Go, me! I finished a TBR book! I started it 10 days ago and it's done and I'm already posting. Yay! Of course, it turned out to be a quick and easy read. But still -- I'm gettin' it done! (Okay. I'll stop patting myself on the back for reading a frigging book now...)
I'm not sure what to say about this book because... I liked it and it was kind of fluff. Sooo... what is there to say? Good characters, a fine story -- even a little bit of a "mystery" that carried through to a pretty satisfying end. Plus, it's set in the South and I have a weakness for southern lit, so... thumbs up!
I only had two little problems with it.
1. Some weird copy on the book jacket. This is not the fault of the author, but I almost rejected the book totally when I read this: "Few novels have explored, as this one does, the lush, unknown region of the feminine soul where the thin line between the spiritual and the erotic exists." First of all: Ew. Secondly: Really? Cause I feel like plenty of novels have "explored" that territory.
Again, not the author's fault, but it was seriously grody talk for what turned out to be a pretty good "self-discovery" novel (without much of the ickiness alluded to in that copy).
2. This is not an uncommon writing device, but I still do not like it -- frontloading the book with something that is going to happen later. I always feel like it's kind of a spoiler. And, while I actually don't mind "spoilers," I feel like they should have warnings.
The opening line of the novel:
"In the middle of my marriage, when I was above all Hugh's wife and Dee's mother, on of those unambiguous women with no desire to disturb the universe, I fell in love with a Benedictine monk.It takes over 150 pages for her to hook up with that dude, but... you know it's going to happen the whole time! She already told you! Meanwhile, that was in a Prologue. Re-reading the first line of Chapter 1 now, I feel like it would have been a stronger opening to start with that.
"It happened during the winter and spring of 1988, though I'm only now, a year later, ready to speak of it. " [1]
More does happen after the hookup, so not everything is spoiled, but I still can't help but be a little irked.
Overall review: Quick, enjoyable story. Decent chick novel/beach read.
Onwards!
love,
kelly
I'm sorry, but everything about this review cracked me up: The lush female soul, the affair with a monk (ew. just ew.), and the loose-flowing Bassinger locks. Oh boy.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, I remember when all the Moms were reading The Thornbirds when we were kids. Sleeping with a priest is yucky no matter what in my book. I wonder if the fact that this dude is monk is supposed to soften the yuck factor?
I often find the use of dramatic irony in the opening tiresome (think Moulin Rouge)---however, I will say that I learned the hard way to break the bad news about Anne Frank to the kids before we start reading. I mean, some of them didn't know SHE'S NOT GOING TO MAKE IT! And now I just flat out tell them. Heh.