

Tamantha has been denigrated all of her life by her awful family and we see an example of this as she goes to the family dinner every Sunday. She is about to get married, and no surprise, she has picked a guy that is cut out of the same cloth. He has managed to influence her to change almost everything about herself to make her fit into his personal mold of how he wants a wife to be. Why she has put up with this treatment by her family and her fiancé is not very well established so I ceased having a lot of sympathy for her long before the novella/short story was finished. His sister is a bully and has taken over Tam’s wedding to the point that she is not allowed to even invite her best friend to her own reception. This initial weakness and oppression of her protagonists is a pattern with Milly that I am increasingly losing patience with. She makes her victimized characters so blind and self-deluded that it is positively painful. They all finally see the light and successfully rebel against the tide of abuse, but often it is too late to retain my good will and concern for their well being. And there is even less justification for this heroine to put up with the disrespect and contempt in her personal life. She is a successful business woman and who was once a vibrant unconventional woman despite her black sheep status in her family.

On the professional side, Tam is on her way to a big meeting with the board of directors where she assumes she is going to be fired. She gets stuck on the elevator with the wunderkind that the board brought in to head the company instead of promoting her. She is bitter about that and makes a lot of false assumptions, but it turns out that Jack, who is the love interest, thinks the world of her and what she has accomplished for the company. Though he is still the boss, she gets full credit for her work and a big promotion. This part was good. However, despite more red flags than a Chinese parade, Tam persists in going through with her wedding until she is standing with her fiancé in front of the altar and he says something mean to her (!). She was like a lemming jumping off a cliff, or a turkey drowning itself in the rain. It is strongly implied that she would still have married the dirtbag despite everything (including her growing love for Jack), if he had just kept his mouth shut. I would have been much better with the story had Tam come to her senses on her own steam with her very own brain. Despite Jack showing her everyday how she should be treated, and the concern expressed by others, her fiancé and family have to cross the line of agreed standards of decency before she’s had enough. The story happily comes full circle, ending, as it began, in an elevator, but I would have wished for more closure with her oppressors. There could have been more balance there even though, yes, I know I know this wasn’t a full length novel. No free passes on that front from me, because Milly is usually brilliant with comeuppances.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once in a Blue Moon

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By Kristan Higgins

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This was just terrific. So often when an author continues the stories of quirky or unconventional characters, they undergo a transformation in the second book. I guess to make them easier to write about or more fit the mold of a romantic hero or heroine. Not so in this one. Dr. Satan is just as arrogant and obnoxious as ever, and I was turning pages to see if Kristan could manage to make him fall in love and be lovable without compromising the integrity of his personality. She succeeds brilliantly.

After reading Look on the Bright side, I had no real desire to read a book about Dr. Satan aka Dr. Lorenzo Santini. Apparently I was in the vast minority. I was, however, very amenable to revisiting the Smith family and having the boring sensible sister as the heroine. Pairing the two together was perfect. In a family of 3 beautiful and accomplished sisters and a charming handsome brother, Winnie (Windsor) was ‘the other one”: Not beautiful and not brilliant. No one can even remember her name. In a typical KH running joke, Her brother teases her about this affectionately: “Winnebago,” “Winona” “Winster-the-Spinster” “Winipedia,” “Window”, “Winfrey,” “Windmill” “Winnipeg”. … yes, I think that’s all of them. But everyone loves her and depends on her, because she is the most competent person in Christendom. She has made being a “behind the scenes” person work for her.

When her party planning business collapses through no fault of her own, Winnie is hired as the personal assistant of the world renowned surgeon and former fake fiancé of her older sister Lark. He needs someone who can keep his life in order so he can focus on being brilliant. He is intimidating, demanding, cold and is the definition of “arrogant.”

Was he really supposed to go to Whole Foods to buy kale when he could be, oh, saving a life? Teaching future doctors? Writing a paper that would change the way a procedure would be done, therefore raising patient survival rates?… He…didn’t want to have to call the florist himself to order flowers for his mother’s birthday. It was enough that he even remembered his mother’s birthday. Most years, he even called.

Winnie is not intimidated. She knows her worth, and it is not long before Dr. Satan does too. She becomes his right arm and virtually indispensable. She is so good at her job, that Lorenzo realizes that eventually she will organize herself out of his life, no longer having to constantly be at his side to keep his life on an even keel. And that bothers him. He doesn’t know why it bothers him, but it does.

It is a very slow burn romance, and perfectly paced. Dr. Satan (“I’ve been working for you for a month now, can I just call you Satan?”) may start to show some vulnerabilities, sensitivity, and a sense of humor, but then he will do or say something to prove once again he will never quite get off “the spectrum” completely. Things do blow up a few times, (how could they not?) but Kristan never does the predictable thing, to my great relief. Winnie always saves the day with her aversion to drama and unshakeable good sense. I loved her, never more so when she forgets she is the steady predictable one. And yes, she does do that, but only on occasion, and usually under the influence of alcohol.

As always, Kristan’s ability to make you laugh, then touch your heart, make her one of my top 5 favorite authors. One of the few who has never disappointed me the least little bit. This book is described as a novella, but it doesn’t read like one. Her later books are more “women’s fiction” than romance and are great. But this one is unabashedly a romance. And one of her most romantic ones. It is a little shorter because she took a metaphorical red pencil to most of the “women’s fiction” stuff, but somehow left a lot of depth on the page.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

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.