Review: Worth the price
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 11, 2011
This is an interesting, albeit far-fetched, tale of, well, sisters & love...& exes...& food...& other stuff too.Viva's a food stylist (which means she arranges food to be photographed...never read that one before) who drops everything (& apparently quits her job, tho it's never addressed) to fly back home to the East Coast with the thought of rescuing her sister (Bel) from a poorly executed business venture in nuts. Not just any nuts, tho! No, these nuts are "crystalized...in demerara sugar and liqueur."Just an FYI, there's a lot of food descriptions throughout, so if you're on a diet, this might not be the book for you. But I digress.Bel is a talented chef, so the sisters decide to pool their resources to make some much-needed money by catering for the well-to-do inhabitants of Connecticut. Through their endeavors, Viva manages to anger her ex-fiance (David), meet a potential new beau (Joel), get sued (by David through Joel), become an impromptu relationship expert (with some surprisingly decent advice...think He's Just Not That Into You), & become embroiled in a murder mystery (but that doesn't come up until much later).There really is a lot going on in the book, but it's surprisingly simple to keep it all straight. Viva is very likeable, as is Bel, & I found myself wishing I was their long-lost sister. Joel's a sweet guy, & the exchanges between him & Viva added some humor & spice. David is a complete jerk, & there's really no love lost b/t him & the reader. Morgenroth's sense of humor is steady, & I was chuckling through most of the book, though not regularly laughing out loud.Dialogue was strong & occasionally eye-catching. That a lawyer would pursue the woman his client is suing seems unlikely, but Morgenroth makes it work (even if your eyebrow rises occasionally). I was kind of annoyed at having to read Espanola spelled Espagnola (b/c that's not how the town spells it...it's supposed to have one of those little wavy lines above the n), but that's just being nit picky.The bottom line is that this is a cute, pleasant story that is certainly worth 99 cents. Unfortunately, I found the tale somewhat forgettable, despite it holding my attention for several hours. There's nothing earth shattering here. This is just a pleasant way to spend a few hours. So I'll give it 4 stars b/c the writing was decent & the story, entertaining. I'm kind of left feeling ambivalent about it, tho.