A Book Review by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

It is no secret; I like to read. I swear I have more books than I have Nativities, and we all know I have a ton of those. What I don’t like is when a description of a book is misleading.

Case in point: Amazon describes “Christmas at the Marshmallow Café” as a “heartwarming and feel-good Christmas romantic comedy. . .”

I have tried to read this book a couple of times since I fell for this description; I’ve never managed to get more than halfway through the thing, which leads to a couple of questions I have:

Where’s the comedy?

Where’s the romance?

Okay, I admit, I don’t often get comedy, but I can’t find anything laughable or funny about this story, nothing. Absurd, but not laughable, I find the storyline more than a little unbelievable, far beyond “suspending disbelief.” And what I’ve read of it is as boring as all get out. It is a blow-by-blow of a boring “adventure” for a boring old lady.

And romance? There is certainly no “romantic” interest for the main character (AKA the boring old lady) and while her young friend does find a love interest during the telling of this tale, it is announced, but never shown developing, because it happens mostly when the young friend isn’t in the company of the boring old lady, and what she does witness she sees just the bland facts and not any romantic tension.

In fact, the story is in the sole POV of the boring old lady, and her outlook on life is bland. No flavor at all. Nothing. It reads more like the character from the old Dragnet TV show told her, “Just the facts, Ma’am.”

Because all you get is facts, no character, no inner commentary, nothing to give the story some pizzazz. Some curiosity that makes you read to the end.

Do you want funny? Do you want romantic interest? Do you want funny inner commentary? Read any of the Miss Fortune series by Jana DeLeon. Now that is funny, and the romantic tension is present from the second Fortune Redding sets foot in Sinful, Louisiana.

Of course, in this series, the POV character, Fortune Redding, is more of a fish out of water in the strange universe that is Sinful, Louisiana than your everyday common variety female would be, and the mishaps that happen! Well, it is hilarious, and as that comes from someone who doesn't often get comedy, I promise you will laugh.

It’s like book three or four when the good deputy and Fortune actually get together, but the tension is there from the start. Fortune referred to him as Deputy Charming a few times; of course, she was mad at him at the time. 😊 It’s funny every time!

I have found the series funny, and I’ve laughed every time I’ve read the books I own in the series. Fortune’s inner commentary is the funniest part of the series.

In the Marshmallow Café book, I can’t even remember the POV character’s name; she’s that boring and forgettable.

And the worst part about all this is, if Amazon can tout “Christmas at the Marshmallow Café” as a romance, how can anyone believe any of their other book descriptions?

Did they even read it?

I mean, really, there’s no comedy and no romance. Why do they list it as a romantic comedy?

This isn’t the only time I’ve been disappointed by a book blurb; this is just the only time they didn’t even get the genre correct!

I have a book I’ve had for a while and have read several times. I’ve enjoyed it. Then, recently, I learned it was book six of a series, and I found a sale on Amazon for the first five titles.

Okay, I can’t believe the same author wrote the first book and the sixth book. Two chapters in, and I’m wondering why I’m reading book one, let alone that it is the same author.

The sixth book gets right to the plot. It was a lot of fun to read -- every time. The first book seems to want to take its time getting to the juicy stuff. I lost interest fast.

And these are two books by the same author. Generally, when I like one book by an author, I like all the books by that author.

Of course, I do love Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune series, but I haven’t been able to get past the first few pages of her Mudbug series. It’s the same author!

Until this Mudbug series, I’ve always enjoyed anything by a favorite author. I actually like everything I’ve read by Dick Francis and his son, Felix! So, I don’t know why I don’t like the Mudbug series.

Anyway, happy reading and writing, everyone!