...out quickly within the first 100 pages. I was very intrigued with the premise of the novel--poor little rich girl has to learn to make it on her own. I thought, this one could be really fun! However, what I found instead was a story about a walking doormat, who let everyone and their family up to the 6th cousins take advantage of her. With this statement, I have in mind visions of MYRON floating through my head. At one point, Rachel has a box of macaroni and something else left in her fridge, with no money to get more food to make it through a whole week, but she blithely shrugs off Myron's raid on her pantry. Her attitude is, "Who cares if he eats all my food and clutters up my house? He's my FRIEND". This attitude safely does fall under the TSTL category, which I was relieved to see another reader point out. Furthermore, Rachel teaches a weaving class OUT OF POCKET...and we're all expected to believe she does it out of the goodness of her little heart, and for sheer love of weaving? Please! I could understand Rachel waiving the wee for a student or two, or bringing weaving materials for a student or two, but PAYING HERSELF for the class to take weaving? Come on! No one is that desperate and lonely that they need to PAY for other people to enjoy their company! And if they are, I certainly don't want to read about them!
One of the worst and most annoying things about this book was the horrid slang Julia London had Flynn speak in. I could understand a few slang comments thrown in, but his entire character spoke in dialect. (Most people, when taking beginning writing courses, are warned to use "dialect" SPARINGLY. So what does Julia London do? She writes a whole character who speaks in nothing BUT dialect. Help me rip out all the hairs on my head one by one for each "nancy boy" and "bit of all right" and "I rather suspect..." and "lucky chaps"!) Two of my best friends are British, and do they speak like that? NO! They have a few expressions we don't use in America, but they still speak ENGLISH! Instead of being charmed, I was desperately annoyed.
One more thing that bothered me was the way Rachel's dad was painted as a horrible villain who, although dying, didn't deserve to see his daughter for Thanksgiving. No matter how awful your parents are, if they're dying, you could at least agree to go spend the holidays with your family! This coming from a girl who pays for other people to take her classes, who rescues kittens from cruel owners, and who buys groceries for a vilely grouchy widower. But yet we're expected to believe she won't go see her dying father for the holidays? Whaaaat? Oh no, he tells her she needs to finish school--she's THIRTY! What does she expect? Yet of course, once she starts having a relationship with a man and falls in love, she suddenly is able to finish her long-stagnant thesis. Gag me!
Now, after all my ranting, were there any redeeming qualities to this novel? I'll admit, there was quite a lot wrong with this novel. However, I did enjoy the way Rachel's character tried to take her life into her own hands by doing things she'd never been good at before. She stopped whining about being overweight and went to the gym, she stopped saying she could never get a date and started flirting with a nice, normal seeming guy. Also, the tone of the novel was mostly light and humorous, especially throughout Rachel's first encounters with Flynn. It made the novel more appealing and comedic, which I enjoyed. However, all in all, I found Rachel's repeated put-downs of herself to be too much of a hindrance to the story, and her newfound self-confidence blossomed much too late in the story for me. Sorry guys, but I give this one a miss.
