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.
