SUGGESTION SUNDAY
For those of you who are new to the blog, Suggestion Sunday is when I read a book that was suggested by a relative. Today's book was chosen by my Grandmother, who told me I should read a Catherine Coulter book and left it up to me to chose which one. I chose this particular book because it sounded really cheesy, and I have just a hard time taking romance novels seriously that I am instantly drawn to the cheesiest ones. I'm feeling really good about having read this book because now I'll have a new topic to discuss with my Grandma the next time I see her.
Today's book; "Model Georgina Hathaway is more than just a beautiful face in a magazine. The twenty-three-year-old's career has brought her independence and a maturity that belies her youth. She can afford the finer things in life, but there's something else she wants: Dr. Elliot Mallory. He is older, more experienced and sophisticated than Georgina. Although he doesnn't want to have feelings for her, he's endlessly intrigued by her bright mind, humor and charm." (Yeah right, I think anyone whose ever read a romance novel knows it wasn't her bright mind and charm that he was intrigued by - but oh well, the descriptions on the back of the book are almost always filled with lies anyway).
Shallow thoughts:
- Just like every other romance novel I've ever read (which at this point numbers about 7, so I'm clearly no expert), the book starts out with the future lovebirds being really rude to one another. Why does this kind of book always start like that? Is it just that the author can't figure out how to fill the entire 200-300 pages without throwing in 50 pages where they treat each other like garbage? So this basically follows the typical formula: boy and girl meet (although it's kind of stretching the limits of honesty to call him a boy, it would be more accurate to say: old man meets young girl), boy and girl treat one another badly and say really rude things to each other for 50 pages, boy and girl spend about 40 pages engaging in really bad, cheesy, junior high school level flirty, boy accidentally assumes girl is a prostitute (whoops, I guess we're veering just a bit from the formula on that one), boy and girl get together, boy spends 100 pages trying desperately to find a way to end things with girl while girl stupidly believes that everything is perfect, boy physically abuses girl and we're supposed to find that romantic even though it isn't, and then . . . Well now I can't tell you how things end, because that would violate rule number one of the blog: Never give away too much of the plot. Although it's sort of a given with romance novels that they all end exactly the same way anyway, so I suppose I could be safe just this once to let a few things slip . . . but I'm not going to. You'll just have to read it yourself so that you can have something to talk about with your Grandmother at Easter.
- Whenever reading a book by an author who has written over a period of several decades I always avoid looking in the front to see when the book was published so that I can guess. I was having fun trying to figure out if Georgina's outfit comprised of a pale blue silk shirt with tan pants means that she's just a bad dresser or that the book was written in the 80's. And then the giveaway scene happened; Georgina goes into her bedroom that is decorated in white wicker. Well that settles that, it clearly was the 80's. The only thing that could have made me more sure was if she owned a waterbed. One a side note: I would love to know what went on in the first meeting that was held to discuss the invention of a waterbed. I picture it going something like this, "I have come up with an idea for a bed that is so amazing that it will make boring suburban families feel like they're living on the edge. Because every night they will go to bed knowing that they're sleeping in a bed that has the potential to drown them in their sleep." Am I the only one whose surprised that idea ever made it off the ground?
