by: Shannon Hale
Becky, a housewife who is pregnant with her fourth child, goes to LA to sell a movie script she wrote and accidentally meets her favorite celebrity crush, Felix Callahan, and they end up becoming best friends.
I really liked Austenland so I was excited to read this, but I was incredibly disappointed with this book. I already knew it was going to be unbelievable. It being about a super famous actor (think Brad Pitt) and a housewife from Utah being best friends and all, but I almost quit reading it after 50 pages (and oh, how I wish I had!) because it was so incredibly unbelievable. In short, I also found it depressing and the ending... ugh... the ending! I thought if it ended a certain way it would at least be an okay book. But after the ending I thought two things. 1. What was the point of this book? and 2. What a waste of completely good and precious reading time. . .
SPOILER ALERT!!
Would any husband be okay with his wife being best friends with an incredibly famous, handsome actor, who she used to lust over in his movies? No. Would he be okay with her talking to him late at night on the phone? No. Or when she giggles and gets all excited when he calls, would that be okay? No. Yes, the author tried to cover this but I just didn't buy it. I still don't think a husband would be okay with this, no matter what his wife tells him. I, personally, found the whole relationship completely inappropriate and I found Becky to be incredibly selfish. Sure I think it is okay for married women to have guy friends but they went way beyond just good friends.
The most unbelievable part for me was when Becky ends up starring in a movie opposite Felix. Ha!!! I laughed out loud at that part. Talk about far-fetched. You know movie companies always cast completely unknowns who haven't really ever acted before to star in big budget movies... sure...
Felix getting divorced and Becky's husband dying were both very predictable but his death was incredibly depressing. The book just became a downer for me for the rest of it. I thought maybe the end could save it but Becky and Felix don't even end up together!!! What?!?! What was the point of this book then? That after your husband dies you will be in a complete depression for over 3 years and you won't even be able to fall in love with your best friend because you can't get over the husband you lost. So... pretty much you will be alone for the rest of your life... Yippee!
UGH... 1.5 stars
3 comments:
I think this post just goes to show how different we all are as readers.
I have to share that I had the complete opposite experience reading this book. I had no preconceived ideas about what the story was. But, I did know that I was in for a remarkable and great read!
I have had more discussions and thoughts about the premise of this book.
I admire authors that put their heart and soul along with a lot of sweat into what they write and then have the guts to share it with the rest of us!!!
Hey Chickie Amie! You need to comment more often. How am going to get you to post some reviews here??
I know you and Tanja liked this book. I haven't read it yet, but I've liked almost all of her other stuff. I'm not really a fan of Mormon fic and probably wouldn't really like this one, but kudos to Hale for trying out new stuff. She does take chances with her writing and that does take guts.
You're right. Everybody has different tastes. Authors know it. It's part of the business. Some like sour. Some like sweet. Either way we all have great taste budes, don't we? We're taking the time to read and enhance our minds and I think that's fantastic!
Say hi to Tanja for me.
Unfortunately not all reviews are going to be glowing reviews of books (as we have seen in previous reviews on this site). I thought that was the point of sites like this. You can put your own opinion down about what you thought personally about a book so others can read it and decide if they want to give it a try, whether you liked the book or not. Not everyone likes a book. Since you loved the book you should write your own review on here so others can read the other perspective.
I also admire authors. It does take a lot of guts to put a book out there for people to judge. But, I am also sure authors know that not everyone is going to like their work. That just isn’t possible. As I said in my review, I have liked Hale’s work before. I just didn’t like this one.
Post a Comment