On the way to the wedding by Julia Quinn

***

Shades of The Graduate here in a climactic wedding scene. Overall, very predictable and the whole wedding thing seemed out of character. Just didn’t work for me. Unfortunate ending for the Bridgerton saga.

Genre: historical romance

Read: 31/05/2008

The Viscount who loved me by Julia Quinn

***

I don’t know what happened. I loved this one last time, but now it is boring. Bridgerton fatigue has set in. Anyway, one of those where the hero falls for a girl then falls for the sister. Entertaining but blah.

Genre: Historical

Read: 31/05/2008

When he was wicked by Julia Quinn

***

More of the same chick-lit historical. A bit of a change for the Bridgerton series. This is one sibling that apparently doesn’t fit into the family so much. All the same, I am tiring of the Bridgertons.

Genre: Historical (barely)

Read: 31/05/2008

Baby bloom by Erika Knight

***

Interesting angle on the baby knitting book, this also includes patterns for maternity clothes for the expectant mother. I was expecting more from this than it gave. After looking at sites like Knitty, the patterns here are written in a somewhat old-fashioned style (lots of piecing together) and there isn’t really anything really new. The maternity clothes were alright, but perhaps didn’t make as much of being for pregnant-shaped people as I was hoping for. Empire line stuff from elsewhere would be just as good for me, and probably have a lot less seaming!

Also known as “Knitting for two”

genre: knitting

read: 17/05/2008

Married in a rush by Julie Cohen

***

Not brilliant but good. Its a Julie Cohen after all.

genre: romance

read: 17/05/2008

Sex, straight up by Kathleen O’Reilly

***

Not sure about this one. Chance meeting in the Hamptons followed up by another chance meeting at work. Characters have no sense of humour, but there is a lot of interesting background detail about auction houses. I was bored. Oh and there was a series in the offing too – the smug married brother was all over it. Not to mention the feckless brother who is obviously next in the series. Well-written enough, just not my kind of thing.

genre: romance

read: 17/05/2008

Strange Bedpersons by Jennifer Crusie

ISBN 1551667436

This is not my favourite Jenny Crusie book. That leaves lots of room for manouvere as my favourite Jenny Crusie books are the perfect ginger beer of the book world. If you are wondering… in my lexicon that means they are spicy, cool and strangely sophisticated combined with a great sense of fun.

Plot: Incompatible thirty somethings overcome social and cutural barriers to realise a suit is more than just a suit and hippies are people too.

Characters: Really good characterisation – no surprise from Crusie as she is a writer who delivers believable people acting true to themselves whilst going through one hell of a plot arc. (It always seems strangely feasibly whilst you are reading).

What to love: All the secondary characters. A special mention goes out to Christine as I adored this character to bits and wish she had her own book

What to loathe: Sometimes I really wanted the lead couple NOT to get together – they were so much more annoying when in the same room. He became unbelievably controlling and she became mindlessly ranty; it was sometimes unpleasant to read. However it was true to the story and the characters.

Buy, Borrow or Bin: Buy

If this book was a drink it would be: A very lovely shop bought lemonade – not quite as good as homemade but you would be really glad you bought it – especially drinking it down at the beach in the sun.

Here is a link to the author page about the book including the first chapter so you can make your own mind up: Strange Bedpersons

And this is the book on Amazon so you can see what the book buying world thinks: Amazon