Review: It's a Small World
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 15, 2013
The book description for "Stella in Stilettos" really doesn't do justice to one of the more interesting aspects of the book and that's Stella's cyber life as Blonde1. That part of the book evoked fond memories of the countless hours I spent in chat rooms in my early 30s. Stella's friend, Trish, pushes her into creating a nickname and logging into the chat room for the express purpose of meeting a 3 degrees of separation guy nicknamed Mr. Right. Stella is still recovering from a bad break up, but is willing to go through with the meeting if only to get Trish off her back. To her surprise and delight, Mr. Right is very easy to talk to. The book really shines in the early chapters that focus on the relationship Stella develops with Mr. Right. The cyber dialogue was realistic and captured the liberation of connecting with someone on a mental level and how that mental attraction can be just as powerful as a physical attraction. It's not long before Stella develops a cyber crush on Mr. Right and the feeling is obviously mutual. They dance around personal details, not out of necessity, but because the plot demands they remain anonymous. That angle was totally unrealistic. People who are willing to have in depth conversations about their political and religious beliefs, engage in light flirting and contemplate meeting in real life for coffee won't withhold basic information like first name and occupation.It's not a spoiler to reveal that Mr. Right is actually Stella's coworker, Alex. Stella has a huge crush on Alex which is purely physical in nature. Alex, develops his own interest in Stella only after she wears a short skirt and stilettos to work one day. Author Jan Romes misses a perfect opportunity to explore the real tug-of-war a person can go through when they're mentally attracted to one person and physically attracted to another. Stella and Alex very quickly emotionally retreat from their respective cyber interests when their "real life" (physical) relationship takes off.The portions of the book devoted to Stella's work life were also hit or miss for me. The book blurb makes a point of mentioning Stella works for a lingerie company, but they could have been selling widgets for all the importance the product was given. Stella is supposedly the heart and soul of the department, but from what I surmised her only talents were rebooting her boss' computer and supplying coffee to those in need of early morning caffeine. Alex and Stella are both contenders for a promotion of the managerial variety and neither knows the other is competition. Anyone who has ever worked in a cubicle farm knows that gossip flows like a fast running stream. Everyone in the department would have known. The secrecy was manufactured for plot reasons and to create conflict between Stella and Alex.Stella's obsession with consuming coffee and the overuse of the word "gah" become tiresome after a while. Stella's friend, Trish, on the other hand wasn't used enough. I enjoyed every scene featuring her character. Her character was deliciously blunt.The general plot line is very contrived. Everything relies on the inconceivable - from deliberately withholding harmless information to pursuing career options best described by the song "It's a Small World." The book wasn't bad, just disappointing which can sometimes be a bigger transgression.On a random side note, there are two instances where Alex is driving in snow and spins out. Once is a 360 and once is several 360s. As a lifelong Wisconsin resident and veteran winter driver, I let the first one go. Hey, it can happen. The second time all I could think was "Slow down, moron. You're driving too fast for conditions." :)