Wednesday, December 19, 2007

The Trouble with Paradise by Jill Shalvis


(sorry, borrowing the blurb from the book for this one, due to time constraints this time)
When Dorie Anderson meets a cute guy, she becomes a huge klutz. But one phone call has turned her dead-end dating life into an adventure: she's won a trip on a singles' cruise to Fiji. On board, she soon meets pro baseball player Andy, and the ship's hunky French doctor. She's sure she'll fall head-over-heels in no time. Unfortunately, she's right: soon, she trips over her luggage right in front of them. Mortifying. But a bigger disaster is just on the horizon. Dorie finds a man murdered in his bunk the same night a storm wrecks the ship, stranding everyone on a deserted shore. It'd be a perfect setting for romance-if it weren't for the fact that there's a killer among them.

I had trouble with this book. I didn't particularly like Dorie or the hero much. Every time I started to like Dorie, something else made me cringe. I get that she's supposed to be clutzy and tongue-tied around cute guys, but it's the choices she makes that I mostly don't like.

The story wasn't horrible by any means, and in some ways it was very entertaining. Ms. Shalvis did a great job with the sex scenes and also with the tension during the storm and other suspensful scenes. I just had a lot of trouble suspending disbelief for various parts throughout the book and the ending seemed slightly convoluted. Or maybe that's only because this reader didn't buy-in previously.

While I waffle back and forth on my feelings on this book I can clearly see it as movie of the week material. I didn't have a lot of emotional investment in the characters or plot, but didn't find it an entire waste of time either.

I give this a 3

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First Comes Love by Whitney Lyles


Cate Blakely is enjoying being newly wed to Ethan when she suspects she might be pregnant. Her and Ethan weren't even trying, they were just trying to enjoy couple time. Most of their friends recently having babies, pregnant or trying, and everyone is asking whether they're next. Then suddenly they are.

Ms. Lyles follows Cate's journey from first pregnancy panic, through doctor's appointments, a friend's fertility struggles, pregnancy ills, other people's babies and the general overall travel through the land of motherhood in a very realistic way. There were times I was nodding my head. There was no perfect pregnancy here. When Cate is so sick that she can barely comb her hair or get out of bed to help with the business, even when a younger, prettier assistant is hired, I was sold. This was my pregnancy. I've been there, I understand that!

This book made me laugh out loud, made me smile or grimace in rememberance of my own pregnancy journeys, and made me wisftul and sad about fertility and miscarriage issues. The tone of this book was well done and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hadn't read the previous installments of this heroine, but it didn't matter, I didn't need to. This book was very stand alone.

I wonder if Ms. Lyles will be penning a new novel that tells of motherhood and how Cate's relationship with Ethan evolves through that. I, for one, would like to read it.

I give this a 5

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