chick lit – Page 13 – Down the Rabbit Hole

Sometimes love’s right there in front of you.

As Stephanie Coulter discovers, sometimes you find it in the most ordinary places—and what could be more ordinary than the office? Stephanie, who works as an assistant at Lockwood Industries in Minneapolis, is temporarily assigned to the boss—Jonas Lockwood himself. Jonas lives up (or down!) to his reputation as a tyrant, dictator and grouch. But Stephanie’s colleagues, romance readers all, decide that he’s really the classic lonely hero. What he needs, they say, is Love ‘n’ Marriage. And the woman they have in mind for him is… Stephanie.

Bethany Stone, on the other hand, is already in love with her boss, Joshua Norris, although their relationship is strictly business. But one day he asks for her help—outside the office. Joshua’s ten-year-old daughter, Angie, is coming to live with him and he has no idea how to raise a precocious little girl. Angie might be Almost an Angel, but she quickly develops a matchmaking plan for her dad—and Bethany!

3 Drink Me Potions

I know, I know. These stories are rather old and not in the YA genre, so sue me. Call me grandmotherly if you have to, but her stories aren’t bad. I mean, not all of them are at least. This one just so happens to be “okay” instead of awesome.

In Love in Plain Sight, the first story had one of the most annoying male characters ever. He was very cold and arrogant. Come on, it even said that he was an arrogant man. At least that was an accurate description of him. However, the way the ladies in the company, DIE HARD ROMANTICS (really??), go about meddling in people’s love affairs is rather weird. I know I love books and sometimes wish to bash characters’ heads in (I say this as nicely as possible) for the stupid things they say or do, but to think their boss is like a “hero” in a romance novel is taking it more than a step too far. So I can totally see the protagonist, Stephanie’s skepticism. Mine was ricocheting off the roof as I was reading this. I would NEVER imagine my friends as “heroine” material either. Okay, I’m also not much of a matchmaker but that’s besides the point. Imaginary guys in books are also not necessarily anything like real life guys (if you’re a guy, I’m sorry!).

So, what does their meddling get? She falls for the guy, even with all his thorny attitudes, and it doesn’t go well. Predicted that ages ago.

It was amusing in the sense that the problems that come in the way of their love was SO predictable. I wished I loved it more, but the year in which the story was written really shines through for once. Basically a secretary falling for her aloof and somewhat mysterious boss. It was mildly entertaining, but definitely not worth a second read.

As for the second story, at least there were no meddling co-workers who only “mean well”. But the boss was still JUST AS COLD. Come on! I’m starting to roll my eyes here. Can’t the man be somewhat nicer at least? Either way, it sat a little better with me because of the daughter, Angie. She was very aptly described, and I could almost see a wonderful little girl in front of me. She was by far from perfect and not the stereotypical angel type of kid, although at the heart of it, it was clear she loved her dad and Bethany. For that reason, it helped with the story a little bit more. Still not really worth a second read, but it was better.

Overall Recommendation:
Although I was dying to enjoy or at least be thoroughly entertained as I normally am by Debbie Macomber’s compilation 2-in-1 books, these 2 stories just didn’t sit well with me. For one, both male protagonists were rather bland and cold. It didn’t make sense to see these aloof and arrogant men as someone who would profess the kind of care that they later seemed to show. I just couldn’t believe in it. That’s not to say it wasn’t at least mildly entertaining to see the crazy antics that the women drove themselves into, or that some of the minor characters weren’t as real. It just wasn’t up to par from what I had come to expect from the author. I’m gonna just blame it on the age (30 years now) of the stories from when they were first written.

Review: Through to You by Lauren Barnholdt

May 27, 2015May 29, 2015 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Opposites attract—and then complicate—in this romantic, relatable novel from the author of Two-Way Street and Sometimes It Happens.

It starts with a scribbled note in class: I like your sparkle. Harper had casually threaded a piece of blue and silver tinsel through her ponytail in honor of school spirit day. And that carefree, corny gesture is what grabs Penn Mattingly’s eye. Penn—resident heartbreaker of the senior class. Reliably unreliable. Trouble with a capital “T.” And okay, smolderingly sexy.

Harper’s surprised by Penn’s attention—and so is Penn. The last thing he needs is a girlfriend. Or even a friend-with-benefits. The note is not supposed to lead to anything.

Oh, but it does. They hang out. They have fun. They talk. They make out. And after a while, it seems like they just click. But Penn and Harper have very different ideas about what relationships look like, in no small part because of their very different family backgrounds. Of course they could talk about these differences—if Penn knew how to talk about feelings.

Harper and Penn understand their attraction is illogical, yet something keeps pulling them together. It’s like a crazy roller coaster—exhilarating, terrifying, and amazing all at once. And neither knows how to stop the ride…

3 Drink Me Potions

Through to You was meh. I never had really high expectations for it, having never read any Lauren Barnholdt books before, but I was in the mood for a fun read that wouldn’t rile me up too much.

I was wrong.

Alternating between POVs of both Penn and Harper, it started off kinda fun as I’d initially hoped. Harper’s your typical shy, never been really noticed by anyone in her school type of gal. Penn is your stereotypical bad boy who doesn’t do relationships. I didn’t mind that. They were an interesting pairing and it amused me. At first.

But that lasted all about till maybe halfway through the book. Mind you, the book isn’t all that long either so it was rather quick that I became so annoyed. Penn has family problems. That’s made quite obvious and explicit rather early on in the story. But this book isn’t one of those that deals in character growth and development when it comes to having tough family lives. No, it’s nothing like that. It’s just an excuse for Penn to act all moody the way he is.

I swear, he’s like hot and cold; one minute he’s happy and grabbing Harper to hang with him, the next he’s moody as crap and giving everyone the silent treatment. For WEEKS ON END. It’s not only because of his family problems that sets him off. That’s just why he keeps relationships at arm’s length. The REAL problem lies in the fact that he hurt his shoulder and can’t play baseball anymore. Okay, I get that that would really suck for someone who was relying on the sport for a way to make a future living, but my goodness, he’s downright acting like a sulky five-year-old.

Why is that? He blames EVERYONE for what happened to him. He’s just given up for any way to heal his shoulder, getting mad at anyone who tries to give him the slightest bit of hope. I wanted to poke him every time his POV came up. Urgh.

Aside from Penn, Through to You was mediocre in a genre that is FILLED with stories with similar premises. The ending was also rather abrupt in my opinion. If not giving the time for the characters to grow up a little from the immature actions they dealt out in the story (AHEM PENN), then at least follow through with the relationship between Penn and Harper. The plot really seemed like pieces were thrown back together in a haste to conclude everything. It also wouldn’t have hurt to make the relationship seem more plausible either. Like come on! Just because they both couldn’t “get the other out of their heads” does NOT a relationship make. Pfft, not enough chemistry. That’s important in my books.

I don’t know if I’d read other Lauren Barnholdt books, but even with lowered expectations, it just didn’t stand out amongst a very populated genre.

Overall Recommendation:
Through to You had its flaws. Penn was an insufferably immature character who threw temper tantrums and had such terrible mood swings for no good reason. What could have been an interesting story about learning to deal with the problems life swings at you turned out to be a mediocre story about a boy who for some reason (still unknown to me) eventually let a girl into his life and things just somewhat got better from there. The relationship aspect wasn’t the strongest, and Harper’s voice wasn’t unique enough to be remembered after finishing the book. In a genre full of stories such as this, sadly, Through to You landed squarely in the barely memorable category.

Review: The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West

May 7, 2015May 26, 2015 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

When Gia Montgomery’s boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she has to think fast. After all, she’d been telling her friends about him for months now. This was supposed to be the night she proved he existed. So when she sees a cute guy waiting to pick up his sister, she enlists his help. The task is simple: be her fill-in boyfriend— two hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. After that, she can win back the real Bradley.

The problem is that days after prom, it’s not the real Bradley she’s thinking about, but the stand-in. The one whose name she doesn’t even know. But tracking him down doesn’t mean they’re done faking a relationship. Gia owes him a favor and his sister intends to see that he collects: his ex-girlfriend’s graduation party — three hours, zero commitment, a few white lies.

Just when Gia begins to wonder if she could turn her fake boyfriend into a real one, Bradley comes waltzing back into her life, exposing her lie, and threatening to destroy her friendships and her new-found relationship.

4.5 Drink Me Potions

The synopsis makes this story sound like it’s some light, fluff piece, but it’s so much more than that. The Fill-In Boyfriend follows Gia Montgomery, a girl whose life seems as normal as it gets. Popular, president of student council, has some close girlfriends and a family that hasn’t been torn apart by divorce. Everything looks perfect on the outside. That all started to change with the fill-in boyfriend (aka FIB) who is rather insightful.

Breaking from Perfection
With the arrival of the lies starting at prom, Gia’s life starts to unravel into imperfection. I love how it explores the family dysfunction in a way that’s different from other stories. Sure, her parents and brother get along fine with each other, but maybe, that’s the problem. When things don’t get resolved in order to maintain peace and have the appearance of perfection, you start to hide emotions deep inside and only work with surface emotions in every relationship. Who knew that not getting punished enough for something could cause just as many problems in a family? It also prevented Gia from being able to talk to her parents when her life was falling apart. Too emotional, right? And that would require admitting that something in her life wasn’t working just perfectly.

Outgrowing friendships
There was just so much emotion in Gia’s story. With a frenemy that was out to get her, it was awesome to have someone to hate. Sometimes, I find stories like to give redemption to those that may initially seem awful. Not this one. I absolutely can’t stand her friend who is so hell-bent on destroying Gia’s close friendships. And all for a reason that is rather lame. Although the story concludes without the neatly wrapped up ending, I was a little sad that there wasn’t as much closure with her friends. There was hope, but I guess the message is that sometimes, you outgrow even lifelong friends who may become different people as the years go by.

Finding out who you are
Besides family and friends, this story touches so much on Gia’s journey into opening up to people and finding out who she wanted to be. I love character development and this story focused so much on this gradual change that was working its way through her. By the end of it, she had grown so much that it literally brought tears to my eyes. My favourite advice was something the fill-in boyfriend’s mother had told Gia when her world started to fall apart. She was asking about how to truly gain life lessons and find herself when nothing terrible has happened to her. This is the wisest thing I’ve heard yet to answer such a question.

“We rarely find depth by looking inside of ourselves for it. Depth is found in what we can learn from the people and things around us. Everyone, everything, has a story. When you learn those stories, you learn experiences that fill you up, that expand your understanding. You add layers to your soul.”

Love, of course
Speaking of tears, The Fill-In Boyfriend definitely had a lot of romantic chemistry going on there. He brought so much insight into Gia’s life, that even though they were only going to spend just two nights together, it was hard to get him out of her life and mind. I’m so glad that there was this simmering attraction between them that was so tangible, I almost felt like I could reach out and touch it. It wasn’t only the attraction that was enjoyable, but also their witty banter that was hilarious to read. The path to romance doesn’t always have to have constant staring and romantic lines, but it may very well lie in a deep-rooted friendship. The ups and downs to their relationship was beautifully written. Falling for someone for real while pretending to only be each others’ dates definitely complicates things.

Although Kasie West’s On the Fence wasn’t as huge of a favourite with me, The Fill-In Boyfriend has quickly shown me that this author has so much to offer in YA literature. This is a beautiful story of finding who you are in the imperfections while falling for the very person who challenges all those cracks in your life and learning to let go of emotions. A definite must-read.

Overall Recommendation:
The Fill-In Boyfriend is so much more than its synopsis limits it to be. It’s a remarkably well-written story about finding love in the unexpected, seeing the beauty in life’s imperfections and staying strong when your world starts to crumble from the lies in your past catching up to you. This is Gia’s journey in finding herself, and all I can say is that it’s heart-warming and almost brought me to tears as it is so relateable in so many ways. I highly recommend this book to anyone to read. It’s way more than just fluff.

Tag: chick lit

Review: Love in Plain Sight by Debbie Macomber

Review: Through to You by Lauren Barnholdt