Thursday, August 30, 2007

The Ultimatum by Dan Graziano


The Ultimatum by Dan Graziano

Avon, 2007

Henry is an author who’s been living with his lawyer girl-friend, Layla, for about six years. They are in love and comfortable. Life has an easy rhythm. However, Layla decides that it’s time to take the next step—marriage.

She tells Henry that he has one week to propose or she’s outta there. Their good friends, Jack and Gina, are getting married one week to the day and Henry has until the bouquet toss to make good on his relationship with Layla.

What ensues is a thought-provoking, often humorous, tale of each day as it the countdown to week’s end is on. Will the ultimatum end in a proposal? Or will this couple go their separate ways?

The Ultimatum is a fun story and the author, Dan Graziano, is able to bring a uniquely male perspective to the story. As I was reading this I kept thinking of how I, or any female author, may have presented this. I realised I very much enjoyed seeing the male take on the situation. The author does present both Henry and Layla’s point of view, so he is trying to present both sides to the story. Unfortunately he often cuts back and forth between them, or narrating omnisciently, with no scene breaks, which I found very confusing, and distracting.

However, there were some great laugh-out-loud scenes, as well as some wonderfully touching emotional ones, in this book. As a woman I thought it was a great look into how a man might react to an ultimatum like this. I found it pretty realistic. Especially all of the golf and drinking! While I’m not entirely sure a woman would make the whole date decision as Layla did, I didn’t find it unrealistic either.

All in all, I found The Ultimatum by Dan Graziano quite enjoyable and engaging.


I give it 4 Kisses, Reviewed for Romance Divas

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posted by Michelle @ 10:20 p.m. Comments: 0