Let’s read… a mediocre “spinster novel”

Or maybe don’t read any chick lit NOT by Sophie Kinsella.

#14 Becky Monson: Thirty-Two Going On Spinster (Spinter Series Book 1) (2012)

If this was supposed to be an American Bridget Jones, it failed miserably. There was no self irony, no humour, only misery.

SPOILERS ahead (if you can say so but it is so utterly predictable, I won’t spoil anything. Promise.)

It was totally predictable from the very beginning, though I had a hard time believing the well-groomed, handsome man was falling for someone who doesn’t care about her appearance, wears the same clothes every day and doesn’t say a word to him.

I like to bake, too, but still couldn’t identify with the protagonist. Baking as a way of coping was probably the most believable part of the book. All her relationships are strange and unrealistic. The story lacks structure and coherence. A happy ending suddenly comes with too much closure and not enough unfolding of events even though every bit could be foreseen.

And then the word suddenly struck.
Snot. Snot? Really?! “… I say through the hiccups and tears and snot.” (p.354.) Like… really?! I don’t mean that the word cannot be written in any text but it was completely out of the blue here. No reference to bodily fluids previously though there was a wax catastrophe. I was reading, not very interesting but it’s okay, and then the book suddenly stopped to present the word ‘snot’.

A couple of times it is mentioned that the setting is Detroit. It doesn’t seem to be important and always made me stop and think about it. Oh, is it happeneing in Detroit? Hm, oh well. Other than a few comments about the weather it could happen anywhere, and it was very disturbing to try to change the setting in my imagination from ‘anywhere’ to ‘Detroit’ from time to time. Without much success, I have to admit.

There is a whole chapter of the next book available as teaser at the end. I am a curious person but was not interested at all this time. I read it just to finish it but couldn’t enjoy the experience. It was cheap with more or less good reviews.

Now let’s read something completely different, shall we?