Review: Conversations with the Fat Girl by Liza Palmer

Converstions with the Fat Girl

by Liza Palmer

Chick Lit

At 27 Maggie is still working as a waitress in a cafe when everyone else seems to be moving on. Her best friend Olivia is getting married to the man of their teenage fantasties, her sister has got a great family where as she has a Masters she hasn't used and a crush on Domenic, the bus boy, she is afraid to act on. And lets not even mention her size, especially not The Area. But as Olivia's wedding aproaches and it becomes apparent that their bestfriendhood may soon be ending Maggie starts to face some demons.

I'm not really a chick lit reader, normally I will move on if a book isn't heavy on...

a) romance
b) sex
c) magic
d) violence
e) all of the above

...but I was seduced by the cute cover and when I took a sneak peek at the first chapter and had a bit of a laughing fit, I decided to give it a go. I am so glad I did! It was a great book, funny and I couldn't help but love Maggie and her screwed up ball of insecurities, which basically boiled down to her being afriad of rejection and doing everything she could to avoid, from not applying for jobs that she really wanted to not going for the guy she is in love with.

Although the plot was predictable, it didn't matter, watching her hilarious journey to from invisble to (fairly) confident was a great ride, which had me laughing from cover to cover. So, much like Maggie, I am glad I went outside of comfort and tried something new!

Favourite Quote

This is my favourite time of day. I call it Guess Which Boxers Domenic Brown, My Future Husband, Is Wearing game. I'm working in shortening the name, but for right now let's just stick with that. The audience is quiet.The drumroll ...the suspense is killing me. The bend. The squat. Light blue with a Scottish plaid waist. Nice. Very nice. Worth the wait.

Review: Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich

Smokin' Seventeen

by Janet Evanovich

(Stephanie Plum # 17)

Chick Lit

Find it on GoodReads!

3.5 Feathers

I am both highly disappointed and happy about this book. As far as storylines go, I was glad to see a little bit of a different feel to the chasing skips we get with every Plum book lately. And there are three people trying to kill Stephanie. The skips are crazy as usual, there's an old guy who thinks is a vampire and sleeps in a coffin at the funeral home, the sleezy guy who always seems to have a boner. The humor and inventiveness was back!

Stephanie is still just as clueless as to what to do. The bail bonds office was burned down previously so they are working out of Mooner's bus. Mooner! He was truly hilarious! I never get tired of reading his lines. And then Vinny, the slimeball, decides to advertise by making flyers with a picture of Lula and Stephanie, dressed provocatively, and of course digitally altering Stephanie's breasts. And if that's not embarrassing enough, the same picture is blown up and painted on the outside of the bus! Can't miss them now!

And Lula. I love Lula. She's always wearing crazy outfits, tasering people, and just plain getting in trouble when there shouldn't have been any!

Now onto my complains. I drool over Ranger as the next girl does. However, Stephanie just PISSED ME OFF. She is sorta dating Morelli. They agree to an "open" relationship. And then Stephanie thinks Morelli grandma puts a spell on her that makes her horny all the time, and the first thing she does.... JUMPS RANGERS BONES! Now... normally I would be all for jumping his bones, but not when she's dating Morelli, AND if that's not bad enough, the day after shagging Ranger she has sex with Morelli. And then she goes on a job with Ranger and wants to have sex with him again in his Porsche. What The Hell? When did Stephanie turned into a whore who doesn't care about anyone's feelings?

Morelli doesn't find out, but he's been on excellent behavior. And Ranger, why would he accept this behavior and just be content with getting Stephanie's scraps? They both deserve better than her at this point.

Then there's the Plum family. They are a train wreck, a circus, a comedy show! Stephanie's mom is trying to fix her up with some other guy who apparently went to school with her. He's turned out to be a bit of a loser, but her mom has given up hope on Morelli, so she's trying for another guy. Thank God Stephanie is not interested in bachelor #3. Her mom goes back to ironing.

I suspected who the killer was early on, so I was not surprised at all when we find out at the end. I was not expecting the motives. This guy was nutso!

I really wanted to see a resolution with Stephanie's love life in this book. I've come this far in the series, so I'll def read the next one, because at this point, I have to know what happens on principle. But I don't agree with the authors perspective of dragging out the love triangle until the last book of the series. Believe me, you wouldn't lose readers by letting Stephanie make a choice. You might gain back some you lost. We all still enjoy the humor in these books, we just want Stephanie to mature and stop acting the way she has been and not drag around two wonderful guys. If she has such a problem deciding, I'll take one off her hands *cough* Ranger *cough*