Book Review: "Too Wilde to Wed" by Eloisa James

Full disclosure: I received a free advance reader copy of this book in my work as a librarian and in exchange for an honest review.

Eloisa James is a powerhouse of the historical romance genre, and reading "Too Wilde to Wed," I was reminded why. 

"Too Wilde to Wed" is a fantastic example of what can be done with a historical romance; it fits perfectly into the genre while also feeling new and exciting. 

The book follows North, heir to a dukedom, who is shocked when he returns from war to find his ex-fiance, Diana, who jilted him, working as a governess in North's home, Lindow Castle. 

I am really enjoying the continuing saga of the Wildes - I am currently reading an ARC of the next book, Born to be Wilde. Readers who are fans of quirky families, like Lisa Kleypas' Hathaways and Julia Quinn's Bridgertons, will likely find a lot to love with the Wildes, too. I'm a particular fan of Fitzy, Lindow Castle's resident peacock. I also greatly enjoy the drama that comes with the Wilde family being though of as, well, wild by the press and the people of Britain, and the consequences of that. 

I found "Too Wilde to Wed" particularly delightful, even though our hero and heroine suffer from a bad case of Not-Talking-About-It-itis that plagues so many couples that could otherwise be happy. Still, James' smart writing and a whole group of colorful characters makes this one well worth reading! 

Book Review: "Unmasked by the Marquess" by Cat Sebastian

Full disclosure: I received a free advance reader copy of this book in my work as a librarian and in exchange for an honest review.

I have been following Cat Sebastian's career with interest since her first book, "The Soldier's Scoundrel," was published. I had been DYING to read "Unmasked by the Marquess," the first book in the Regency Imposters series, and also her first romance novel that isn't M/M. However, this is far from a traditional romance.

One of the things I love about Sebastian is that she takes romance tropes and makes them fit into LGBTQ stories, and it's on display particularly well here. "Unmasked by the Marquess" follows the grumpy, bisexual Alistair de Lacey, Marquess of Pembroke, who finds himself intrigued by - and maybe falling in love with - a young country squire named Mr. Robert Selby, in London for the Season to see his sister, Louisa, make an adventageous match. However, Selby is actually a former maid named Charity Church, who has been dressing as Robert so long that she really doesn't identify as a woman anymore. It takes the trope of the woman-dressed-as-a-man and makes it far more interesting - and a realistic experience of a non-binary person. 

Because it's Cat Sebastian, it's also funny, sexy, and sweet. Sebastian always has some comedy and a good amount of sexytimes in her books, but there's always an underlying sweetness that leaves me swooning. And, there are also several mysteries to discover as Alistair and Robin (Alistair's pet name for Robert/Charity) slowly reveal themselves to each other throughout the book. It's really an almost perfectly written book, and as much as I've loved all of Sebastian's books (especially "It Takes Two to Tumble," which featured a lot of my particular romance catnips), I think "Unmasked by the Marquess" might be my favorite. 

Goodreads Review: "The Fault in Our Stars"

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"The Fault in Our Stars" really is a remarkable book - a book about a person with cancer that manages to be almost completely down-to-earth and actively avoids being obnoxiously sappy. (It's pretty much the antithesis of the Nicholas Sparks book I read recently.)

Just for that, John Green deserves major accolades. The fact that it's also compelling, entertaining, and funny, and features some really genuinely interesting characters, means that "The Fault in Our Stars" is really one of the most fantastic books I've read in a while.

"The Fault in Our Stars" follows Hazel, a 16-year-old girl living with terminal cancer. She is happy - or as happy as she can be - watching "America's Next Top Model" with her parents and rereading her favorite book over and over again, until she meets Augustus Waters, a 17-year-old boy whose cancer is in remission. Hazel and Augustus strike up a friendship that soon becomes a full-blown, deep, intense romance.

Hazel is a wonderfully likeable main character. Her cancer doesn't change the fact that she's a snarky 16-year-old girl - she's just a snarky 16-year-old girl with cancer. Green did a wonderful job crafting her, and it's easy to completely dive into Hazel's life and instantly fall in love with her. I absolutely love her spunk and the fact that she's snotty and annoyed a lot. She can also be very loving and is very conscious of the feelings of the people she loves - her parents and Augustus - but she really feels like a real person, not a noble caricature of a person with cancer. Just because someone has cancer doesn't mean that they lose their personality, and Hazel has a personality outside of being a Girl with Cancer. It's wonderful and, really, shockingly rare in books.

Augustus is, to be honest, kind of a douche, but I really mean that in the most loving way, too. He's one of those hilariously pretentious, "deep" teenagers, just a little bit more pretentious and "deep" because he had cancer. (I feel like he was probably pretentious before he had cancer, too.) I rolled my eyes at him a lot, but Augustus had just enough moments of warmth and genuine emotion that his douchiness really just ended up being endearing teenager stuff. I kind of wanted to not like him, but I really did. And his deep love for Hazel always came through the facade.

"The Fault in Our Stars" is not a perfect book, so why did I give it five stars? Because despite the fact that I knocked off a star for being a little bit pretentious at times, it gets at least one star, if not more, tacked back on for being such a superb, different, enjoyable, wonderful book about cancer and dying. Normally if a character has terminal cancer in a book, my eyeballs are rolling out of my head at the sappiness of it all (horrible, perhaps, but true!), but "The Fault in Our Stars" is down-to-earth and straightforward about what happens. Cancer sucks and dying of it is horrible, and "The Fault in Our Stars" doesn't shy away from showing that. There are some really, really sad moments, and some really, really horrible, gross moments in this book, and I'm glad that John Green wrote honestly about it. But also, in the midst of such a horrible situation as cancer, whether it's terminal or not, there are moments of light and moments of humor, and John Green wrote so well about those, too. People with cancer are still the people they were before they had cancer and I'm glad that John Green understands that. It's a wonderfully balanced, realistic, honest and entertaining book.

Seriously, though, grab the tissues - this book is a tearjerker if ever I read one.

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Goodreads Review: "The Last Song" by Nicholas Sparks

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I absolutely hated "The Last Song." There are ways that this general plotline could have worked, but in the hands of Nicholas Sparks, it was an overwrought, contrived, schlocky mess.

"The Last Song" follows 17-year-old Ronnie, forced to spend the summer away from her home in New York City with her estranged father and her little brother, Jonah, in a small North Carolina town. On the surface, Ronnie is a troubled teen, not only because she occasionally shoplifts, but also because she *gasp* has a streak of purple in her hair and wears black, which Sparks is clear to point out about a dozen times or more in the course of the book.

Anyway, Ronnie's father, Steve, is a pianist, and Ronnie is a great piano player, too, but she has refused to play since her dad left. But soon she begins to soften, as she watches her dad and brother work on the stained glass window for the church up the beach that had burned down; as she guards a sea-turtle nest near the house; and as she slowly but surely falls in love with hot rich-guy Will. However, Ronnie has issues with some of the "bad kids" in town - the first friend she makes, Blaze, is dating a complete psychopath named Marcus, who takes a liking to Ronnie almost immediately.

I have a lot of issues with "The Last Song."

First of all, the main characters, Ronnie and Will, are bland. Ronnie is supposed to be this super troubled teen, which, as a concept, is both interesting and understandable in the context of her life, but Sparks cannot just let her be a bratty, bad kid who slowly learns a valuable lesson about life and love. Almost immediately, he has to let the audience know that she's not really such a bad person. She doesn't drink or take drugs like her friends back in New York, she's a vegetarian, and she loves puppies. Will, meanwhile, is obnoxiously perfect. His biggest fault in the whole book is that he cares too much about his friend, Scott. Gag.

The rest of the characters are complete caricatures. There is no shading, no quirks and nothing remotely interesting about them. They're just stock characters, and I felt absolutely no emotional attachment to them, nor was I remotely surprised by anything they did.

I also really resented the way that "The Last Song" seemed absolutely contrived to make the reader cry. I love to cry at good books, but reading a Nicholas Sparks book is like being beat over the head with a 2x4 while Sparks screeches, "CRY! You WILL cry! CRY AT THE TRAGEDY OF IT ALL!" It's disgusting.

The "big twists" at the end of the book were all atrociously transparent and easy to guess, and I'm terrible at guessing what a "twist" is going to be. The big tragedy was contrived and totally obvious, and the way that the characters in the book handled it was criminal.

(Spoiler Alert) The fact that Steve never told his children that he had terminal cancer for the three months they were staying with him, even though he had known his diagnosis for four months before they came, is just irresponsible, and no amount of explaining that he "wanted to get to know his children" makes that better. I didn't find it endearing - I couldn't help but think that it would be horrific to do that to someone, especially to your children. I had assumed through the book that he didn't know that he was terminally ill, and that he would find out when his children did, leading to some soul-searching together. Keeping that information from his children until he was hospitalized for it is selfish and cruel. I almost threw the book across the room at that point, and I had to stop reading it until the next day. If I hadn't been committed to finishing the book (I was reading it on what boiled down to a dare from my sister), I would have stopped right there and refused to pick it up again. (End Spoiler Alert)

I also didn't like the way that the religious references were shoehorned into the book in the most schlocky and awkward way ever. I like the idea of tackling the religious and spiritual implications of the things that happened in the book, but they were crammed in the book in the absolute most corny way possible. Gag.

"The Last Song" is a schlocky, corny, annoying mess that is insulting to the reader and incredibly annoying and infuriating to read. The story is contrived and it was obviously callously calculated to wrench the most tears from the readers. It's just plain gross. This book is absolutely terrible.

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"Hunger Games" vs. "Divergent" - A YA Dystopian Faceoff

I just finished reading the "Divergent" series, and since it's basically trying to be the next "Hunger Games," I thought I'd compare and contrast the two series.

"Divergent," by Veronica Roth, is a series about a girl in dystopian future Chicago who discovers that she may be in danger because she's divergent, which means that she has an aptitude for more than one trait in a strict faction-based society. "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins is about a girl in dystopian future America who is sent into an arena in an annual contest where teenagers fight to the death.

(Mild spoilers for "The Hunger Games" and "Divergent" series ahead. No major plot twists are revealed.)

Goodreads Review: "Allegiant"

Allegiant by Veronica Roth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While there were definitely some things I liked about "Allegiant," the final chapter of the "Divergent" trilogy by Veronica Roth, this book just didn't quite work for me.

"Allegiant" finishes the story of Tris Prior, who, with the help of her boyfriend, Tobias, tries to save the people of dystopian future Chicago from the people who want to tear it apart with war.

When I read "Divergent" and "Insurgent," I really liked the world but I feel like it suffered quite a bit when everything was explained. Part of it was that Roth likes to info-dump. I understand the temptation, especially when there is a lot of information to try to jam into a book, but it led to some pretty dry passages, and made the overall flow of the book uneven. I still like the idea of the world, but the execution left something to be desired.

The whole feel of "Allegiant" was just kind of off. Part of the big problem was that this book had chapters from Tobias' point of view, rather than telling the whole book from Tris' point of view. I see why Roth structured the book that way, because Tobias and Tris were separated and doing a lot of important things away from each other, but it made the book kind of confusing. It was hard to tell who was talking in what chapter, because there wasn't much of a stylistic change between Tris and Tobias. I would find myself saying, "Why is Tris ... oh, this is Tobias' chapter!"

I also felt like there was a lot of rehashing in "Allegiant," while other parts (specifically the ending) were really rushed. I could have done without Tris and Tobias talking in circles about things, and instead given a little more time for the book to wrap up properly.

I didn't hate "Allegiant" though - in fact, I read several hundred pages in one sitting. The plot was still exciting, when it moved forward (which it did in fits and starts sometimes), and I like the relationship between Tobias and Tris. I felt like their romance was very natural for older teens, and it was a bit steamy besides. I also have to give props to Roth for a brave plot decision near the end of the book that I wasn't expecting. It was a bit contrived, I thought, but it was not something that every author would do.

I'm not sorry that I read "Allegiant," or the other "Divergent" books, but I have definitely read YA dystopian novels that were much better (*cough*HungerGames*cough*). However, there were some spots where "Allegiant" really held its own, and it's definitely worth a quick read sometime.

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Goodreads Review: "Beyond the Highland Mist"

Beyond the Highland Mist by Karen Marie Moning
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have soft spots in my heart for romance novels, time travel and Scottish hotties, so of course I thoroughly enjoyed "Beyond the Highland Mist."

The book follows Adrienne, a woman with a scary past she'd love to escape, who is magically zapped back to 16th-century Scotland and almost immediately wed to the strong, sexy alpha male Sidheach, a Scottish laird better known as the Hawk. She, of course, immediately hates him, because she hates beautiful men and he is GORGEOUS, and the Hawk immediately falls madly in love with her.

What follows is a lovely tale of seduction and romance made more exciting (and difficult) with the addition of fairies stirring up trouble between the couple - as they do.

OK, so it's not a perfect book. The Hawk is a little bit overly alpha and acts decidedly un-modern in a few places (he is a 16th-century Scottish alpha male, after all!), although Karen Marie Moning does a pretty good job of tempering his nasty tendencies with some softness, too. Adrienne is a strong heroine most of the time, too, although she is a bit too passive for my taste at times (I prefer my heroines to be at least 95% sassy all the time).

The characters I really, really like in "Beyond the Highland Mist" are the secondary characters - The Hawk's mother, the Roma, the fairies. Even if I didn't know that there are several more Highlander books and the related Fever series, I would know that Moning was attempting, and succeeding, at world-building with this book. I'm tantalized, and not just by the steamy scenes (although they were tantalizing - my sister, a romance novel expert, was not lying when she said Moning's books are deliciously naughty!).

I thoroughly enjoyed "Beyond the Highland Mist," and I will certainly be continuing to read this delightful series!

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Goodreads Review: "Dragonfly in Amber"

Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm really enjoying my slow but sure trek through the "Outlander" series. I read the first book last spring, and while I wasn't so enthralled that I had to read "Dragonfly in Amber" immediately, but when I was looking for a book to read, I decided I wanted to know what happened next to Claire & Jamie.

"Dragonfly in Amber" is a delightful, fun read. It, like "Outlander," is a guilty pleasure romance read for the historical fiction set or, alternately, an especially richly plotted, relatively historically accurate book that the historical romance set can feel all classy reading. Since I don't like to categorize my reads like that, though, I will just say this - it has a great story, good characters, stomach-fluttering romance, fun historical plotlines and a good dose of time-travel fun.

"Dragonfly in Amber" doesn't quite start where "Outlander" leaves off. Rather, it starts with our heroine, Claire, and her daughter, Brianna, in Scotland in 1968, shortly after the death of Claire's 20th-century husband, Frank, 20-some years after Claire returned to the 20th century disoriented and pregnant. While Frank was alive, Claire never told Brianna about her true parentage, or about Claire's adventure in the 18th century. But in "Dragonfly in Amber," Claire tells Brianna about her work with her 18th century husband, Jamie, to stop the Jacobite rebellion and save Jamie's clan from the bloody Battle of Culloden.

"Dragonfly in Amber" is a lot of fun to read, and I really loved revisiting the characters from "Outlander." I thought I would have trouble remembering the secondary characters and plot threads, since I finished "Outlander" nine months before I started "Dragonfly in Amber," but with a few exceptions, characters and plotlines were reintroduced in wonderful way that made it easy for me to recall what happened.

But more than that, I felt like "Dragonfly in Amber" gave me a chance to reconnect with some characters I really like, and deepen my love for them. Claire is a wonderful, strong heroine, and Jamie, while distinctly and sometimes annoyingly old-fashioned, is also sweet, tough and easy to love. With the addition of some strong new characters and more scenes with old favorites (and great old villains, too), "Dragonfly in Amber" is a blast to read. I'm looking forward to reading the next one sometime soon!

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Goodreads Review: "The Bride Wore Size 12" by Meg Cabot

The Bride Wore Size 12 by Meg Cabot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am a huge fan of every Meg Cabot book I've read - and I've read quite a few! - but I have a special place in my heart for Heather Wells.

Heather is a former teen pop star who, after a run of bad luck, ends up with no record deal and no money. Instead of whining and having a meltdown, the industrious Heather gets a job at a college dorm.

In "The Bride Wore Size 12," Heather must, once again, solve a murder mystery at Death Dorm. This time, an RA is found dead, and Heather suspects that it has something to do with a Very Important Resident in the dorm this semester. But she can't devote all of her time to solving another murder, because she's also in the last weeks of planning her wedding to her true love (and pop star ex-boyfriend's brother), private investigator Cooper Cartwright.

"The Bride Wore Size 12," like all of the previous Heather Wells books, is silly and fun to read. If you're looking for a thickly plotted mystery full of twists and turns, this ain't it. While the murder is interesting and the solution is not TOTALLY obvious, it's not super shocking, either. While "The Bride Wore Size 12" does not quite fit the strictest definition of a cozy mystery, it's basically a cozy with a dash of chick-lit sass.

The thing that really makes this series sparkle is the lead character, Heather. She is a smart, resourceful woman making her way in the world after getting screwed over by her recording label, her ex-boyfriend, her mother, her father and her manager. But far from being bitter (well, she's not TOO bitter, anyway), Heather makes the best of her situation by finding a job, starting school and writing songs in her spare time.

Heather feels like a real, realistic, likeable person, and that's one of the things that really makes "The Bride Wore Size 12" a fun book to read. Heather ranks up there with Sookie Stackhouse and Stephanie Plum as my favorite chick-lit characters. (In fact, if I were ever to write fan-fic, it would involve Heather, Sookie and Stephanie getting together to solve a mystery.) She's the kind of character I just want to meet, hug, and hang out with while eating chocolate chip cookies, drinking wine and watching crappy reality TV.

There are fun side characters, too. In addition to Cooper, who is dreamy and wonderful, there are also the workers and students in the dorm, Cooper's hilariously horrible family and several other friends of Heather and Cooper. They round out the book nicely.

I absolutely loved "The Bride Wore Size 12." It's a fluffy, fun little mystery that is a quick, easy and delightful read. While this would be a perfectly acceptable ending to the series - things were wrapped up nicely - I hope that Meg Cabot decides to write some more of these fun, tasty morsels!!!

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Celebrate International Talk Like A Pirate Day, ye scurvy dogs!

Mateys, it be one of this wench's favorite holidays: International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

The Founders, Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket

(Photo Credit)

Obviously, the main point of the holiday is to, of course, talk like a pirate, so be sure to pepper your speech with liberals uses of "Arr!" "Matey!" "Scurvy dog!" and "Wench!" There's actually an entire How-To section on the official International Talk Like A Pirate Day website.

You can also read Dave Barry's excellent column about the holiday, which brought International Talk Like a Pirate Day to the masses. For that, he ought to receive, at minimum, the Medal of Freedom. 

But here are a few more things you can do to get into the spirit of the holiday:

• Watch a pirate movie. The obvious choice is "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," but don't forget that Disney also gave us "Peter Pan" and "Hook," both of which feature fearsome pirates. Or, watch one of my all-time favorite silly movies, "Muppet Treasure Island." Or, you could always go with that tried-and-true classic, "The Princess Bride." "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," an animated movie that came out a couple of years ago was also quite hilarious.
• Watch a movie or TV show featuring people with a piratey attitude (pirattitude). The crew of Serenity on "Firefly" is a bunch of pirates in space. Or watch the original "Star Wars" series to see that wonderful space pirate Han Solo.
• Read a pirate book. You could find a good nonfiction book that tells the real story of pirates, but that might bring you down, what with all the pillaging and killing and scurvy and all that. Nah, you should find a good pirate-themed romance novel or adventure book. I recommend "Good Groom Hunting" by Shana Galen. (You can read my review here.)
• Travel to Walt Disney World or Disneyland and ride "Pirates of the Caribbean" over and over again. It's where I am in spirit today.

What are ye scurvy dogs planning to do to get into the pirate spirit today?

"50 Shades of Grey" casts its Christian, Ana

There's been another step forward in the quest to bring popular erotic novel "50 Shades of Grey" from the page to the screen: the leads have been cast.

Ladies and gentlemen, here is your Christian Grey:

(Photo from here)

And here is your Anastasia Steele: 

(Photo from here)

Yes, Charlie Hunnam (of "Sons of Anarchy" and "Pacific Rim" fame) and Dakota Johnson (of the short-lived Fox sitcom "Ben and Kate" and the "21 Jump Street" movie) will be Christian and Ana. 

I don't know much about Johnson. I have seen "21 Jump Street," as well as "The Social Network," in which she had a small role, but I can't really tell you anything about her roles or her acting or, well, anything. However, I do know that Kel really liked "Ben and Kate," so while that is not a glowing endorsement, it is something. From photos alone, I thinks she's very pretty and, since she was on a sitcom, she probably has at least some talents at physical comedy, which will hopefully translate into a good performance as the clumsy, awkward Ana. 

Also, she is the daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith. This has nothing to do with her upcoming performance in "50 Shades of Grey" ... it's just kind of awesome. 

Charlie Hunnam is not at all who I saw as Christian Grey, and as much as I loved Hunnam in this summer's "Pacific Rim," I am pretty skeptical of this casting. I saw Christian as looking like a very straight-laced young businessman. To me, that would be the only thing that would make his interest in BDSM something so shocking that it would make for a (mildly) interesting book. Isn't that the whole hook of "50 Shades of Grey," after all - the clean-cut businessman with a dirty secret? Hunnam has much more of a rough-edged look. It's not a stretch to think of him as having a dirty secret or two. Maybe he cleans up well and will look more like a respectable businessman for the movie, but right now I'm not really seeing him as Christian.

And, of course, all of this talk of the "50 Shades of Grey" movie brings up, once again, bigger questions about it, like, "How the heck are they going to make that book into a movie?" A large percentage of the book is sex scenes - it actually gets very repetitive by the end - and another sizable chunk of the book is emails between Christian and Ana discussing their arrangement and awkwardly flirting. It's pretty dull in the book - I can only imagine that it will be 10 times more boring in the movie. And, really, there's not much of a plot at all. Of course, I realize people aren't reading it for the plot, and while I don't have a problem with that, it doesn't make for a very good movie script.

I just can't imagine the "50 Shades of Grey" movie being anything but a hot mess. It will make oodles of money, of course, but I'm pretty sure it ain't gonna be good. 

I guess we'll find out how it all shakes out on August 1, 2014, the movie's official release date.

What do you think of the "50 Shades of Grey" casting news?

Goodreads Review: "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones"

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's no "Harry Potter" or "The Hunger Games," but "City of Bones," the first book in "The Mortal Instruments" series, is a fun trifle of YA fiction. I didn't fall madly in love with it or with the characters, like I do with my favorite books, but I did keep going back to it and, by the end, I was ready not only to see the movie (the reason I read the book in the first place), but also to see what happens next. That's a pretty good review for me.

"City of Bones" follows teenager Clary Fray, who discovers that she can see some weird things in the world right about the same time that her mother, Jocelyn, is kidnapped and she discovers and fights a demon in her apartment. This is her introduction into the world of the Shadowhunters, magical demon-fighters. At the Institute, she meets Jace Wayland, a talented orphan, and his adoptive siblings, Isabelle and Alec Lightwood, as well as Hodge Starkweather, the librarian/tutor. With the help of her "mundane" friend, Simon, and her newfound shadowhunter pals, she tracks her mother and finds out more about herself and her family in the process.

In a lot of ways, "City of Bones" is very cliche YA fiction. Clary is awkward and misunderstood, but she learns that she's special. There is some unrequited love and a little dabbling of romance. All the teenagers are amusingly attractive. The overarching plot is also pretty predictable.

However, I was pleased by some plot twists that genuinely surprised me. Not everybody is who they seem, and although several of the "twists" seemed obvious looking back, I was surprised at the time I was reading it, and that's good enough for me. (Granted, I usually read books without thinking too hard about what I think is going to happen next, so sometimes things that surprise me are painfully obvious to everyone else.)

I also appreciated the world that author Cassandra Clare worked on building in "City of Bones," and I look forward to exploring it more. Even though it's obvious that the idea of the Shadowhunters is inspired pretty heavily by other media, I do think she did a good job coming up with the world, creating its inhabitants and make it (mostly) make sense as a part of our world. That's one of the fun things about Urban Fantasy, and something Clare did a pretty good job of - she made it at least somewhat believable that a world like that could exist with our own, and that fantasy creatures could live in our world.

Yes, "City of Bones" is silly and predicable, but it's also a fast, breezy, fun read. It has the potential to be a fun movie (and I like many of the casting choices), and it was an enjoyable addition to my summer of mindless books!

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