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A review by beckymmoe
A Fine Romance by Christi Barth
2.0
I wanted to like this book; I really, really did. I had enjoyed the banter in the first book, and really liked Ivy's--and Ben's, eventually--group of quirky friends. Sam, the news-junkie/baker sounded like such a great guy.
The characters in this one--the aforementioned Sam and Ivy's graduate school friend Mira--just didn't do it for me this time, though. I spent more of the book aggravated with them than enjoying their story. Sam's insistence that he had to silently follow his dead father's wishes--not telling a single soul about them or what he's doing--and at the same time not give his mother or his sister a 'heads-up, I could really use some help here so I can attempt to do something I want to with my life' was just ridiculous. Talk about a contrived conflict; it drove me bonkers.
Mira's "poor rich girl" hangups didn't get her any sympathy from me either. I pretty much lost all respect that I had had for her when she disparaged Sam to her brand new cook--in front of Sam, though she didn't know it at first. She essentially said he had an unsophisticated palate and was "just" a baker of cookies and doughnuts. I get her reasons for why she responded in that way (though they were totally silly; come on, a grown woman can't handle watching a hot guy sample food without throwing herself at him? Really?)--she didn't know he was there, and was trying to keep their relationship during the day on a professional level, but when he was understandably hurt by her words she didn't understand what she'd said to make him so upset. Really??? That wasn't the only example of her being completely oblivious to her tendency to be unfeelingly snobbish, but that's the one that did it for me. (And really. I don't care how long it's been since you've had chocolate sauce. NO ONE who has ever had some in their lifetime needs to ask "What is that?" when tasting chocolate sauce again, no one!)
There's just too much conflict of the "I'm going to completely internalize everything and not tell those nearest and dearest to me a thing, because this is all my problem and not theirs" variety. It made the characters seem more like contrived caricatures and less like real people. Mira's parents were a perfect example of this--they were cookie-cutter examples of snobby rich people who have no time for their kid(s), with nothing at all humanizing about them. I kept pushing through just for the sake of finishing, not because I really felt invested in them by the end. Still, I have hopes for book three--Gib and Daphne, maybe? I hope they--or whomever the protagonists are--can bring back some of the magic from book one in the series.
The characters in this one--the aforementioned Sam and Ivy's graduate school friend Mira--just didn't do it for me this time, though. I spent more of the book aggravated with them than enjoying their story. Sam's insistence that he had to silently follow his dead father's wishes--not telling a single soul about them or what he's doing--and at the same time not give his mother or his sister a 'heads-up, I could really use some help here so I can attempt to do something I want to with my life' was just ridiculous. Talk about a contrived conflict; it drove me bonkers.
Mira's "poor rich girl" hangups didn't get her any sympathy from me either. I pretty much lost all respect that I had had for her when she disparaged Sam to her brand new cook--in front of Sam, though she didn't know it at first. She essentially said he had an unsophisticated palate and was "just" a baker of cookies and doughnuts. I get her reasons for why she responded in that way (though they were totally silly; come on, a grown woman can't handle watching a hot guy sample food without throwing herself at him? Really?)--she didn't know he was there, and was trying to keep their relationship during the day on a professional level, but when he was understandably hurt by her words she didn't understand what she'd said to make him so upset. Really??? That wasn't the only example of her being completely oblivious to her tendency to be unfeelingly snobbish, but that's the one that did it for me. (And really. I don't care how long it's been since you've had chocolate sauce. NO ONE who has ever had some in their lifetime needs to ask "What is that?" when tasting chocolate sauce again, no one!)
There's just too much conflict of the "I'm going to completely internalize everything and not tell those nearest and dearest to me a thing, because this is all my problem and not theirs" variety. It made the characters seem more like contrived caricatures and less like real people. Mira's parents were a perfect example of this--they were cookie-cutter examples of snobby rich people who have no time for their kid(s), with nothing at all humanizing about them. I kept pushing through just for the sake of finishing, not because I really felt invested in them by the end. Still, I have hopes for book three--Gib and Daphne, maybe? I hope they--or whomever the protagonists are--can bring back some of the magic from book one in the series.