Karen Does Susan E Phillips And Sharon Sala...

Finders Keepers – Sharon Sala

I’ve always loved Sharon Sala, but after reading this book, the scales have finally fallen from my eyes, and I’ve come to the conclusion that 'The Way To Yesterday' and 'Sweetbaby' have been papering over Sala’s writing cracks for years.

Here’s a brief synopsis:

Man is raising son on his own after mother deserts them both.
Woman moves in next to man and son, and son starts calling woman “mommy”
Dad falls in love with Woman, and vice versa.
Alas soon there is trouble in paradise when the dastardly bitch of a mother returns to try to manipulate the man.
She gets bitchslapped up and down the street by woman. (Ok so I’m lying about this part)
The Man and Woman live happily ever after.
The End.

I told you it was brief, so don’t get ya knickers in a twist!

Finders Keepers felt lazily written, as if all Sala was doing was fulfilling the word count. At no point did I connect to the characters in the book, come to think of it, I felt a disconnectedness between Sala and her own characters, that was gloriously absent in her earlier books.

As with Chance McCall, I felt as if she was trying to manipulate my emotions all the way through the book, and the thing is, I expect authors to try to make me cry, laugh etc, I just don’t expect to see through their various ploys.

I think a lot of people will probably enjoy this book, but unfortunately for me, it was way off the mark.

It Had To Be You, Susan E Phillips

Phoebe Somerville is a barbie doll look-alike blonde bombshell with a big heart who inherits her father’s football team, the Chicago Stars.
Years ago Phoebe and her father had a massive argument, which ended with her father disowning her. Now her father is dead and surprisingly enough, he leaves his football team to Phoebe, with the stipulation that she wont get her full inheritance unless the Stars win the AFC championship.

Phoebe is determined to prove that she’s more than just a pretty face, and so agrees to the terms of the will.

Meanwhile, Dan Calebrow is an ex-football star, who’s glittering career was ended prematurely due to an injury (erm… at least I think that’s what happened, I read this ages ago ya know!) He’s flabbergasted when he learns that this stunning, but dippy bit of eye candy is now in charge of the Stars football players.

They clash at every turn until eventually, they fall in love.

I liked this book. It was a nice uncomplicated read. The football references didn’t piss me off, but I guess it helps that I’m quite a sport-oriented person anyway.

The story flowed along nicely, and I felt like I was actually peeking into the lives of real people, with real issues. The dialogue was snappy and made sense, and at no point did I feel that the author was actually writing from the twilight zone.

It made me smile in parts, which is always a good thing. I preferred Phoebe’s character to Dan’s, purely because I felt that Dan was sometimes quite unnecessarily arsy. He was quite grumpy too, and there’s nothing I hate more than a whinging and bitching hero.

I recommend that this book be read in a meadow, with the breeze gently blowing through your hair, lying on a hammock, swinging gently from side to side, with the sun about to say goodnight to the sky... It really was that cute. *g*

Well I was going to review a few more books seeing as I’ve read so many recently, but fuck it, I’m tired and I can’t be arsed.