Love Saves the Day

Our book club leader challenged us to read and review two novellas in addition to our three August books of the month, so naturally I decided to read the novellas first because they're shorter. The first one I chose was Shamrock Kisses by Serena Pier (103 pages). This book is the third in a series of six mini-romances featuring a group of friends located in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. A bar called "High Five" serves as a motif throughout the series along with holiday themes, this one obviously being St. Patrick's Day. I found this book first (you don't have to read them in order), maybe because I love Inky's green eyes, though at times they appear golden (and in some old pics Gatsby's look greenish, go figure!), and if I liked it I would read the rest and if not, not. Welp, it's a not, sadly. This story basically has no plot whatsoever. Patrick meets Rachel, and they're both very attracted to each other. They meet up the next day at the High Five to begin flirting and dancing and smooching, et cetera. Except for the fact that Patrick lives in Chicago (but he can go remote), there is no obstacle at all put in the way of the couple's togetherness. They discover all kinds of cool things about each other, become even more attracted, and everything proceeds smoothly. Isn't that great? Yawn. Two stars.

The second book is 186 pages but is still considered a novella: Wrong Number by Daphne Leigh. This one contains very witty, very sexy banter (much of it via text), which is a welcome relief after the cringe convos throughout Shamrock. Honestly, I was a bit envious of Sarah, since James was the type of man I had hoped to meet back in my dating daze. He is confident, happy, witty, expressive, emotionally available, doesn't pretend to be too cool or busy to focus on one person, employed, etc. But then Sarah and James meet for a real date and everything goes to hell. To portray the heroine’s nervousness, the author has her tripping nonstop over her own feet and spilling drinks, not just once but over and over. So annoying and ridiculous. The relationship moves way too fast for no reason, though at least there are some emotional obstacles on her part to overcome, unlike in the Shamrock story. It would have been nice if James also had some kind of character arc or if there was some outside impediment to their togetherness. This could have been so much better. Oh well. Three stars. 

Note: both of these books are pretty high in “spice” aka explicit sex, not that any of you will likely read them to begin with!

For my in-person book club meeting next Sunday afternoon we have chosen the book Love Saves the Day by Gwen Cooper. This novel made me so angry! The reason is because this could have been a great book, a five-star book for sure, but the idiotic, mixed-up chronology is beyond irritating. Why can't contemporary writers just tell their stories straight? LSTD is all over the damn place timewise, and on top that, half the narration is from "the cat" (Prudence) in present tense. I don't mind this if it's done well and/ or if there's a small amount of it, but it isn't done well, and there is a lot of it. Granted, there are some funny/ cute moments, such as when Prudence speculates that Josh may be off-balance because he shaves his whiskers every day, but much of her narration is repetitive. The bones of an excellent novel are hidden beneath the fluff and silliness, and I became angrier at Gwen for hiding those bones than I would be at a lesser writer. She's a good writer! She could have begun this tale with Sarah's interesting life and proceeded chronologically to her daughter Laura's story, including all the gritty parts about how hard it is to live in NYC if you're not wealthy and the stuff about real estate and evil developers, etc., and perhaps incorporated some kitty input once in a while. Argh! Three stars. I'll probably read it again at some point and possibly fling on an extra star, but right now I am really tired of time jumping.

Speaking of cats, Inky is so mad at me right now because I brushed her and put a cute, blingy collar on her sweet little neck. She pretended she was over her snit when I offered her a bite of cheese (she adores cheese), but then she went right back to pouting in her cubby.