Lily is a producer on a successful cooking segment for a daily morning show. The new chef has just arrived on set and he is drop dead gorgeous. And despite everything - the sabbatical that Lily and her flatmate Simone are taking from men, the fact that Jack is a work colleague - Lily falls head over heels for him.
And while Lily battles her feelings, her flatmate Simone breaks their pact and starts dating some guy from her whole foods shop. That guy turns out to be Jack. Up close, Lily bravely watches on as romance blossoms between Simone and Jack. Or does it? They don't seem to have much in common, apart from their striking good looks. And Lily and Jack just seem to get each other. Is that the same thing as falling in love? And could she ever dream of betraying a friendship? Lily has to make some difficult decisions about work and home, and realises that if she doesn't take life by the scruff of the neck, she is the one who'll be picked up, shaken, and dumped.
I was hesitant to pick up this book when I saw it in the second hand shop a few weeks ago, but it was only $2 and I couldn't resist the bargain. I'd read about the author, Zoe Foster, as well as this specific book and had wanted to check out said book for a while, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It's just so chick-lit-y and there's an unnecessary usage of "literally" and "ohmygod" and a halva lot of caps. Definitely not my style, but I conceded and bought it anyway. Let's get down to the review.
The protagonist, Lily, was very annoying and utterly childish. I'm sorry to start off the review on this negative point, but you can deal with it. I felt like I was reading about a bunch of teenage girls who were bitchy, hypocritical, and downright annoying at times. I found it difficult to finish the book and had to put it down every few chapters because Lily really got on my nerves. She was such a flawed character (and not the good kind of flaws that make you respect a character or enjoy them), instantly hating people for wearing too much makeup or different clothing or for being very liberal with text-speak. Basically, if someone wasn't exactly what she wanted, or wasn't up to her standards, she'd be constantly bagging them out. That inner monologue was always repeating the same things; her constant adamance that she's a good person, thus deserving or good things, she's not a both, she respects everyone, has values, and yet she continues to bitch people out (internally, of course, she'd never say something to their faces!) for no reason. It was distasteful and I felt like she was a 14 year old. Bleh.
Another problem I have with the characters is that they're either under-written (eg. Dale), complete stereotypes (again, Dale), or not based in reality. Or, in Lily's case, poorly written. Dale, an assistant who works at Lily's TV job, was cast as the stereotypical quiet & nervous boy, with zero character development. We also had the incompetent boss who is, in Lily's mind, an airhead who takes credit for other people's work. And we (of course) had to have tacky girls who use text-speak out loud, wear too much makeup, and are frighteningly obsessed with celebrities and all that crap. Oh, and did I mention the blonde hair-blue eyes country boy, or the model with a drug addiction? I'm just so disappointed that nothing any of the characters (not even eccentric, 25 year old Alice with the funky hair) could surprise me. Almost like they all just fit predetermined roles of all chick-lit books that seem to pop up in every book from the genre. DISAPPOINTED!
The world building and writing itself was quite lacklustre, and while I liked the plot, that was the only thing I can firmly say positive things about. While it was predictable, I enjoyed the road Zoe Foster took with the book and felt like it wasn't so ridiculous it delved further into the realms of fiction than chick-lit should. It was kind of comforting, too. The fact that our protagonist works behind the scenes in TV was cool, as we rarely get books about that aspect of TV, authors preferring to focus on the talent. Other than that, and I can't stress this enough, the writing wasn't very good and the voices attributed to the characters were bloody annoying. I know I've already said this enough, but I felt like I was in a 14 year old's head. It just got to the point when I wanted to stop reading altogether, but by that point I'd already snuck a read of the last page and I was fond of the ending. I had to see it through.
As annoying and childish (and she is surely that) our protagonist, Lily, is, and as much as it seems like you're reading about a bunch of 14 year old girls for the majority of the book, I don't regret reading it. Towards the end, there's a turnaround and I started to not hate (or hate a little less) the characters. Finally, when everything falls into place for Lily,we see some character development. It's small, but definitely there and I actually started to respect her more. I'm glad that Lily got her happy ending and turned out to be just the right girl. I recommend this book as a good summer read, maybe for when you're on holiday and just want some easy chick-let to settle down with.
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