Confessions of a Serial Dater

I want that picture to be bigger. I want it to be HUGE so you can see it, and it burns into your memory, and the next time you are in the bookstore, you will spot it out of the corner of your eye, and you will be drawn to it, you will pick it up, and you will BUY THIS BOOK. Yeah, how's that for a review, huh?

Ok, on a serious note, here's the deal. I am a huge fan of the Literary Chicks website. I found the LC because most of them (if not all, by now) are Cherries. I see a few of them post over on JCF sometimes, and I decided to check them out. My main interest was Alesia Holliday, because she is always so kind over on JCF. Then there's that Lani Diane Rich, who just makes me LMAO on a regular basis. Well, I headed over to the LC back in early spring, and dicovered that Beth Kendrick, of "My Favorite Mistake", is also part of the gang. Fast forward a few months, and I'm hooked on Whitney Gaskell and Eileen Rendahl as well. Most surprising to me though, is that I'm just gobsmacked by Michelle Cunnah. She's like a little English ray o' sunshine to light my dreary mornings, and I really look forward to reading her posts. This weekend, I had the perfect FGSF at the NJRW Conference. I got to meet, among other beautiful and famous people, MICHELLE CUNNAH. I will not bore you with all of the details, because you can read them all here. Suffice it to say, she's more amazing in person than she seems on the LC, and it was totally fantabulous getting to chat with her.

OK, first, I have to tell you that I did not like either the BCC or the title, after reading this book. To me, they seem to indicate that our heroine, Rosie, is flighty, indecisive, and just a tad on the immature side. So, if you've been holding off on this book because it sounds really chick-litty, light, or fluffy, set aside your fears. It's nothing like it sounds on the BCC.

On the personal front, Rosie has a boyfriend named Jonathon. He's trying to get a promotion at work, so he asks Rosie to attend a Christmas fundraiser. Jonathon has a Horrible Boss that insists on invading Rosie's personal space. When Rosie takes a drastic step to keep Horrible Boss from an unwanted liplock, interesting things happen. Those interesting things include watching her boyfriend go to the aid of Horrible Boss instead of her, and leaving the party with Dr. Love, a sexy stranger that literally whisks her off of her hurting feet and takes her away for coffee. Thus begins Rosie's tale of life and love in London.

On the work front, Rosie co-owns a company called Odd Jobs, where their mission is to find the right job for the right person. Their clients range from dames that want 24 hour catsitting, to clubs looking for drag queen reviews, with condom testers thrown into the mix (don't ask, just read!).

On the homefront, Rosie is dealing with a lot of crap, including her fairly crazy mum, her nympho octagenarian grandmother, and a lot of garden gnomes. Throw in a group of wacky friends, a psychotic cousin, and a horse named Candy, and you're in for a wild ride.

Rosie's tale delighted me. It was a strange cross between a Crusie and a Kinsella, and oh my friends, you know I love them both. So of course, Rosie was just my kind of chick!

If there was a single thing that I disliked about this book, it was that I never could figure out just why Rosie's cousin Elaine was so nasty. It was never really explained, and that bothered me a bit. But then again, maybe that's because I'm always so starry-eyed, and searching for the good in everyone. If someone is bad, then I think there just simply must be a reason for it, and with a reason, I can understand their very badness, and almost forgive them. Well, there is no explanation in this book, at least that I can remember, and that left me feeling a bit blue. Perhaps, Michelle Cunnah is hinting that some people are just plain old nasty, for no other reason than that is how they are. I don't like this at all, but I am forced to admit that she's probably right. That's my only gripe, and it isn't all that big.

What did I love about this book? It was pretty fast paced, it read well, it made sense, things flowed, I loved the characters, I loved the dialogue, I was invested in the outcome. The final scene had me literally sitting on the edge of my chair on my front porch, doing what I was doing the first time I met Michelle, holding my breath, and telling my kids to give me "just 3 more minutes, can't you see I'm almost done?". When I closed the book, I could almost hear the beginning strains of "Sweet Mystery of Life, at Last I've Found You" starting in the background.

You hit this one right out of the park, Michelle. And you created a FanGirl while doing it!