Harriet Evans
Downtown Press, 2007
I have heard great things about Harriet Evans, and when I saw this on my library's new books shelf, I scooped it up. The cover is seriously cute: the fountain spray? It's glitter. The premise sounded interesting, and I got all settled in for a fun, quirky chick lit read. And quickly got frustrated.
My main issue with A Hopeless Romantic is the pacing: it moves...so...slow...ly... Not moving slowly because there's a lot of stuff going down and you need to get all the groundwork laid, but just plain ol' moving slo-o-o-o-w. When I realized I still had 400 pages left, I started skimming ahead, hoping things were fixing to take off. Um. Nope. Nor was the content further on enough to convince me to plod through the story. I couldn't get close to Laura (our main character), and it just wasn't a fun read for me. So I sent it back to the library unfinished.
Because I have heard so much praise for Evans, I'll give another of her novels a go one day. And in the mean time, here's the blurb from Goodreads.com:
Laura Foster is a hopeless romantic. Her friends know it, her parents know it - even Laura acknowledges she lives either with her head in the clouds or buried in a romance novel. It's proved harmless enough, even if it hasn't delivered her a real-life dashing hero yet. But when her latest relationship ends in a disaster that costs her friendships, her job, and nearly her sanity, Laura swears off men and hopeless romantic fantasies for good.If you've read and loved a Harriet Evans novel, give a girl a suggestion?
With her life in tatters around her, Laura agrees to go on vacation with her parents. After a few days of visiting craft shops and touring the stately homes of England, Laura is ready to tear her hair out. And then, while visiting grand Chartley Hall, she crosses paths with Nick, the sexy, rugged estate manager. She finds she shares more than a sense of humor with him - in fact, she starts to think she could fall for him. But is Nick all he seems? Or has Laura got it wrong again? Will she open her heart only to have it broken again?
Book provided by my local library.
Aww, shucks. I had high hopes for this one...I've seen the cover before too, very eye catching....well, perhaps I'll still check it out one day, you never know. Thanks for the honest share! ^_^
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteFirstly I want to say that you have an interesting and nice blog! I've been reading through your fantasy novel reviews and I saw many, many books that I too would like to read. Too bad I live in Sweden, as these books probably won't be in a library (I am a bit reluctant to buying books if I am not 100% sure that they are worth a read).
But, on to the reason that I am commenting. I am currently reading a novel series on fictionpress.com (I am not the author) that I think you will like. However, as I am basing my opinion of your supposed liking on the brief read-through of your blog, I am not sure that you will like it. But give it a try! The story revolves around Elena, a teenager who suddenly finds herself in a totally different reality where she has to play an important role in the ongoing war. Despite this sounding rather cliché, Elena is no Mary Sue and the plot is original and interesting. The beginning may be a bit slow, but the story picks up speed as it goes on and not a chapter passes without anything important happening.
I first fell in love with these novels because of the humorous writing style and the original plot and setting, but now the characters have wormed their way into my heart and I am thoroughly stuck. Currently there are three finished stories, about 140K words each, and a fourth which is in progress. I hope you will take a look at these!
Link to the first novel: http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2809985/1/The_Kingdom_of_Rain