Crusie, Jennifer - Fast Women
Mmm, I liked this one too, although maybe not as much as the Dempsey ones. I'm also highly appreciative of the fact that Nell and Suze are nothing like Quinn and Darla or Maddie and Treva or Tilda and her family. With Nora Roberts, I can kind of get a sense of mix and match -- fiery rebellious heroine, quiet sweet heroine, bookish heroine, with a few distinguishing traits, quiet hero, alpha hero who is still nice, slick, sophisticated hero. It's no where near as bad as Elizabeth Lowell, who basically just writes the same story again and again, but after reading a lot of her books, it shows. I also loved Nell and Suze. And Riley. I looooved Riley. Half the time with Crusie, I end up being more fascinated by the secondary couple than the first for some reason -- maybe because the first is very well-fleshed, so there's not that much mystery to them. I found the unprecedented moment naomichana commented on, in which there is a development in the relationship that I completely didn't anticipate, although thinking back, it was really pretty clear.
Instead of sad divorced woman trying to pick herself up again, which is what the story seems to be shaping up to be in the beginning, the story is a lot about relationship patterns and how we can ruin relationships ourselves. It's not very heavy handed, imho, and I especially enjoyed how even though Tim was pretty scummy and Jack was pretty freaky, all the fault on the failure of the relationship wasn't laid at their feet as bad, bad, evil men. I liked how both Nell and Suze were smart and confident enough to realize that although they definitely had had the short end of the stick in their marriages, part of it was because they let it happen. Now this sounds suspiciously close to blaming the victim, which I completely do not advocate, and I didn't get a sense of that at all in Crusie's book. I also enjoyed how Nell's son's romance in part echoed her own problems with Gabe (or Gabe's problems with her) and the general feeling that there wasn't going to be a happy ever after, because that would imply complacency. I liked knowing that both Nell and Gabe were on the track to actively thinking about the relationship and about themselves and how they wanted things to go instead of sitting back and saying, hey, we're in love, all is fixed!
More viscerally: Loved the scene with Nell in Tim's office. Loved her eating all the time (I want to try vinegar and fries now). Loved the Nell in the beginning, which felt like a plausible person who was still getting over a divorce, dealing with the sheer inexplicableness of it and later, dealing with the anger of being lied too for her own good. I get that (*cough*Vaughn issues*cough*).
I like how Crusie's romances are frothy and funny but still real and somehow chewy and rather common sensical on romance, something that can be lost in the genre. It reminds me a little of Kinsale's Prince of Midnight, which I love in part because it has the hero questioning what he thinks is love, what is love, how can one determine that one loves someone else?
Links:
- minnow1212's review
- tenemet's review
Instead of sad divorced woman trying to pick herself up again, which is what the story seems to be shaping up to be in the beginning, the story is a lot about relationship patterns and how we can ruin relationships ourselves. It's not very heavy handed, imho, and I especially enjoyed how even though Tim was pretty scummy and Jack was pretty freaky, all the fault on the failure of the relationship wasn't laid at their feet as bad, bad, evil men. I liked how both Nell and Suze were smart and confident enough to realize that although they definitely had had the short end of the stick in their marriages, part of it was because they let it happen. Now this sounds suspiciously close to blaming the victim, which I completely do not advocate, and I didn't get a sense of that at all in Crusie's book. I also enjoyed how Nell's son's romance in part echoed her own problems with Gabe (or Gabe's problems with her) and the general feeling that there wasn't going to be a happy ever after, because that would imply complacency. I liked knowing that both Nell and Gabe were on the track to actively thinking about the relationship and about themselves and how they wanted things to go instead of sitting back and saying, hey, we're in love, all is fixed!
More viscerally: Loved the scene with Nell in Tim's office. Loved her eating all the time (I want to try vinegar and fries now). Loved the Nell in the beginning, which felt like a plausible person who was still getting over a divorce, dealing with the sheer inexplicableness of it and later, dealing with the anger of being lied too for her own good. I get that (*cough*Vaughn issues*cough*).
I like how Crusie's romances are frothy and funny but still real and somehow chewy and rather common sensical on romance, something that can be lost in the genre. It reminds me a little of Kinsale's Prince of Midnight, which I love in part because it has the hero questioning what he thinks is love, what is love, how can one determine that one loves someone else?
Links:
- minnow1212's review
- tenemet's review