Review: Horton Hears a Hooray!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 31, 2012
(Characters) Finn is a hot, celebrity chef, who is the "main" character in the sense that he drives most of the action. Raine is a newspaper columnist, who writes for the entertainment section, and really provides the emotional drive for the book. Ross is her counterpart and foil, a paparazzi style journalist who works for a rival paper, and who is always trying to scoop her when it comes to Finn stories. Anna is the chief character in the sub-plot and a budding chef in her own right, as well as the daughter of a great chef, who was Finn's mentor..(Plot and subplots) The main plot deals with Finn, and his quest to be a three-star Michelin chef. His back story is that he's been divorced twice, and his third marriage is teetering. He needs to find work-life balance. (Yes, this supposedly exist in a parallel universe.) Anna needs to come to terms with her fathers death; she is closed off emotionally. Raine needs to decide if she wants to be a columnist or a "real" writer. Ross needs to decide if being duplicitous is worth the price he will eventually pay.("Romance") There is suppose to be a romance triangle "brewing" (and the author even uses several coffee imagery here) between Finn and Raine and Ross. However, this is probably the weakest part of the book. Finn and Raine have some "chemistry," but they never go thru anything together that would cause their romance to blossom. The closest thing to a "reason" we get is that they both "looked hot in their jeans," albeit on different occasions. Ross supposedly has a crush on Raine too, but that has to be put on hold because of his career. He takes her on "dates," but these are almost always to leverage (if not outright use) her as a ticket to get into events he wouldn't be invited to w/o her. This could have been built into a solid love triangle, but never was..The book is very readable; sentences flow smoothly, and the plot moves fluidly along. Plots and sub-plots are interwoven well--(and thank God there are some, I've read too many books lately that just hammer on one plot line for the entire 300+ pages--don't try it if you're not Hemingway, and who is!) So, if you're looking for one more "fun summer read" before the official start of fall, "reach" for this.