Random comments on the Kiss and Tell book, i.e. my latest read
OK, now that I finished properly :)
1. My favorite secondary character is definitely Sylva, the Slovakian beauty famous for being famous. On paper she sounds horrid - barely interested in her kids, sleeping with anything on legs married or not, planning her marriages like a business campaign, living on plastic surgery. But she is freaking awesome - tough-minded and smart and very good at making the best of herself and knowing what it takes without being suckered in - that lady is making a living and supporting her huge family. Luckily, the author likes her as much as I do, and she gets a very appropriate happy ending - a tabloid-orgasm-causing marriage to an aging rock star who can keep up with her in the sack and pretty much what she likes in guys, macho and with more mileage than a tour bus. Heh.
2. Normally, a storyline which hinges in large part on "if they just talked to each other!" would drive me nuts, but for once I actually found it believable as something that was causing the major chunk of Tash and Hugo's problems. Not only is it hard to find time to talk when juggling small kids, nutty families, jobs which involve a lot of travel, crazy stalkers, love rivals and everything else, both of them have huge insecurities about losing each other due to specific, understandable things and they were pretty terrified of bringing it up in case they found out something horrid. Plus, if the both of them were any more stiff-upper-lip, they'd die from rigor mortis.
3. Self, let this be a lesson to you when flipping books - pay attention and don't do it! I remember the horror I felt when I skimmed a Dave Duncan book where it appeared the hero was blithely ignoring his devoted pregnant wife to go take up with a princess, only to realize the princess thing was a flashback before there even was a missus :P But it was as nothing to the horror I felt when I was skimming K&T and thought Hugo had sort-of raped Beccy, his sister-in-law (I am saying 'sort of' because she consented but she was drunk and kinda out of it so not sure how consenting it was). I mean! WTF! I almost gave up on the book until I realized that this was not Bertrice Small and thus it made no sense to have the heroine's OTP, who's been mooning over her in a manly fashion, to do that sort of thing. Upon reading the book, of course it was someone else. Thankfully.
4. And speaking of - all these people think that, as a best interpretation, a guy took advantage of his drunk sister-in-law and none of them think to call the cops or even call the guy to account openly or...you know...tell his wife that her husband is date-raping her family? ?????!!!!!?????!!!!! How reassuring.
5. Speaking of Beccy, she was the only character I couldn't stand (well, other than the bad guy, obviously). We cleary were supposed to pity her and feel happy when she found love etc. but by the time we got there, I just wanted to drown her in a duckpond or a nearest body of water if a duckpond was not available. Lady, you are 27 - have some plans for your life! I mean, real plans that don't involve a metric ton of self-pity and bizarrely creepy fixation of having your stepsister's life, down to stealing her husband and life. WTF? Perhaps she has a good career, people who love her, and a devoted husband because she's a really cool person who works really hard for what she has? Plus, as that book shows, Tash's life involves a lot of hard work on personal and professional front, and is not really the bed of roses. Oh, and there was the thing where she pretended to be her sis to have sexy text-messages with sexy New Zealand other guy because she felt like it, oh, and that part where before the book started she inadvertently caused Tash's miscarriage and almost killed her because she was doing psycho stuff. Ugh. But most of all, so freaking whiny!!!! I wouldn't mind if she actually had good evil plans but she's just useless. BLAH. I haven't disliked a character this much in a long time.
6. I have no idea how much this book is going to work for someone who hasn't been married with a small child and a chaotic life, but so many scenes in this book elicited "OMG, I have so been there." Well, minus the swarms of hunting dogs.
7. I have a massive girlcrush on Tash but (or because of it) I really wanted someone to take her out at about the middle of the book and be "girl, don't worry you don't look good enough after the baby and your husband will ditch you. So far, your count of people who think you are hawt include (a) famous singer (b) sexy bad boy New Zealander who nursed a crush on you for five years (c) your Olympic gold-medal-winning husband who has the ladies' pants in knots. I think you are good."
8. I am not an animal person. This book confirms it. If I had to live in a place with that many horses and dogs and be in close proximity to them, I'd eat my own head. Also, OTP, I think three is a good number for kids. You should stop before you'll be ready to field your own football team.
9. Rory's proposal to Faith near the end was the most romantic thing evah. I want this made into a movie just for this.
1. My favorite secondary character is definitely Sylva, the Slovakian beauty famous for being famous. On paper she sounds horrid - barely interested in her kids, sleeping with anything on legs married or not, planning her marriages like a business campaign, living on plastic surgery. But she is freaking awesome - tough-minded and smart and very good at making the best of herself and knowing what it takes without being suckered in - that lady is making a living and supporting her huge family. Luckily, the author likes her as much as I do, and she gets a very appropriate happy ending - a tabloid-orgasm-causing marriage to an aging rock star who can keep up with her in the sack and pretty much what she likes in guys, macho and with more mileage than a tour bus. Heh.
2. Normally, a storyline which hinges in large part on "if they just talked to each other!" would drive me nuts, but for once I actually found it believable as something that was causing the major chunk of Tash and Hugo's problems. Not only is it hard to find time to talk when juggling small kids, nutty families, jobs which involve a lot of travel, crazy stalkers, love rivals and everything else, both of them have huge insecurities about losing each other due to specific, understandable things and they were pretty terrified of bringing it up in case they found out something horrid. Plus, if the both of them were any more stiff-upper-lip, they'd die from rigor mortis.
3. Self, let this be a lesson to you when flipping books - pay attention and don't do it! I remember the horror I felt when I skimmed a Dave Duncan book where it appeared the hero was blithely ignoring his devoted pregnant wife to go take up with a princess, only to realize the princess thing was a flashback before there even was a missus :P But it was as nothing to the horror I felt when I was skimming K&T and thought Hugo had sort-of raped Beccy, his sister-in-law (I am saying 'sort of' because she consented but she was drunk and kinda out of it so not sure how consenting it was). I mean! WTF! I almost gave up on the book until I realized that this was not Bertrice Small and thus it made no sense to have the heroine's OTP, who's been mooning over her in a manly fashion, to do that sort of thing. Upon reading the book, of course it was someone else. Thankfully.
4. And speaking of - all these people think that, as a best interpretation, a guy took advantage of his drunk sister-in-law and none of them think to call the cops or even call the guy to account openly or...you know...tell his wife that her husband is date-raping her family? ?????!!!!!?????!!!!! How reassuring.
5. Speaking of Beccy, she was the only character I couldn't stand (well, other than the bad guy, obviously). We cleary were supposed to pity her and feel happy when she found love etc. but by the time we got there, I just wanted to drown her in a duckpond or a nearest body of water if a duckpond was not available. Lady, you are 27 - have some plans for your life! I mean, real plans that don't involve a metric ton of self-pity and bizarrely creepy fixation of having your stepsister's life, down to stealing her husband and life. WTF? Perhaps she has a good career, people who love her, and a devoted husband because she's a really cool person who works really hard for what she has? Plus, as that book shows, Tash's life involves a lot of hard work on personal and professional front, and is not really the bed of roses. Oh, and there was the thing where she pretended to be her sis to have sexy text-messages with sexy New Zealand other guy because she felt like it, oh, and that part where before the book started she inadvertently caused Tash's miscarriage and almost killed her because she was doing psycho stuff. Ugh. But most of all, so freaking whiny!!!! I wouldn't mind if she actually had good evil plans but she's just useless. BLAH. I haven't disliked a character this much in a long time.
6. I have no idea how much this book is going to work for someone who hasn't been married with a small child and a chaotic life, but so many scenes in this book elicited "OMG, I have so been there." Well, minus the swarms of hunting dogs.
7. I have a massive girlcrush on Tash but (or because of it) I really wanted someone to take her out at about the middle of the book and be "girl, don't worry you don't look good enough after the baby and your husband will ditch you. So far, your count of people who think you are hawt include (a) famous singer (b) sexy bad boy New Zealander who nursed a crush on you for five years (c) your Olympic gold-medal-winning husband who has the ladies' pants in knots. I think you are good."
8. I am not an animal person. This book confirms it. If I had to live in a place with that many horses and dogs and be in close proximity to them, I'd eat my own head. Also, OTP, I think three is a good number for kids. You should stop before you'll be ready to field your own football team.
9. Rory's proposal to Faith near the end was the most romantic thing evah. I want this made into a movie just for this.