Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥
Good time read. It was light and fun and did the trick for a few hours. It was well written for the most part but there was a lot of inner monologue going on in the girl's head (very little from the male POV) so it got a little noisy.
Question to self - WHY do writers like to write out every lame thought that goes through the chick's mind - Is he into me? Weally, weally, weeeallly?? What about his sordid sexual past? What about the ex-wife/girlfriend on whom he may still be hung up? Will he choose me over his career/ex/past??
And then there are cliches of the dude's inevitable issues...commitment phobia due to a) difficult childhood and daddy issues, b) difficult past relationship or c) he's just not a settlin' down kinda guy. But wait! what's this? This incredibly hot woman (competent and classy, but vulnerable in a way that inspires his thus far dormant protective instincts) somehow burrows her way into his hardened heart in a matter of 10 pages? what the what...
I'm being harsh and somewhat unfair to heap this criticism on this book. All the above points make their inevitable appearance of course, but Phillipa Ashley writes a decent sentence so it elevates the story safely above the sludge pile.
Anyway here's the 2 minute summary.
He: Volunteer on the local mountain rescue team (Read: burley and capable, with shoulders as wide as Russia). He's also a property developer so you know he's got some cheese.
She: City girl PR consultant who is somewhat out of her element in the rugged outdoorness in which she finds herself. But with a nice hunk of burnin' love by her side...
Conflict: Mainly the tension drew from the fact that each has relationship hang ups due to past disasters and neither wants a repeat performance of what they have previously experienced. There is some head-butting initially because in her PR work with the mountain rescue team she makes some proposals that he totally hates (having all the men pose for a Mr. December calendar), but that stuff is all for show. The real tension is the backstory stuff about their pasts. Nothing new here. We get it. He doesn't want commitment, she doesn't want to get cheated on again.
Skeptic's last word: All in all a decent read. I like brit romances. There is something a little different about the tone that I do like to read once in a while so I'd recommend this if you just wanted some time-pass fun for a few hours and didn't feel inspired by your existing To Read list.
Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥
In Getting Over It, Anna Maxted reminds us that the Brits, as a people, are hilarious. And even though I had some issues with this book, it cannot be denied that I laughed out loud so many times that the lady sitting next to me in Starbucks inched away and gave me a look reserved for the homeless dude who stares at the 2% milk carafe and talks to it all day.
Many, many more sour candy tidbits like these:
"...it'll be as awkward as sex in a bath. Your stomach bunches up and the aesthetics are ruined."
"I fed the hunger on a gluttonous diet of pre-1970s Harlequin romances."
"If we always made the smartest choices, we'd never get laid."
"I am dumping Jasper tomorrow. He deserves it for being called Jasper, for a start."
I struggled with this. 4 hearts because it was hilariously funny and there was a LOT going on (death in the family, serious trouble in a close friend's life, many hits and misses with some foolish men, anxiety at work, tumult with roommates, a sick cat at home)? Or 3 because the heroine acts like a serious wanker in every single one of her dealings with the hero and through all the other challenges in her life. Methinks 3.
She: A 26-year old lowly employee of a girly magazine who shares many of the manifold amusements one would expect of a young, hot City gal. She hangs with her friends and bitches about men, goes out and gets sozzled on a semi-regular basis, fails to save money, makes terrible decisions with men, and loves her cat.
It's all plodding along swimmingly until her father dies.Then, suddenly, the depression, anger and her complicated Daddy-issues seem to attack from within. For half the book she is a viperishly angry creature and the other half she's a sodden lump of despair and a BAD-DECISION MACHINE.
He: A vet. Hot. Sweet. Jolly-humored. Kind to her cat. Good in bed. Polite to her family. Takes the higher road with rude characters. Just a good dude. A little beta.
Story: There's no plot exactly. It's more of a story of how she needs to come to terms with her issues with her parents and how she must untangle the gnarly mess of her other romantic and platonic relationships.
The main thing stopping me from loving this is the fact that my main concern wasn't addressed and that is: WHY DOES THIS DUDE EVEN LIKE HER?
By the end of the book, she does some reflection and learns a few things so yes, at THAT point, I can see why he might think she's ok. But until that point? She's a HOT MESS for the entire book!!! Even the reconciliation scene was a sticky, icky bowl of day old chili. There are far too many misunderstandings (all caused by this crazy woman) and I can't believe that a guy wouldn't just be like, alright lady, ENOUGH already!
There is not one instance where she helps HIM out. She seems totally self involved (obsessed) and up her own arse. I understand that it's because she's going through a tough phase, but if the tough phases of life reveal what type of person we're dealing with, then here, we are dealing with an overgrown brat. She doesn't seem to have a nice, kind bone in her body. When she does do something nice, it's with some resentment and bitterness. Except for the thing with her friend. That was all good. But I can't say what it is because it was the one "surprising" thing in the book.
Can we all just agree that there is NO person who will agree to take on such a garbage heap of unresolved emotion unless they were already in a relationship with them. It just defies everything that I observe to be true.
Skeptic's last word: Annnnnyyyyway... the book is funny. Hilarious, even. But it didn't QUITE pass the Skeptical smell test as an actual, believable romance. But who cares right? It was a fun read and that's all you need sometimes.
Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥
Rescuing Rose was definitely well-written and sometimes charming. But I thought the story has been told a thousand times before in sort of the same way (woman loses everything husband, job, home, security) and romantic interest seemed a little 2-dimensional.
My main issue with the lead character is that she seemed like a controlling, emotionally constipated, angry shrew some of the time and I found her a bit difficult to like. I guess she comes across that way because her character feels abandoned and insecure, but while I sympathized, I just never grew to like her. She spends her whole life trying to get into other people's problems (she's an agony aunt for a newspaper) so she doesn't have to deal with her own, which I thought was a little too obvious of a characterization. And then, even while "helping" people, she comes across as snappish and rude, rather than actually warm and empathetic to the troubles of her "clients".
I liked the angle of the adoption of the main character as a baby and how that affects her whole outlook on life, but I felt that her issues sort of just go on and on and the "Resolution" seemed a little too perfectly packaged to be believable. Just feels like this woman should have taken herself to therapy years ago!
I also appreciated the fact that the character is 40 and Ms. Wolff didn't make the story into a whole Must Have Baby Now thing. Thank goodness for that.
The romantic interest seemed very underdeveloped as a character. You learn a few things about who he is and what he does, but even at the end of the book, I feel like I didn't really grow to love him because I just didn't know WHY he was attracted to her in the first place.
Skeptic's last word: This was an ok read. I would save it for a "slow" reading time. Like if you're between some heavy books and just need a palate cleanser. I think it was a little light on the "romance" angle, but it dealt sympathetically with a character whose issues revolve around feelings of inadequacy and abandonment.
