True Love (and other Lies), by Whitney Gaskell

I finished reading this novel last Friday afternoon. I really enjoyed this book, for a number of reasons.

First of all, the story is about a beautiful, full-figured woman that suffers from low-self esteem, thanks to her parents’ divorce during her childhood and the pressures by current society to be thin (all of which I can personally relate to). As a result, she has not had much luck in the love department, and is a skeptic that true love even exists in a world full of indecisive and commitment-phobe men (which I have also personally experienced in the past).

In spite of this, love finds her during a business trip to London, though she is overly-skeptical throughout the following months of the long-distance relationship, just waiting for a "bomb" to drop. To make matters more complicated, shortly after falling for this man, she discovers that he recently broke up with her best friend, who also lives in London, and does not know how to handle this complex situation. In fact, she handles it quite badly.

The book is written in a very modern style, including text of e-mails exchanged between the characters, which I found to be particularly interesting and amusing. The main character, Claire Spencer, is a representation of the current generation: sarcastic in nature and working at a loathsome dead-end job, at which she revels in torturing her most hated co-workers.

The plot is well laid-out and easy to follow, and is wrapped up nicely with a happy ending for all of the characters, though I did find one part near the end an unnecessary detour.

The appropriate audience for this book is, of course, women, though this time appropriate for any woman aged 23 or higher, I would think, since it is a reflection of modern dating and relationship issues.

In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this book to any woman over the age of 23. As stated above in my own experience, it is very relatable to many women, and it was very entertaining and funny. It would make an excellent movie! I give this book 5 stars!

My Rating Scale

*= Don't waste your time!,
**= Better than doing housework. 
***= Maybe worth missing your favorite show.
****= Definitely worth taking to work to read during breaks.
*****= Worth staying up late and stealing any moment you can!

The Pretend Wife, by Bridget Asher

Last week, I finished reading this fictional book, after a few failed attempts at doing so, due to the interruptions of my daily life. However, once I got going with it, I found it to be rather entertaining, and felt that this would make a great movie on the Hallmark Channel, perhaps.

The premise of the story is that the main character, Gwen, bumps into her ex-boyfriend, Elliot,  from her college years, while at an ice cream shoppe with her husband (Peter), and inadvertently invites him to a party that she and her spouse would be attending that evening.

Everyone attending this party gets hopelessly drunk, and a handful of them, including the three characters mentioned above, end up on the balcony, discussing their lives. Elliot, it turns out, confesses to a lie he told to his dying mother, in an effort to give her some peace before she passes away. When she states her concern about her son not being married, he blurts out that he has eloped with a lady named Elizabeth, and his mother insists on meeting her. So now he does not know what to do. This is when things get crazy.

Gwen's best friend, Helen, who was the host of this party, suddenly shares her brilliant idea that Gwen should go spend the weekend at the lake house where Elliot's mother was living, and pose as his wife. Peter chimes in, saying that was a brilliant idea. This is where I start to have a problem with the plot of this story. What man in his right mind (even if that mind is rather intoxicated) would encourage his wife to pose as someone else's husband? I would think none. In any case, Gwen is coearsed into promising to help Elliot appease his mother.

At least it is believable that Peter does have second thoughts about this arrangement the following morning and a few days after that, which upsets Gwen, since she thought he trusted her and was not the jealous type. When Peter notices her reaction to his jealously, he decides to stop, and simply let her go without an argument, though this seems to bother Gwen even more.

The remainder of the story mostly focuses on the weekend itself, the subsequent days that were added to the planned trip, and the changes Gwen experiences as a result. This is my favorite part of the book. There are things about Gwen's past (that I will not mention) that influenced her decisions in life up to this point; and they are addressed during this enlighting weekend.

What happens at the conclusion of her trip is rather rediculous, and unnecessarily drawn out to it's eventual correct conclusion, but I suppose the author's point was that she changed her life for the right reasons, and not just for her selfish ones.

The author's writing style was fairly modern, and her descriptions of the characters' surroundings were very detailed. The book is obviously intended for the female audience, though more for those aged 30 or above, who have experienced marriage. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that meets those criteria.

I give this book 4 stars (out of a total possible of 5)