Lately, I have gobbled up the Pride & Prejudice sequels and retellings, and loved them. So I guess it was just a matter of time before I came across one I didn’t like so much.

Old Friends and New Fancies was originally published in 1914 and is the first sequel written to Jane Austen’s stories. In it, Brinton tries to wrap up storylines for some of the characters left hanging in all 6 of Jane Austen’s novels. She weaves all the stories together by playing matchmaker and hooking up characters that she figures would go well together.

I suppose it could be a fun and gratifying read to lots of Austen fans out there, but it wasn’t for me. It could be because I haven’t read all of Austen’s novels yet, so some of the characters I came across were unknown to me. Maybe if I knew more about them, I’d have enjoyed the interactions more. And perhaps in the future, after I have read all the Austen novels, I’ll read Old Friends and New Fancies again and love it. Maybe. But most likely not.

Because here’s what it was about this novel that I didn’t like: the characters I did know, didn’t ring true to me. The primary characters were Mr. Darcy and his wife, Elizabeth. I love these characters. The Mr. Darcy I know is respectful and careful to always do the right thing and Elizabeth is cautious and doesn’t like to spread rumors or gossip with people she doesn’t know. In this novel though, they come across as gossip mongers. Elizabeth seems too interested in matchmaking and seeking out information about people by chatting up near strangers. She seems to want to meddle in other people’s lives, and she’s much more outspoken — more like her mother than the reserved Elizabeth I came to know.

Plus, the language didn’t work for me. Dialogue seemed to be coming out of the wrong characters’ mouths. The way the scenes are described and the characters behave just doesn’t feel right. Maybe I’ll give this book another go after I have read all the Austen novels. That could be a reading challenge I’ll set for myself in 2008.

I’ve had an interesting reading experience lately. A number of the books I’ve been sent to read and review on this blog have been… not as good as I would have liked, especially considering the fact that I don’t read as quickly as I’d like to, so I hope that every book I read is worth the time and turns out to be enjoyable. And don’t get me wrong, I have no qualms about abandoning a book if I’m not enjoying it, but it’s different when it’s been sent to me on good faith that it will be reviewed on this blog. So, as this book was sent to me to read and review, I couldn’t very well accept it and then not review it, could I? (more…)

With summer here and the weather being so nice, I’ve been looking forward to spending some time reading outdoors; however, for the last two years I couldn’t do that because my backyard was pretty much a dirt field. But over the last few weekends, we’ve been working very hard on the landscaping (which was lots of hard work that took up our free time every weekend and thus reduced my reading opportunities). And now, we’ve finally finished with the digging/ shoveling/hauling, and the laying of the hundreds of paving stones, and just last weekend we actually were able to sod the yard (ooooh! grass!) and it’s now basically finished. So I was very eager to open up the patio furniture we got as a wedding present, and which had been stored, unopened, in our garage for the last year and a half. But now f-i-n-a-l-l-y, I was able to fulfill that desire to relax in the comfort of my own yard with a cold drink and a novel to read. Yay!

So I’ve had this book ready to read for a long time, and over the last couple of weeks I attempted to read a chapter or two before bed if I could stay awake long enough after the long hours of hard work, but it still it took me a while to get into it. So, with my newly landscaped yard and a free Friday evening ahead of me, I got my cold drink and sat myself down in a cushy patio chair and dedicated a few hours to it. Now, I wouldn’t say it was time wasted, but it was probably not the best read for the long wait.

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I look forward to superhero movies. X-Men, Batman, Superman… I always figure they will be action-packed, visually-exciting shows; however, the majority of these movies fall short on the storylines, and Superman Returns is no exception.

This movie is supposed to take place 5 years after the last Superman movie. Superman has abruptly disappeared after learning that astronomists claim to have found the remains of Krypton. Without saying goodbye to anyone other than his adoptive mother, Martha Kent, he leaves to find this planet (somehow he also happened to have a space craft ready to take him there and to crash land him back to Earth). What his huge rush was to get going right now considering how many years he’s been on Earth already, I have no idea. But whatever… he left.

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Nell Dysart’s husband left her on Christmas Day for another woman. Broken and depressed, she lets her life fall apart. Her friends (and former sisters-in-law) Margie and Suze worry that Nell isn’t taking care of herself, becoming too thin and lackluster. Her brother-in-law arranges for Nell to start a job as the secretary for a local detective agency so that she can start a new life. Nell goes to interview with the agency owners, Gabe and Riley McKenna, two incredibly handsome, noble, respectable men. She has to agree to three rules before she gets the job: 1) Don’t talk about cases to anyone outside the office, 2) Don’t break the law, and 3) Don’t f*ck the help. She agrees, and she’s hired.

Gabe is a kind man, a good father to his teenage daughter and a friend (with benefits, the cad!) to his ex-wife, Chloe. He and Riley took over the agency from his deceased father, and he’s become one of the best detectives in the industry. But he’s a pig-headed boss when it comes to managing his employees, and he’s reluctant to change anything from the way his dad left the office; he refuses to let Nell fix the place up, and insists on fighting whatever ideas she brings forth every chance he gets… they’ll (not surprisingly) be falling in love later in the story. (more…)

I picked up this book after my sister read it and passed it on to me.

Ellen Franck is in her mid-30s and is a successful marketing director for a major fashion designer in New York. She’s got money, she’s got fabulous clothes, she’s got good friends, but she’s reached the point where that’s no longer enough.

She’s been hit with baby fever. Badly. The problem is that she’s not married and the man she’s fallen in love with is what she calls “frozen”. Once a successful Pulitzer Prize winning author, he was happily married and had a child. The child died in an accident and as a result of the grief, his marriage hit the rocks and he hit the bottle. He finally managed to get sober and, with a presciption of Prozac, he’s at the point where he can function in the world again. He meets Ellen and they connect mentally. Ellen is so sensitive to his vulnerability (the only reason I can fathom for it is that taking care of him must appeal to the maternal instinct) and they have such comfortable routines and interesting conversations that she’s willing to accept a Prozac-induced sexless relationship with a man that doesn’t ever want to have children again.

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In comparison to the last book I read, this was a much-welcomed fast read. This novel is very current in that it is pure chick lit centered on a fictional reality TV show.

Kat Larson is a big girl. At 230 pounds, she’s tired of being the fat girl that everyone brushes past. The only thing that gives her happiness in her life is her gorgeous British boyfriend, Nick. Only problem is: it’s an online relationship and they’ve never met. He thinks she’s a size four, and she’s done everything she can to keep him thinking that way. As their relationship grows, he starts asking for them to finally meet face-to-face. Kat knows she can never meet him until she loses the weight.

So when a friend of hers comes across an open audition call in the newspaper for a new reality TV show called From Fat to Fabulous, Kat decides she has nothing to lose by auditioning, except the weight. When she’s accepted onto the show, she thinks everything she wants in life is finally going to start falling into place. She’ll be thin, famous, rich and finally able to be the person Nick thinks she is.

Of course, nothing ever works out the way it’s planned. Except this novel. It’s extremely formulaic and predictable. It’s not boring, but it’s not a great piece of creative fiction either.

Since I’ve read all of Jennifer Weiner’s other books, and most of them very quickly and with satisfaction, I thought this would be another quick, fun read.

I couldn’t finish it. I could barely get into the story. I just found it boring. Maybe I picked it up at the wrong time, but I gave it a good try for well over 3 weeks. I’d pick it up, read a chapter or two, and get distracted by something else.

The story sounds interesting enough: a suburban housewife (Kitty) is brutally murdered in her kitchen. The protagonist, Kate, finds her and all of a sudden her life revolves around finding the killer.

Jennifer Weiner crossed chick lit with mystery here, but I just found it boring. What I like about mysteries is that there is suspense and the story clips along at a good pace. This novel was slow. Too slow.

So I gave up. I’m going to return it to the library so the next person on the hold list can slug through it. Maybe I’ll pick it up again sometime in the future and give it another chance. After all, I did like Weiner’s other novels. But for now, I’m okay with abandoning it.

I finished Crusie’s novel, Bet Me, and still the new Harry Potter had not arrived in the mail yet. So I picked up Crazy For You because it was thin and I knew I could finish it in a day.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take me a day to finish it. It took two, and that was because I was willing to put it down. If it hadn’t been for long waits in the doctor’s office with nothing but this book to pass the time, it might have taken three.

This wasn’t a terrible book. I just didn’t find it to be a very good book. It’s passable, but not by much.

Quinn McKenzie is living a stagnant life in Smalltown, USA. She’s been teaching art at the local high school and dating the beloved coach, Bill. They live together in a sensible apartment: close to work, decorated with knotty pine furniture, walls painted a neutral, beige color. Lately, Quinn is starting to think of her life as being a little too “beige.” She needs some change, some excitement, she just doesn’t know how to start. (more…)