A review by libbith220
Miranda's Big Mistake by Jill Mansell
3.0
I actually didn't finish this book, but I'm going to say that I did since it should've ended where I stopped reading.
For the most part this was a funny and enjoyable read with a good cast of characters, but the author clearly lost a handle on the overall plot. It felt like she had a couple ideas of what should happen to these characters, and instead of picking one, she just shoehorned them together into one book, one after the other. I read this as an ebook, and was kind of shocked when got to what seemed to be the climax, and then realized that I had about a third of the book left -- what else needed to happen?? I ended up deciding that the answer to that question was "nothing," as I just could not bring myself to continue reading.
The main character had three potential suitors in this book, which ended up being too many for the author to handle. There was the seemingly-charming but actually horrible guy, the seemingly-horrible but actually charming guy, and then...a famous racecar driver? The first two guys complemented each other and added to the story, but the third guy was just incredibly random. His little cameo near the beginning was fun, but it should have stopped there. There was no reason for his character to become so central to the story, and that's when I stopped reading. I've never experienced such an intense and immediate turn off while reading a book before, but that's what happened here.
It's a shame that the author so fucked up this story, because I was rather interested in the fates of the other characters. She had created an engaging and well-rounded cast of characters, but they ended up as a waste. Thankfully, it was easy enough to guess the endings for most of them, and I guess I'll have to be satisfied with that. (I could just skip to the end to see what happens, but the author did too thorough of a job turning me off of this story that I don't even want to do that).
I seriously don't understand what the author was doing with this book. It started off so promising and intriguing, and she ruined it for reasons I cannot guess. If this book had ended at an appropriate time I would have given it 4 stars, but as it is I'm generously rounding up a 2.5 star experience.
For the most part this was a funny and enjoyable read with a good cast of characters, but the author clearly lost a handle on the overall plot. It felt like she had a couple ideas of what should happen to these characters, and instead of picking one, she just shoehorned them together into one book, one after the other. I read this as an ebook, and was kind of shocked when got to what seemed to be the climax, and then realized that I had about a third of the book left -- what else needed to happen?? I ended up deciding that the answer to that question was "nothing," as I just could not bring myself to continue reading.
The main character had three potential suitors in this book, which ended up being too many for the author to handle. There was the seemingly-charming but actually horrible guy, the seemingly-horrible but actually charming guy, and then...a famous racecar driver? The first two guys complemented each other and added to the story, but the third guy was just incredibly random. His little cameo near the beginning was fun, but it should have stopped there. There was no reason for his character to become so central to the story, and that's when I stopped reading. I've never experienced such an intense and immediate turn off while reading a book before, but that's what happened here.
It's a shame that the author so fucked up this story, because I was rather interested in the fates of the other characters. She had created an engaging and well-rounded cast of characters, but they ended up as a waste. Thankfully, it was easy enough to guess the endings for most of them, and I guess I'll have to be satisfied with that. (I could just skip to the end to see what happens, but the author did too thorough of a job turning me off of this story that I don't even want to do that).
I seriously don't understand what the author was doing with this book. It started off so promising and intriguing, and she ruined it for reasons I cannot guess. If this book had ended at an appropriate time I would have given it 4 stars, but as it is I'm generously rounding up a 2.5 star experience.