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I'm not sure why I continually subject myself to the crapfest that is chicklit. It could be because when the books are good--a rarity--they are funny, heartwarming and real. This book was not such an anomaly. The basic premise of this novel is so cliched. We have all seen the movie or read the book where the sweet, small town girl moves to the big, bad scary city. She meets the boy of her dreams, gets steamrolled by the mean girl, and ultimately triumphs. Done right, this plot can be charming. I adored Reese Witherspoon's take on it in "Legally Blonde". Granted, Reese is an Academy-Award winning actress who has made a lucrative career out of being adorable. (Ironically, her best roles--those of Tracy Flick and June Cash--didn't utilize her awesome powers of cuteness.)
The basic premise is as follows: Landon Brinkley, a sweet, small-town girl from Texas moves to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams of being an event planner. The author had a successful career in that arena so those parts of the novel have verisimilitude. They are also the best parts. Honestly, I would have loved a novel about all of the funny, ridiculous, and rewarding aspects of event planning. Throw in a little celebrity tell-all and it would have been an orgiastic medley of guilty pleasures.
Unfortunately, the book was a vapid rehashing of The Devil Wears Prada without any of the humor. At least Andi in the aforementioned Devil was smart--Landon is like a cartoon Texas girl, complete with pink clothes and big hair. She is constantly described as smart but continues to do ridiculous things. She has no spine--she cannot even stand up to one of the assistants; but somehow she manages to defy her evil boss and start HER OWN event planning business. Every aspect of this novel annoyed the crap out of me.
On a side note, if you plan to utilize Spanish in your book, please make sure it's correct. There was one scene where Landon helps to placate an angry Hispanic client. She rushes over speaking horrific Spanish and the guy is supposedly charmed. Um, no. Nothing was grammatically correct, the syntax was completely wrong, and the subjunctive wasn't used in two instances where it needed to be. Hey Ms. Hollis--using a Spanish dictionary does NOT mean you can speak Spanish. "Viejo" is the correct adjective when describing a person, Ms. Hollis. But I digress.
Landon starts the job on her first day apparently hoping that being cute and Southern will excuse her lack of planning. She has done no research on the company, Selah Smith Events, for which she is working as an intern. She has read about the events in magazines but doesn't seem to know that the person who interviewed her is a male because they have only talked via the interwebs. Really?! That is the POINT of LinkedIn, for Cripe's sake. She doesn't ask about the company dress code so she shows up for her first day in a completely inappropriate outfit. She doesn't think that L.A. traffic might be awful and shows up half an hour late for her first day. Oh, and she doesn't call/text/e-mail her supposed mentor to let them know that tardiness might be imminent. In any job I worked, that kind of inconsiderate offense would be subject to termination.
While all of that nonsense suspends disbelief for anybody who has ever held a job, Landon's ridiculous naivete and milquetoast personality were so ludicrous and overexaggerated they were laughable. We are supposed to fall in love with the character's innocence. I wanted to tie her to a chair, duct tape her eyes open, and force her to watch increasingly shameful pornography until she grew the hell up. I grew up in a very protective family in a small town in Florida; yet I had more gumption and common sense at SEVENTEEN than this Southern-fried idiot has at twenty-fricking-three.
Then come a series of ever-more improbable events in which our innocent (read: abysmally stupid) heroine [snort] stumbles her way from an internship at the company to a paid position, lands one of L.A.'s wealthiest and hottest bachelors, and defies her evil boss. She also manages to start her own company with NO CAPITAL based on her good relationship with one celebrity client and the aforementioned Hispanic client. Because powerful Latinos got that way by handing over their business interests to half-witted white girls.
Oh, God--the Satanic boss. Selah Smith, the eponymous head of SSE, is such a bitch caricature it makes my head hurt. She might as well try to slay Landon and be done with it. I mean, she does everything but rub her hands together gleefully and laugh maniacally. At one point, she actually says, "I will ruin you." What are you, Ultraman? You can't ruin me, you abominable tart. I'll call OSHA on your abusive ass.
Landon is such a wuss that she allows this woman to treat her shabbily. Indonesian sweat shop workers would quit after this treatment, but our ridiculous protagonist continues along without a protest. Work on Thanksgiving with no prior notice and after booking a flight? Sure! Break up with the love interest because you like him too? Okey dokey. Allow you to verbally abuse me and take credit for my work? Yupper.
L.A. is such a tiny, podunk town that there are NO OTHER event-planning companies for which she could work. And of course, no one else makes a fuss either. I am not familiar with the vagaries of event planning; I'm sure it is stressful to the extreme. However, Federal law does have limits on the number of hours one can require their employees to work. You cannot expect me to believe that AN ENTIRE FRIGGING COMPANY allows this woman to get away with a reign of terror that makes Pablo Escobar look like a jolly uncle.
There was nothing in this book that was original, funny, or redeeming except the party descriptions. If you like shallow, stupid MCs and trite writing, by all means, pick up a copy.
You'd think by now I would have learned my lesson with Chicklit. Perhaps I am even more naive than I thought--I keep hoping to find the gem in the dung heap. This book was not that gem.
On a side note, if you plan to utilize Spanish in your book, please make sure it's correct. There was one scene where Landon helps to placate an angry Hispanic client. She rushes over speaking horrific Spanish and the guy is supposedly charmed. Um, no. Nothing was grammatically correct, the syntax was completely wrong, and the subjunctive wasn't used in two instances where it needed to be. Hey Ms. Hollis--using a Spanish dictionary does NOT mean you can speak Spanish. "Viejo" is the correct adjective when describing a person, Ms. Hollis. But I digress.
Landon starts the job on her first day apparently hoping that being cute and Southern will excuse her lack of planning. She has done no research on the company, Selah Smith Events, for which she is working as an intern. She has read about the events in magazines but doesn't seem to know that the person who interviewed her is a male because they have only talked via the interwebs. Really?! That is the POINT of LinkedIn, for Cripe's sake. She doesn't ask about the company dress code so she shows up for her first day in a completely inappropriate outfit. She doesn't think that L.A. traffic might be awful and shows up half an hour late for her first day. Oh, and she doesn't call/text/e-mail her supposed mentor to let them know that tardiness might be imminent. In any job I worked, that kind of inconsiderate offense would be subject to termination.
While all of that nonsense suspends disbelief for anybody who has ever held a job, Landon's ridiculous naivete and milquetoast personality were so ludicrous and overexaggerated they were laughable. We are supposed to fall in love with the character's innocence. I wanted to tie her to a chair, duct tape her eyes open, and force her to watch increasingly shameful pornography until she grew the hell up. I grew up in a very protective family in a small town in Florida; yet I had more gumption and common sense at SEVENTEEN than this Southern-fried idiot has at twenty-fricking-three.
Then come a series of ever-more improbable events in which our innocent (read: abysmally stupid) heroine [snort] stumbles her way from an internship at the company to a paid position, lands one of L.A.'s wealthiest and hottest bachelors, and defies her evil boss. She also manages to start her own company with NO CAPITAL based on her good relationship with one celebrity client and the aforementioned Hispanic client. Because powerful Latinos got that way by handing over their business interests to half-witted white girls.
Oh, God--the Satanic boss. Selah Smith, the eponymous head of SSE, is such a bitch caricature it makes my head hurt. She might as well try to slay Landon and be done with it. I mean, she does everything but rub her hands together gleefully and laugh maniacally. At one point, she actually says, "I will ruin you." What are you, Ultraman? You can't ruin me, you abominable tart. I'll call OSHA on your abusive ass.
Landon is such a wuss that she allows this woman to treat her shabbily. Indonesian sweat shop workers would quit after this treatment, but our ridiculous protagonist continues along without a protest. Work on Thanksgiving with no prior notice and after booking a flight? Sure! Break up with the love interest because you like him too? Okey dokey. Allow you to verbally abuse me and take credit for my work? Yupper.
L.A. is such a tiny, podunk town that there are NO OTHER event-planning companies for which she could work. And of course, no one else makes a fuss either. I am not familiar with the vagaries of event planning; I'm sure it is stressful to the extreme. However, Federal law does have limits on the number of hours one can require their employees to work. You cannot expect me to believe that AN ENTIRE FRIGGING COMPANY allows this woman to get away with a reign of terror that makes Pablo Escobar look like a jolly uncle.
There was nothing in this book that was original, funny, or redeeming except the party descriptions. If you like shallow, stupid MCs and trite writing, by all means, pick up a copy.
You'd think by now I would have learned my lesson with Chicklit. Perhaps I am even more naive than I thought--I keep hoping to find the gem in the dung heap. This book was not that gem.
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