Review: Excellent nibble
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 20, 2011
This is the first in the promised series of "Novel Nibbles" by Debora Geary. It will take you an hour or two to read it - I guess it males it a novella, technically.Genre-wise, this is your typical unpretentious humorous romance, only perfectly executed. We follow romantic troubles and their resolution of a central character, with two or three secondary ones (a best friend, two colleagues, and, eventually, a love interest, obviously), a bit of slightly unconventional office politics, and little more. The plot is mostly linear and follows what can be expected of the genre canon - no many surprises, but still plenty of original execution, and the setting is pretty unusual. In less than 1000 locations there is no room for some great character development, just an occasional quick sketch, and we will see at least one usual stereotype (a computer geek), but even he gets to move a bit outside of the "standard" confines.This work will not cause belly laughs, but smiles and chuckles are plentiful. The language is unpretentious but clear and expressive - a joy to read.I did not catch a single occasion where I would yell "Editor!", whether because of a plot hole, ungainly formulation, mere spelling error or formatting technicality. Indeed, even the usual cause of my harping - chapter marks - are there! This is really done professionally.So, the rating? Well, I reserve five stars for works that keep me thinking for days, and to which I return over and over. "Matchmakers 2.0" does not attempt to fall into this category. OTOH, works that show some promise but require *lots* of polishing get three stars. (I wish rating resolution were finer.) So, here you have it: a rather glowing four-star review.In the interest of full disclosure, I got this work from Debora for free, during her first week giveaway. I promise this has not influenced my opinion, other than pushing it towards the top of my TBR pile and prompting me to actually write the review.