Review: Big Girl

Meet Victoria Dawson, heroine of Big Girl by Danielle Steel. The firstborn child, she grows up feeling out of place in her family because of her fair hair and thicker build. While the rest of her family is dark haired and thin, Victoria is blond, blue-eyed and according to her father, has his grandmother’s ‘big’ build. Victoria puts up with her father’s thinly-veiled barbs while her mother constantly drops weight remarks. Meanwhile her parents dote on the younger sister Grace, as she is beautiful and thin. Victoria and Grace form a strong sisterly bond despite the family tension.

Victoria goes to college at Northwestern, then later becomes a private high school teacher in New York City. She is aware that she often overeats – especially when things go wrong – but she doesn’t know what to do about it. She tries therapy, hypnosis and one diet after another with little results other than gaining and losing the same weight over and over. Until finally she meets the man of her dreams and the weight starts coming off…

This was one of those classic “overweight girl tries to lose weight, is unsuccessful until she meets a man who makes her feel whole” kind of novels. It is at least mildly painful to read about Victoria’s constant dealings with ‘fat girl’ stereotypes and watch as her parents put her down constantly. Unfortunately (SPOILER ALERT!!!) she never stands up to them, although the love of her life does eventually. I was disappointed with the ending because it seems like she learned nothing other than that she is a great person only because she has a wonderful man to tell her so. (Seems like there is very little personal development for the character!)

The writing in this story is extremely redundant (the author repeats the same thing over and over) and the characters were seemingly one-dimensional. I would have rated this book 2 stars, however, I am a sucker for ‘dieting lit’ kind of chick lit novels and I did manage to get through the entire book.

Overall, Big Girl by Danielle Steel turned out to be a mostly ‘OK’ read. I would recommend waiting for it to come out in paperback or getting it at your local library, however, as the hardcover edition is pretty pricey.

3 Stars
Reviewed by Rian Montgomery

Review: Citizen Girl

After seeing all the bad reviews of this book, of course I was curious to read it! The main heroine of the story is Girl (yep, that’s her name). She is stuck in a job with a boss from hell and a tiny studio apartment in the city. However, her job doesn’t last long – after stealing a year’s worth of research from her, Girl’s boss Doris fires her unceremoniously. Girl enters the desperate world of job seeking, and through a series of accidental meetings she lands a job at My Company. (Yeah, that’s the name of the actual company.) Guy, her loud, obnoxious boss spends most of his time screaming obscenities into his cell phone, and doesn’t exactly make clear exactly what she’s supposed to do. As a result, she spends half of her time trying to figure that out, and the other half covering up her mistakes when she discovers her original assumptions were wrong. If that isn’t enough, the people she is subletting her apartment from notify her that she has to move immediately, as they need to take possession of it. (more…)

Review: The Goddess Rules

It’s a plot that has been done many, many, times: sweet, caring girl has boyfriend who treats her like dirt. Girl keeps intending to leave boyfriend but is too weak. On the sidelines is an old guy friend who is cute and nice who you know girl will end up with. Girl doesn’t realize she has feelings for nice guy until nearly the end of the story. Then jerk boyfriend comes back for one more go-round. Girl realizes her mistake almost too late but ends up with nice guy in end.

Sound familiar?

The Goddess Rules by Clare Naylor features a slight variation of the above story. Meet Kate Disney. She lives in a shed, she paints animals for a living, and is unhappy with her life. Yes, the requisite gay best friend is around. But this time there is another character, the fascinating Mirri. Mirri is an old-time movie star who drinks, smokes, has sex with men any old time she pleases, and knows the ins and outs of love, men, and how to make a man fall in love with you. After a somewhat rough introduction to her (walking in on Kate and her jerk boyfriend in the middle of them… getting busy), Kate decides she doesn’t much like Mirri. Mirri seems to think Kate is dowdy, lets men run all over her, and doesn’t know anything about keeping a man interested. (more…)

Review: Sleeping Over

There are five engaging main characters in Sleeping Over, Stacey Ballis’s latest novel: Jess, who has just returned home from the Peace Corps and ends up in bed with the handsome and charming Dr. Harrison. Since he is known as a womanizer, Jess intends to steer clear… but why are they sleeping together every night? Robin meanwhile has been busy cozying up to Michael, who is also her boss. But they are “just friends”… although Robin is nursing strong feelings for him. Beth and Anne are sisters, and both going through man troubles of their own: Anne has just met the enchanting Chris, and is slowly falling in love. Beth has had a lot of bad luck with men – after getting out of a long relationship with a selfish but incredibly intelligent man. Lastly, there is Lilith. She is torn between an adorable and sweet bartender, and a married actor whom she can’t stop thinking about. Then there is her boyfriend… (more…)

Review: Dreaming In Black And White

Meet Phoebe Grant. She is thirty-something, has a few extra pounds padding her figure, and just wants to meet a good Christian man to settle down with. Unfortunately she is laid off from her job writing obituaries, and must find something else to do. At the same time, her best friend Lindsey signs her up for an online personals service. After at least one disastrous date resulting from the dating service, Phoebe thinks she has met the email man of her dreams. But then she gets a call from her mother who has become injured and needs Phoebe to fly home to the small California town she grew up in.

Back at home, Phoebe has her hands full with the town’s newspaper, which lost one its oldest reporters. Her mother also keeps her busy, as does a couple of other causes Phoebe can’t resist getting involved with. Her dating life is pretty much non-existant, since the only man that seems to be available is the infuriatingly handsome yet seemingly moral-lacking Alex, who was responsible for Phoebe’s layoff back in Cleveland. But is there more that meets the eye to this guy? (more…)

Review: I’m Not The New Me

Blogging and online diaries are a very popular thing these days. Nearly everyone has something to say. I’m Not the New Me by Wendy McClure is a memoir based on the online journal she kept to (sort-of) track her weight loss. This book chronicles how Wendy lost over 25 pounds mostly using the Weight Watchers system. She makes clear that she was adamantly against all the diet type things and advice that everyone always gave her. Through the course of the story, we learn how Wendy came about to deciding to lose weight and putting her website online; how she had a couple of serious relationships that fell apart; how she learned through friends that she wasn’t truly “ready” to lose all of her weight. And much more.

Laid out in short chapters that occasionally go from present to past tense, there are even some funny weight-watcher cards in the middle of the book that make fun of the horrible diet “dishes” that are supposed to be healthy.

For the most part this was a semi-enjoyable read. I didn’t laugh hysterically at anything in the novel as some other readers did; for some reason, a lot of the supposed humor fell flat. But the book had its funny moments. Wendy is an unusual character, and this book is well-written.

The main thing about this novel that I came away with, however, was that the main character seems to almost not have a likeable personality. I mean, she has a very dry sense of humor, but sometimes things she said that were supposed to be funny just weren’t. She comes off at times as though she is very bitter. There was one very disturbing chapter in the novel where Wendy gets upset that someone tells her she looks much nicer since she’d lost some weight. She ends up telling the person angrily that she lost it due to cancer. I think that was supposed to be funny (since she didn’t have cancer), but I just didn’t find it amusing in the least. As a matter of fact, I found it to be in very poor taste.

It is definitely possible that I just didn’t “get” the humor in this book, or the meaning of it either. Although I tried.

Overall, however, this is an interesting and amusing read that I recommend to anyone who has ever had to struggle with their weight.

3 Stars
Reviewed by Rian Montgomery

Review: A Connecticut Fashionista In King Arthur’s Court

There is a fine line between Chick Lit and Romance, and a lot of authors toe the line delicately. I would definitely say that although A Connecticut Fashionista in King Authur’s Court by Marianne Mancusi is supposed to be Chick Lit, it fits more comfortably (in my opinion) into the Romance category.

Katherine (Kat) Jones is the heroine of this novel. She is a bright, outspoken woman in her late twenties trying to get the latest scoop for her fashion columnist job, which just happened to be about Medieval garb. Traipsing around at the local King Authur Faire isn’t helping her disposition much, and when she agrees to get a palm reading by a gnarled gypsy woman, she scoffs so much that the gypsy threatens to put a curse on her. (A curse to send her into another “time”). Kat waves her off in what I soon learned to be her trademark airy, carefree way.

(more…)

Review: The Undomestic Goddess

Seriously? Sophie Kinsella is one of my FAVORITE AUTHORS ever. After five stellar novels by her, you could definitely say that I am a fan. She has a wonderful way of creating vivid, endearing characters that get into all sorts of mishaps. Her latest offering, The Undomestic Goddess, however, sort of disappointed me.

Meet Samantha Sweeting. A highly intelligent and workaholic attorney for a prestigious law firm, she is over-stressed and high-strung. Even during a spa treatment for her 29th birthday, she can’t bear to tear herself away from her blackberry or cell phone. About to be made partner at the firm, she is known for her competence and brains. (more…)

Review: How To Kill A Rock Star

The first book by this author, “God Shaped Hole”, was a wonderfully touching story with plenty of sadness along the way. This one is no different, except for being even more so.

Eliza, our complicated and interesting main heroine, manages to meet and interview the famous Doug Blackman. Fed up with Cleveland and her go-nowhere job, she scores a great job and apartment in New York City and decides to start over. She has many insecurities and fears, mainly being of flying, because of the fact that her parents died on an airplane when she was young.

She settles into an apartment with her new roommate Paul, who happens to be: 1. Very attractive. 2. In the same band as her brother. 3. Someone who goes through women like water, but deep down wants one special woman to call his own. The two of them manage to get together after some time passes, and they fall deeply, deeply in love with each other. Around the same time, Paul’s band gets “discovered”. What more could they ask for? They are in love, they now have money from his new contract, and they trust each other. (more…)

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