All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins
Publisher: Harlequin, 2010
Genre: Romance
Sub-genre: Contemporary
Rating: 3 1/2 pints of blood
HEADLESS PEOPLE. As a general rule, I am not fond of the headless folk. I understand the reasoning behind it, and I know some people actually like it, but it always says to me that it doesn't matter what these folks look like because they're all interchangeable. If that's the statement the publisher wants to give, well, it's cynical indifference at best and offensive at worst. I am most eager for the headlessness trend to end.
Ok, mini-rant out of my system. The rocking chair is actually a significant plot element, as is the dog, although the placement of both kind of makes me want to scream "MOVE BEFORE YOU LOSE A PAW!" Brings to mind the proverbial long-tailed cat.
Callie has been in love with her boss, Mark, for years. Not so long ago, they had a five-week fling, and she's been waiting for him to realize what a special, amazing time that was. So it comes as a shock when on her 30th birthday he tells her he's been seeing someone else and it's getting serious. Heartbroken, Callie does the only thing she can do: she takes a lunch break and sobs to her sister on the phone.
Unfortunately, she breaks down in a rather public place, much to the annoyance of the stiff man behind her. Even more unfortunately, Callie seems to keep running into him, and soon discovers he's the smallish town's new vet. Ian is cold, standoffish, and doesn't seem to approve of Callie's attempts to be friendly. He does, however, have a tendancy to prevent Callie from thinking about Mark, which can only be a good thing... right?
One thing that sets the book apart from other romances is that for the first 100 pages or so, there's no push-pull of attraction or unexpected chemistry. Callie and Ian run a comedy of errors, randomly running into each other by accident, usually when Callie is at her worst. Not until nearly a third of the way through the book does Ian become a "real" character. Before that, he's mostly that stiff guy who got to witness Callie make a fool of herself yet again. I actually really liked this change, as it struck me a whole lot more realistic than instant lust and undying love at first sight.
All I Ever Wanted is written exclusively from Callie's viewpoint instead of switching between hero and heroine, and as a result the reader spends a lot of time inside her head. Fortunately, she's a likeable and flawed character, someone who keeps pulling herself up again every time she falls on her face (which is not infrequently). Callie is confident, shallow, and optimistic to a fault, which is endearing but ensures she's constantly blinding herself to the truth behind people or situations, like holding out hope her boss will surely turn around one of these days and realize she's everything he's ever wanted.
Ian is much harder to get a grasp on. He's quiet and awkward around people, so mostly I just picked up on his quirks, most of which seemed designed to contrast him from Callie. He's a bit stiff (partially due to his lack of people skills) and the kind of guy who organizes his space and his life to the smallest detail, which of course ensures he's not the one falling on his face in public places. Because he's so non-communicative and we never peek inside his viewpoint, I felt he was more of a character sketch than an actual character. There's something there, but I'm not entirely sure what it is because I didn't really get to see more than an occasional glimpse.
The whole book has a chick lit/women's fic (I'm not fond of either of those labels but using them means you instantly know exactly what I'm talking about) type of vibe. At times it borders on sitcom writing, a bit episodic with over-the-top situations played for comedy. The light, cheery tone makes this work when it could have been really annoying, and Callie has just enough charm to pull it off.
I wasn't crazy about the ending. Her revenge on her manipulative coworker was petty and I'd rather have seen Callie confront her or just leave it alone. Callie's big life-changing decision didn't make a lot of sense to me, either. Magic spoiler-vision ahoy, because I can't discuss this plot point without spoiling the entire book, so highlight to read if you've read the thing or don't mind if I ruin the ending for you: I wasn't terribly fond of Callie doing a sudden 180 and leaving her entire career behind. Leaving her job made sense and was a wonderful empowering moment, but that she abandoned advertising altogether, when she'd loved it so much and had been so good at it pretty much made me go "uh... huh?" Disclaiming her entire career as being shallow undermined any character growth I might have felt she had, since it smacked of trying to please Ian's mother, setting Callie right back on her usual path of trying too hard and screwing herself over in the process.
All right, those issues aside, I had a lovely happy feeling while reading the majority of the book. I loved the secondary characters, especially Callie's grandfather, and the resolution of the subplot involving her divorced parents was lovely. The happy warm feeling of reading this book (not unlike the happy warm feeling of eating fresh baked cookies) is enough to place it on my reread list, and I highly recommend it as the remedy to a rainy, blah day.
All I Ever Wanted is available in mass market paperback
as an e-book. My copy was generously provided by the publisher.
Genre: Romance
Sub-genre: Contemporary
Rating: 3 1/2 pints of blood
HEADLESS PEOPLE. As a general rule, I am not fond of the headless folk. I understand the reasoning behind it, and I know some people actually like it, but it always says to me that it doesn't matter what these folks look like because they're all interchangeable. If that's the statement the publisher wants to give, well, it's cynical indifference at best and offensive at worst. I am most eager for the headlessness trend to end.
Ok, mini-rant out of my system. The rocking chair is actually a significant plot element, as is the dog, although the placement of both kind of makes me want to scream "MOVE BEFORE YOU LOSE A PAW!" Brings to mind the proverbial long-tailed cat.
Callie has been in love with her boss, Mark, for years. Not so long ago, they had a five-week fling, and she's been waiting for him to realize what a special, amazing time that was. So it comes as a shock when on her 30th birthday he tells her he's been seeing someone else and it's getting serious. Heartbroken, Callie does the only thing she can do: she takes a lunch break and sobs to her sister on the phone.
Unfortunately, she breaks down in a rather public place, much to the annoyance of the stiff man behind her. Even more unfortunately, Callie seems to keep running into him, and soon discovers he's the smallish town's new vet. Ian is cold, standoffish, and doesn't seem to approve of Callie's attempts to be friendly. He does, however, have a tendancy to prevent Callie from thinking about Mark, which can only be a good thing... right?
One thing that sets the book apart from other romances is that for the first 100 pages or so, there's no push-pull of attraction or unexpected chemistry. Callie and Ian run a comedy of errors, randomly running into each other by accident, usually when Callie is at her worst. Not until nearly a third of the way through the book does Ian become a "real" character. Before that, he's mostly that stiff guy who got to witness Callie make a fool of herself yet again. I actually really liked this change, as it struck me a whole lot more realistic than instant lust and undying love at first sight.
All I Ever Wanted is written exclusively from Callie's viewpoint instead of switching between hero and heroine, and as a result the reader spends a lot of time inside her head. Fortunately, she's a likeable and flawed character, someone who keeps pulling herself up again every time she falls on her face (which is not infrequently). Callie is confident, shallow, and optimistic to a fault, which is endearing but ensures she's constantly blinding herself to the truth behind people or situations, like holding out hope her boss will surely turn around one of these days and realize she's everything he's ever wanted.
Ian is much harder to get a grasp on. He's quiet and awkward around people, so mostly I just picked up on his quirks, most of which seemed designed to contrast him from Callie. He's a bit stiff (partially due to his lack of people skills) and the kind of guy who organizes his space and his life to the smallest detail, which of course ensures he's not the one falling on his face in public places. Because he's so non-communicative and we never peek inside his viewpoint, I felt he was more of a character sketch than an actual character. There's something there, but I'm not entirely sure what it is because I didn't really get to see more than an occasional glimpse.
The whole book has a chick lit/women's fic (I'm not fond of either of those labels but using them means you instantly know exactly what I'm talking about) type of vibe. At times it borders on sitcom writing, a bit episodic with over-the-top situations played for comedy. The light, cheery tone makes this work when it could have been really annoying, and Callie has just enough charm to pull it off.
I wasn't crazy about the ending. Her revenge on her manipulative coworker was petty and I'd rather have seen Callie confront her or just leave it alone. Callie's big life-changing decision didn't make a lot of sense to me, either. Magic spoiler-vision ahoy, because I can't discuss this plot point without spoiling the entire book, so highlight to read if you've read the thing or don't mind if I ruin the ending for you: I wasn't terribly fond of Callie doing a sudden 180 and leaving her entire career behind. Leaving her job made sense and was a wonderful empowering moment, but that she abandoned advertising altogether, when she'd loved it so much and had been so good at it pretty much made me go "uh... huh?" Disclaiming her entire career as being shallow undermined any character growth I might have felt she had, since it smacked of trying to please Ian's mother, setting Callie right back on her usual path of trying too hard and screwing herself over in the process.
All right, those issues aside, I had a lovely happy feeling while reading the majority of the book. I loved the secondary characters, especially Callie's grandfather, and the resolution of the subplot involving her divorced parents was lovely. The happy warm feeling of reading this book (not unlike the happy warm feeling of eating fresh baked cookies) is enough to place it on my reread list, and I highly recommend it as the remedy to a rainy, blah day.
All I Ever Wanted is available in mass market paperback
as an e-book. My copy was generously provided by the publisher.