First of all- I LOVE chick lit. Anything that's fun and girly, light and airy, and evolves a juicy love triangle is okay in my book, but what makes that better is if the novel is set in England. There is just something classier about those love triangles when the involved parties argue about their situations over a "cuppa" (a cup of tea) and say fun things like "bloke", "mate", "bloody", "Bullocks" and "knackered". Carole Matthews made Bare Necessity a fun read for me because even though England's English is much different than American English I was still able to identify each character's voice. That's important in a good book.
I think the most bizarre part of identifying these voices was the fact that the bad guy- the jerk, the guy who posted his girlfriend's dirty picture online without her knowledge- in my head, he spoke just like every guy I know. I don't know if its just my perception of English gentlemen but I could not bring myself to have his disgusting, filthy excuses be spoken in such a beautiful accent. I'm pretty sure the author didn't intend for him to be American... but buddy, he sure was in my mind.
So, obviously now you know know this story is centered around a possibly questionable photo making its way onto the internet. In this story, these characters must decide if this photograph was justifiable in its intended setting, who was at fault for the photo being taken in the first place and then when it ending up online and why you'd even take such photos in the first place. In America- the young woman pictured would have been labeled a whore and would have been quick to sue the young man who made images of her body available to anyone on the web. Stories like this make their way into the media everyday in our society. The battles are nasty and public and neither party comes out a winner.
I think this story has a different twist (of course Brits have a way of making everything look a little classier.) While this becomes a public battle, the young woman is able to twist the story and win her name back- in a certain sense- and makes quite the comeback.
This is one of the more fun books I've read during this year long experiment, but I wasn't quite aware of what I was getting into when I started the reading- you can only learn so much from a book jacket. This book did take a look into pornography (albeit a minor look) and the content might make some uncomfortable. There was also a new-age character who practiced Wicca and openly cast spells. Being a twenty-five year old woman I can read such subject matter with a mature mind and understand that my (conservative) way of life isn't for everyone and some people live different lifestyles than I do. However, I'll warn that if you cannot read books such as this one with an open mind- you might be better off picking a different selection.
10/52 Books (Currently 6 behind... Oops!)
3019 Pages Read.
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