Review: A Send-Up That Stands On Its Own
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 18, 2013
I've come across a lot of books lately that are parodies of novels like the Fifty Shades books and the Twilight books, and while some of them are amusing, mostly that it because of the clever way they make fun of the source material. Almost all of them, after a chapter or two, just seem sort of labored because there's not much to do once you've made fun of the underlying book. Well, "Tide's Ebb" certainly makes fun of romance novels, especially the more graphic and explicit ones, but it is funny and entertaining on its own merits. It bills itself as "a filthy-mouthed satire of romance, sex and the legal profession...", and that pretty much hits the mark. (By the way, the first chapter has our heroine placing Harvard commas, or serial commas, in a legal brief under a time deadline. It's the funniest send up of legal research minutiae I've ever see. But, the quote above should be "...romance, sex, and the legal..." if we are to observe Harvard comma conventions.)Anyway, this is a sly and sometimes brutally funny work, with plenty of shots sent out in every direction, some fairly graphic. While not much is out of bounds, though, this isn't hit you over the head humor. Some of the best lines are sneaky-funny, and there are lots of one-liners, throwaways and snarky observations to keep the reader entertained. The author obviously has a fondness for the genre and respect for its fans, so you end up with a sort of Don Rickles feeling - "I kid! I kid because I love." Or maybe not; maybe the author hates us all. But it doesn't matter, because it's still funny. (The "Click to Look Inside" feature has a pretty generous sample, so you can decide for yourself if this book suits you.) For me, it was a happy find.Please note that I found this book while browsing Amazon Kindle freebies. I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.