Katie Fforde's novels are always fresh and different. They are chick-lit, yes, but Fforde has a witty, comical style and creates characters that the reader can care about. We know that the ending will be happy becausre it wouldn't be a romance without that!
The main characters in this novel are Sarah, a wedding planner, Elsa, a dress maker, and Bron, a hairdresser who is also talented at makeup and cake making. I think that one of the unique features of the story is that all three young women are very talented, hard working, and innovative. No one falls into a career with the help of a handsome man, no one is working in publishing, and no one lives in a grotty apartment or sleeps around with a bunch of low-lifes before finding true love. Sarah has been hurt in the past and doesn't believe in love, but Bron and Elsa certainly do. Sarah's loopy sister, Lily, is sweet and comical, a typical chick-lit character whose wedding is planned for the very day that Sarah is supposed to plan a celebrity wedding that could make her career. With the help of Hugo, James, and Laurence and the requisite misunderstandings and near disasters, Sarah, Elsa, and Bron form a winning team and everyone lives happily ever after. If you love English ambience in your reading, how could you resist a book populated by a run-down country estate and people named Hugo, Fenella, AND Rupert! I was in Anglo-Heaven throughout. This is a great, relaxing book, perfect for a rainy weekend or anytime you want to escape from everyday worries!
BIBLIOPHILY
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
THE BAKER'S APPRENTICE (Judith Ryan Hendricks)
I think the thing that I enjoyed most about this novel was the bread-making. I myself am great at cookies, but very bad at creating edible food that contains yeast (Hooray for bread machines!), so I enjoyed learning how the kneading of the dough develops the texture of the bread and how slight changes in the comBination of ingredients can completely change the final product.
This is a sort of coming-of-age story for thirty-somethings. Wyn is in the process of divorcing and in dire financial straits. She has been part owner of a bread bakery for about a year as the story begins and is newly in love with Mac McLeod, a friend and comforter who is seeking to publish his first novel. Mac is rough around the edges and Wyn is worried about the transition from friends to lovers. Everyone is worried about money and no one seems to have any. This was a pleasant book, but I am still not sure about the title. Tyler, a blue-haired waif with a difficult family background, becomes Wyn's apprentice, working the night shift by her side creating delicious bread. Tyler, the apprentice, is not the focus of the novel though; that is the relationship between Wyn and Mac, who for a good part of the novel is living in the Yukon where his truck broke down on his way to Alaska to think for a few months. The main characters are all well-developed and three-dimensional, easy-going in their relationships despite a significant amount of angst and indecision in their lives. Wyn and Mac sort of mirror Tyler's transition from aimless child to focused adult. I'm sure that a good book critic would pull out the symbolism represented by making the bread and figure out the significance of the title. If you have read it I would appreciate your comments.
This is a sort of coming-of-age story for thirty-somethings. Wyn is in the process of divorcing and in dire financial straits. She has been part owner of a bread bakery for about a year as the story begins and is newly in love with Mac McLeod, a friend and comforter who is seeking to publish his first novel. Mac is rough around the edges and Wyn is worried about the transition from friends to lovers. Everyone is worried about money and no one seems to have any. This was a pleasant book, but I am still not sure about the title. Tyler, a blue-haired waif with a difficult family background, becomes Wyn's apprentice, working the night shift by her side creating delicious bread. Tyler, the apprentice, is not the focus of the novel though; that is the relationship between Wyn and Mac, who for a good part of the novel is living in the Yukon where his truck broke down on his way to Alaska to think for a few months. The main characters are all well-developed and three-dimensional, easy-going in their relationships despite a significant amount of angst and indecision in their lives. Wyn and Mac sort of mirror Tyler's transition from aimless child to focused adult. I'm sure that a good book critic would pull out the symbolism represented by making the bread and figure out the significance of the title. If you have read it I would appreciate your comments.
RED HOT MURDER (Joanne Pence)
Angie Amalfi is a little out of the ordinary as amateur sleuths go. She has the requisite handsome cop / boyfriend, San Francisco homicide detective Paavo Smith, an interesting career (cooking related), and an insatiable need to investigate any crime that crosses her path. What sets her apart is her wardrobe (designer all the way) and her romantic nature (she spends quite a bit of time waiting for Paavo in bed!).
In Red Hot Murder Angie and Paavo travel to Arizona, he to meet someone to discuss the mysterious death of an old friend, she to scout it as a possible venue for their upcoming wedding. On arrival they find another missing person and a hilarious herd of ostriches that manage to disrupt most of the events in novel. Pence has created a very endearing and likeable character in Angie and overall I enjoyed the story, but I found the large cast of characters difficult to keep track of. Hal, the original victim, was an eccentric retail giant and ranch owner, divorced from Clarissa and father to Joey, who hopes to inherit the ranch. Maritza, Lupe, and Teresa are three generations of a family whose lives are intertwined with several of the other characters. Dolores is the charming cook/housekeeper at the ranch, devoted to the late Hal, and Doc is the local medicine man, in love with the divorced Lupe, who cannot marry him because of her strict Catholic faith. Junior is Hal's cousin, I think, and Lionel runs the ranch, Ned is the vanished friend that Paavo had hoped to meet, and Laverne is the chef with a secret that causes people to run in the other direction when she offers a new recipe for tasting. See what I mean? Overall though, Pence's novel, one of the most recent in this series is colorful and hilarious. If you pay close attention to names and relationships you will enjoy it from the first page to the last.
In Red Hot Murder Angie and Paavo travel to Arizona, he to meet someone to discuss the mysterious death of an old friend, she to scout it as a possible venue for their upcoming wedding. On arrival they find another missing person and a hilarious herd of ostriches that manage to disrupt most of the events in novel. Pence has created a very endearing and likeable character in Angie and overall I enjoyed the story, but I found the large cast of characters difficult to keep track of. Hal, the original victim, was an eccentric retail giant and ranch owner, divorced from Clarissa and father to Joey, who hopes to inherit the ranch. Maritza, Lupe, and Teresa are three generations of a family whose lives are intertwined with several of the other characters. Dolores is the charming cook/housekeeper at the ranch, devoted to the late Hal, and Doc is the local medicine man, in love with the divorced Lupe, who cannot marry him because of her strict Catholic faith. Junior is Hal's cousin, I think, and Lionel runs the ranch, Ned is the vanished friend that Paavo had hoped to meet, and Laverne is the chef with a secret that causes people to run in the other direction when she offers a new recipe for tasting. See what I mean? Overall though, Pence's novel, one of the most recent in this series is colorful and hilarious. If you pay close attention to names and relationships you will enjoy it from the first page to the last.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
THE SIDE OF ANGELS (Christina Bartolomeo)
I admit that reading 3 books by this author in 7 weeks is a little excessive, but I enjoy her style and her themes so much! In this novel we met Dominica (Nicky) Malone, an Irish-Italian single woman employed by a "2nd rate" PR firm. Nicky has been unlucky in love, leaving Tony, the love of her life, after 5 years of cohabitation and emotional disconnect. Her most recent ex-boyfriend Jeremy, is an English stunner with questionable morals (he cheated on her for 6 months before she found out) who badly wants to to re-establish their relationship, aided and abetted by Nicky's mother. Nicky has a quirky, lovable cousin, Louise, who is like a sister to her and runs a successful matchmaking agency. Nicky's somewhat smarmy boss, Ron, concerned brothers, a close male cousin who shares an unackowledged love with Louise, but is engaged to Betsey, who is all wrong for him, and her interfering mother round out Nicky's immdiate family. All of them are delightful additions to the mix.
Nicky is assigned to travel to RI from her home in Washington, DC to handle the PR for a threatened nurses strike, a strike being adeptly handles by none other than Tony Boltanski, Nicky's former love. The details surrounding the strike, the personal situations of the participants and the PR working that go on behind the scenes, are fascinating. All of the characters are colorful and, amazingly, both believable and, somehow, lovable. I can't wait for Bartolomeo's next novel to come out!
Nicky is assigned to travel to RI from her home in Washington, DC to handle the PR for a threatened nurses strike, a strike being adeptly handles by none other than Tony Boltanski, Nicky's former love. The details surrounding the strike, the personal situations of the participants and the PR working that go on behind the scenes, are fascinating. All of the characters are colorful and, amazingly, both believable and, somehow, lovable. I can't wait for Bartolomeo's next novel to come out!
THE PRODIGAL WIFE (Marcia Willett)
Sometimes the word "twee" comes to mind when I am reading Marcia Willett. I find her books sweet and relaxing, peopled with real individuals who are just a bit stilted but very human and imperfect. In this novel the title character is Maria, a recent widow who years ago left her husband and young son, Jolyon, to live with the love of her life, taking her younger son, Edward, with her. Now that her husband is dead and Edward has lost much of her money in a bad investment and left for greener pastures in America with his girlfriend, Maria is alone and at loose ends. She seeks to reconnect with her previous life by visiting the Keep, home of her former husband Hal and son Jolyon. Hal is now married the love of HIS life, Fliss, a widow and his first cousin, from whom he was separated (romantically) by his family years before. Jolyon is a well-known entrepreneur and television personality who has very mixed feelings about his mother's new interest in him and in the Keep. As he finds himself falling in love with Henrietta, daughter of old family friend Cordelia (herself embroiled in a romantically intriguing situation), Jolyon tries to deal with his mother and establish a role for her in his life. In addition to all of the family angst, Willett also creates an interesting and mysterious subplot involving Cordelia and her lover.
Willett's characters are a sometimes a little bit shallow and under-developed and the outcomes of their problems a little bit too neat, but I love her books. Picture yourself in an English cottage on a gray day with a roaring fire to dispel the damp, a cup of tea and some scones fresh from the Aga, and a couple of large dogs and a pair of wellies by the door. If this scenario appeals to you, so will Willett!
Willett's characters are a sometimes a little bit shallow and under-developed and the outcomes of their problems a little bit too neat, but I love her books. Picture yourself in an English cottage on a gray day with a roaring fire to dispel the damp, a cup of tea and some scones fresh from the Aga, and a couple of large dogs and a pair of wellies by the door. If this scenario appeals to you, so will Willett!
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