Header PromotionPLOTTING FOR BEGINNERS
PLOTTING FOR BEGINNERS
“Women reach fifty and think they’re on the verge of liberation and excitement, and their broken-down men just want to stay home and fart. Or in my case, go and live in a cabin in the Rockies and fart.”
Sally Howe plans to spend her husband-free year trying her hand at becoming a wildly successful author but she’s beset by distractions – not least the village postmaster with a tartan trouser habit and an obsession with drain rods.
PLOTTING FOR BEGINNERS left me with screaming with annoyance (mostly at the ease with which the protagonist managed to break into print!) but still laughing out loud at the foibles of a wonderful cast of characters.
It’s written in a series of diary entries and emails between Sally and her chums, with the occasional letter from the absent husband who is living life according to “Walden” in a cabin in the Rockies.
It’s almsot unbearably charming and witty, which makes the cliched sniping at Mills & Boon even more annoying than it might have been. I don’t much mind when idiots think they could knock off an M&B by numbers – I know they’re wrong and I know they’ll find out just how wrong they are if they try -- but introducing a monstrous character who’s actually done it and is boasting about it, had me gritting my teeth.
It says a lot about the quality of the writing that I kept on reading and was sorry when it was over. This appears to be a first book, but the writing was good enough to have me looking out for more.
WEDDED IN A WHIRLWIND, November 2008
An "All About Romance" Desert Isle Keeper
http://www.lizfielding.com
http://lizfielding.blogspot.com
Sounds humorous, Liz.
Interesting that even though you didn't agree with parts of the story, the writing still managed to captivate you. This is a concept I've thought about several times. Which ability should be sought more - to come up with an incredibly in-depth storyline, or to be able to mesmerize my readers with charming prose in spite of a less than perfect plot? H'm. Well, anyway, great review!
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."
- Mark Twain
I've read several books
I've read several books recently that I didn't like, however I stuck with them because it was so clear that the writing was excellent. As long as there is sparkling dialogue, wit, charm, passion, intensity, or something that keeps me turning the pages I will look for the author agian. But if an author does not catch my attention and hold it, I won't look for their books in the future.
Nancy
disappointed
Honestly, I did enjoy this book enormously. The characters were great fun. The M&B author was a grotesque and beautifully written, but it is such a cliche. If she'd wanted an old school nightmare to turn up and pity her "little pieces" there were a lot more original ways to do it. On the other hand, her list of what you require to be an M&B writer was screamingly funny if you'd never sweated over a story. I believe getting the nail polish right, was the toughest...
Liz
WEDDED IN A WHIRLWIND, November 2008
An "All About Romance" Desert Isle Keeper
http://www.lizfielding.com
http://lizfielding.blogspot.com