Review: I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

Title: I’ve Got Your Number
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Category: chick-lit
Publisher: The Dial Press, February 14, 2012
Pages: 448
Source: ARC via netGalley, read on my Kindle
Star rating: 5 out of 5

When it comes to books, I have terribly happy memories of the early-2000s. I discovered chick-lit, probably on one of those lovely three-for-two tables Borders used to have near the front door. I read them all: Jane Green, Jennifer Weiner, Marian Keyes, Helen Fielding, and others I’ve forgotten. I loved the formula: single career girl in a big city (the best ones were always in London) looking for love. They were comfortable and predictable, and I gobbled them up.

Those authors have changed and shifted their styles over the years, to topics a little more serious. They’re a bit heavier in their tone, with the drudgery of life in the suburbs (authors: there are happy people in the ‘burbs!), with two kids and a minivan and a husband who may or may not be unfaithful. I miss the old stuff. I miss the carefree and sweet stories, even if they all followed the same pattern.

And that’s why I still adore Sophie Kinsella (a.k.a. Madeleine Wickham). She can still write the single-girl-in-London story so well. Her characters are always lovable, and quirky, and a bit disheveled, and you can’t help but root for them.

In her latest, Poppy is engaged to Magnus, a genius from a genius family. At a bridal shower, Poppy loses her engagement ring, an expensive emerald, a family heirloom. Someone pulls the hotel fire alarm and the scene is chaotic. The ring is lost, and Poppy is distraught, and to make matters worse, her phone is stolen right out of her hand on the street. In the hotel’s lobby, she finds a discarded phone in a trash can and uses it to put out the alert about her lost ring and stolen phone.

But it can’t end there. No, Poppy has found a phone belonging to an important company, and an important man, Sam Roxton, wants it back. The ensuing events are mad-cap and a bit zany (in a good way) and Poppy’s life unravels just before an unlikely someone starts to put it back together again.

Only Sophie Kinsella can write a story like this. She takes the most unlikely people and events and makes them seem utterly believable. Her writing skill is impressive, to boot. I hope she never abandons this format completely. Sometimes you just want to read something fun.

As an aside, I’ve been obsessed with greatly enjoying Downton Abbey so much lately. And even though Sam Roxton as described in the book looks nothing at all like Dan Stevens, that’s who I pictured through the whole book. A visual:

I guess I could’ve gotten stuck on the guy who plays Carson.

Review: Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale

Title: Midnight in Austenland
Author: Shannon Hale
Category: chick-lit
Publisher: Bloomsbury, January 31, 2012
Pages: 288
Source: ARC via netGalley, read on my Kindle
Star rating: 1 out of 5

Charlotte is a recently-divorced mother of two. She’s feeling left behind and lost and needs a vacation and a bit of her old zing back. She finds Austenland through her travel agent and books a trip to England to role-play for two weeks and re-set her heart and mind.

I adored Austenland, the first book in this series (review here). I was overjoyed by it and gobbled it up in a day. I still think of it fondly and was thrilled to learn it was the first in a series.

But something’s wrong with this one. There’s no life. There’s no excitement. There’s no thrilling aspect that kept me turning the pages. I read Austenland in a day, rooted to my couch, laughing and crying. Midnight in Austenland has none of that thrill for me.

And the writing. Oh, my word, the writing has some truly dismal moments. Here are two I highlighted on my Kindle:

Charlotte met eyes with the sofa. That is, if the sofa had eyes, she would have met eyes with it.

And…

An impatient sort of patient face, like an impatient face dressing up as a patient one for Halloween.

What? That’s just dreadful. Those are the two I highlighted, but there are more.

I usually try to go into the whys and hows of my feelings toward books, but this one was just so bad, such a disappointment, that I can’t write any more. I could barely finish the book, and I can barely finish the review, either.

Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

I held off on reading this for ages. I loved Anna and the French Kiss so much that I wanted to hold on to this one and make the sweetness and satisfaction last longer. I tend to do that. I’ll hold on to a gift card for ages, or I’ll keep my favorite chocolate hidden away. I don’t jump in feet first, but I’ll wait for just the right moment when I really need that wonderful thing I’ve been saving for the proverbial rainy day.

So it isn’t the happiest feeling in the world when the thing I’ve been waiting so long for falls flat.

Don’t get me wrong. Stephanie Perkins is a very good writer. And Lola and the Boy Next Door is a good book.

I just really, really, intensely dislike Lola herself.

She’s immature, selfish, unlikeable. And then there’s the boy next door himself, the completely loveable and adorable (if a bit frustrating in the “come on, man up!” sense) Cricket Bell himself. I felt, even to the very end, that Lola didn’t at all deserve Cricket.

Perkins has a knack for writing swoon-worthy male characters. Etienne St. Clair? Humina. He’s right up there with Poe from Diana Peterfreund’s secret society novels. Cricket Bell has joined them, making a triumvirate of don’t-you-wish-they-were-real boys. But her girls? Her girls aren’t so great. I wonder why that is.

Read on my Kindle

Who Dat.

I’m so nervous, I’m about to die.

Review: Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber

Title: Au Revoir, Cray European Chick
Author: Joe Schreiber
Category: young adult
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Page count: 192
Source: ARC from the publisher, via netGalley
Star rating: 5 out of 5

Life seems to be one bit of drudgery after another for Perry, who’s a high school senior with very different ideas than his parents about what should be important to him. He wants to dedicate as much time as he can to his band, and he wants to join the swim team at school before it’s too late, but his parents – especially his overbearing, high-powered New York City attorney father – care only about good grades and getting into the best college. Add to that the fact that the family has a quiet, geeky, weird Lithuanian exchange student, a completely out of touch girl named Gobi, and Perry is nearly at his wits’ end.

His band has a big show in New York City, but it unfortunately coincides with prom night. Perry doesn’t care, because he doesn’t have a girlfriend to take, anyway, but his parents insist he take Gobi. She’s requested him as her escort, and they think it’s the right thing to do, since it’s almost time for her to leave and head back to Lithuania. Perry is completely against the idea, since it’ll cost him his gig with his band and his reputation among his friends. But his parents won’t budge, and on prom night he finds himself in his father’s borrowed Jag, wearing an itchy rented tuxedo and escorting the girl who will barely say two words to him and has for some reason dressed herself in the most unattractive traditional Lithuanian dress possible.

But there’s a twist, and what starts as another high school dance turns into a wild adventure when Perry is drawn into Gobi’s mission against his will. Oh yeah, did I fail to mention Gobi’s a trained assassin and that the night ends up including henchmen, car chases, murder, explosions, unexpected twists, and even a bear fight? It’s like a sucker-punch of coming-of-age in the wildest way imaginable.

This is the first young adult novel written by a man that I’ve ever read, and it’s blissfully free of the angst (and, lately, paranormal elements) common in YA written by women. This is a wild story, impossible to put down. It’s completely implausible, and a total farce, but that’s what makes it so fun. Recommended for anyone looking for an adventure and the chance to escape reality for a little while. This is not your typical prom story.

Review: There You’ll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones

Title: There You’ll Find Me
Author: Jenny B. Jones
Category: Christian YA
Publisher: Thomas Nelson, September 2011
Page Count: 320
Source: ARC from the publisher, via netGalley
Star Rating: 5 out of 5

I know that I’m a ridiculous fangirl for Jenny B. Jones. I’m someone who hasn’t liked much Christian fiction in a long time, but she makes me love it. I gushed ridiculously over Save the Date and I feel just as strongly about this one.

Save the Date was told from the perspective of adults, Alex and Lucy. It chronicled their lives, feisty resistance of one another, and eventual falling in love. Alex’s brother Will’s death was a heavy shadow over the book, and Alex eventually found his own peace and resolution. There You’ll Find Me is the story of Finley Sinclair, Alex and Will’s teenaged sister. Her grief is experienced much differently. Maybe it’s because she’s so young. Maybe it’s because she’s a girl and shows her emotions more openly. Whatever it is, it seems to be rockier for Finley to overcome.

Finley’s in Ireland for a school exchange program. She’s got a big audition for the New York Conservatory coming up, and she’s in Ireland to re-trace Will’s steps and write a piece of music in tribute to him. But her troubles run deep and she’s in the midst of a major crisis of faith. She meets a mean girl at school, has her heart stolen by a Hollywood heartthrob, and encounters all sorts of Irish characters, not least of which is a crusty old woman in her waning days.

But don’t be fooled into thinking this is a bubble-headed story, typical in much contemporary YA romance. No, this is much more. Finley’s troubles seem all too real and are dealt with in an utterly realistic fashion. There are funny moments, because Jones is a funny woman, but this is a tear-jerker, too. A crisis of faith is no laughing matter, and Jones treats it with seriousness and respect.

I can’t say enough good things about Jenny B. Jones and her books. Anyone who’s been resisting Christian fiction, as I did for so long, should stop resisting and read this author.

let’s pretend it’s an umbrella-drink vacation…

 

You may have noticed things have been quiet around here the past week. Or you may not have noticed at all. Thing is, I just don’t have time to blog right now. There’s a good reason, though: I have a new job teaching 9th and 10th grade English online! It’s keeping me supremely busy these days, so…

I’m officially on hiatus from blogging until further notice. I’ve finished reading one book in the entire month of August, and it’s not likely I’ll finish another one by the 31st. I don’t have the brain space left to think of reading, or of writing any kinds of blog posts. Maybe September will bring settling in to the new job, cooler temperatures, and more books read.

So please don’t abandon me! It’s not time to unsubscribe or remove me from your reader. Know that I’m coming back, but it won’t be for a few weeks yet! Take care!