Thursday, March 16, 2017

CBR 9 #2 - Chasing Harry WInston by Lauren Weisberger

Having enjoyed Last Night at Chateau marmont and finding The Singles Game, ok, if a little meh, I decided to read another Weisberger book.  Well, not so much decided as saw that it was the next book in my unread books dropbox folder.  Did I regret my lazy choice?  Yes.  Yes I did.

Emmy, Leigh and Adriana have been best friends since college and have maintained the so-called BFF status even as they approach their 30s.  The girls are of course, so different from each other but are utter stereotypes.  And not pleasant ones either.  Emmy is the "desperate" one who is desperate to get married and have babies.  Leigh is the "cold" one who is unhappy despite a pretty much perfect life because she was not complete without the bad boy married novelist.  Adriana is the "slut", of course.  The Brazilian maneater, superficial and shallow.  

After Emmy's long time boyfriend broke up with after cheating numerous times and giving her STDs, the girls decide to make resolutions for the following year, to do a complete 180 on their tried and true moves.  Emmy was going to fuck numerous guys instead of rushing into yet another long term relationship.  Adriana was going to stick to one man, get engaged and married.  Leigh didn't have a particular resolution yet, but you bet your ass it had something to do with finding her true passionate love.  Who cares if she agreed to get engaged to a perfectly good, even great guy that she didn't love, because she was too spineless to say no?

I really did not like this book.  Seriously.  The characters are ridiculous cliches and so unlikeable to boot.  Emmy is the least worst, though she is whiny as hell.  Leigh is horrible and Adriana is the wooorsstt.  The plot was boring and so unbelievable at the same time.  The writing is so meh.  Adriana says 'querida' every other sentence.  Because she is Brazilian.  Get it??  There was a whole Aruba vacation that was both pointless and boring.

I think that the author was trying to be all girl power with this on in the sense that it wasn't ALL about the romance.  They supposedly learned something about themselves and and their happy ever after was not the fairy book romance happy ever after but a supposedly real-world happily ever after.  But to this, I call bullshit!  Ok, Emmy did get to have some casual sex but still got the perfect guy in the end, on the way to babies and marital bliss.  Leigh broke up with her perfect, sportscaster fiance to be with an asshole author.  But Adriana is what irked me the most.  Her thing was that her ex supermodel mom wanted her to get married to a rich guy before she became to old to snag one.  Never mind that she was already fabulously wealthy.  And how was that subverted?  She decided not to marry a rich guy but became an advice columnist on how to snag rich guys using hard-to-get tactics and basically luying.  I think this is an older book, but it feels really icky in the present climate.  

Oh my gosh, I did not realize that I felt so strongly about this book.  Final verdict:  Did not like, do not read.  Do you guys have any advice on which "chick lit"/ romance books are good and won't make my brain rot?  That won't invoke any feminist rage?  I haven't really read a lot of them but from what I've read, I liked marian Keyes the best.  

Monday, February 6, 2017

CBR 9 #1 - The Singles Game by Lauren Weisberger



I am notoriously (in my small circle of reading friends) averse to "chick lit" and romance.  But during the last quarter of 2015, I was having double vision (as a result of myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease which affects muscles).  Then I got pregnant and was just basically sick a lot.  This led to me having a lot of trouble just reading (headaches) and concentrating while reading.  I had to forgo my more "serious" and long ass books.  Basically, I couldn't read anything that wasn't a page turner.  So I turned to thrillers and chick lit.  I read ALL the Liane moriarty and marian Keyes, which I loved.  I read Jojo moyes which was OK.  Then I read Last Night at Chateau marmont which was also Ok.  So that's the long story of why and how I started reading Lauren Weisberger and for this current pick.

This book is about wholesome American sweetheart tennis player turned warrior princess turned just plain herself Charlie Silver.  After a serious injury sidelined her for a few months, Charlie decided that being seeded somewhere in the double digits was not enough.  She wanted her grandslam win and would do anything to get it.  Including hiring an asshole coach, revamping her image ang disappointing her Dad.  So Charlie started living the glamorous life of a top seeded tennis player after her rebranding as a Warrior Princess.  But that meant sacrificing some of her relationships and principles.

I was pleasantly surprised that the new asshole coach was NOT the love interest.  In fact, the love interest wasn't really the focus of the whole story.  Sure, there was the unhealthy recurring booty call turned PR relationship with the handsome top seeded guy tennis player, the one night fling with the famous actor and the obvious true love hitting partner.  But the book was really about Charlie trying to be true to herself and her ambitions amidst all the expectations the men (usually) of her life have for her.  There was a lot of hand wringing about sportsmanship and sluttiness.  Her father in particular, annoyed me to no end in his saintly judgement of her sleeping around and unsportmanship behaviour.  I may be a horrible person but I don't think she was doing anything particularly wrong except being carried away by the partying and her image.  

It was an ok way to pass a few hours, I guess. Not that exciting but not boring.  I feel like I took a nice peek into the tennis circuit which was interesting since I used to play a teeny tiny bit in high school and live right beside a tennis court.  Overall, pretty meh about this one.