Review: checklist...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 27, 2014
Madeline Burnet used to be a Luxury Travel Agent but now finds herself working as a fake girlfriend to Karen Green, a high powered lawyer.First off: Nice cover. I'm looking a the one with the red shopping bag between two legs wearing leather boots and fishnets. I did not catch that optical illusion until a few minutes before I started writing this review. That being said the booted legs and the shopping bag actually make little sense in the context of the story, the illusion does, but the bag and boots really don't.This story is about how 2 people meet and the strange circumstances that bind them together. There's a lesbian storyline but it doesn't get into the whole un-accepting world bit, which is refreshing. Gender is mostly used as a hurdle since one of the characters is straight.The characters are realistic but some of their conclusions and expectations are not. A minor example of this, (so I don't get into spoiler territory) would be Madeline's mother. She's caring and understanding. Throughout the book she follows through with this characterisation in the way a normal human mother would. But, what mother in her right mind would be ok with her daughter working as a "fake girlfriend". I can't for the life of me, figure out how I could possibly explain this situation to my own mother without a long conversation of how insane this whole thing sounds. Madeline's mom reacts normally after that. But how was she able to reach the conclusion that everything is going to be ok without a crystal ball or something?The writing itself kind of dives into checklist territory. This happens, then this happens, then this happens. Most of the time there are no reaction paragraphs to put the event into context character wise. Maybe this was a conscious decision on the author's part since the main character is a super efficient assistant, therefore sees her life as a series of events to be ticked. Whatever the reason though, it makes the whole piece a bit plain. A bit more character reaction/insight would be nice.All that aside, the story itself is fun. The things that happen are interesting, as long as you fill in your own emotional backstory/character side-comments to them. I like the fact that it goes on after the turning point. You get to see chapters and chapters of what happens after rather than ending and having just a 1 page epilogue.3 stars it's nice but a bit of a checklist...(btw. This is light but not a comedy, in case you're expecting that.)