REVIEW: The Singles

THE SINGLES

by Meredith Goldstein

Mainstream Women's Fiction

April 2012

Premise: A wedding causes five single invitees to evaluate their lives.

Cover: Title - Simple, direct, effective. Art - Very pretty and reflective of content, with the gold metallic lettering cleverly calling to mind the rings (i.e., life partners) that the novel protagonists don't have. The theme of social pressure for people to couple up literally forms the centre of attention.

Overall, well done and attractive.

First Sentence Test: "Twenty-nine-year-old bride-to-be Beth Eleanor Evans, a slender, freckled, strawberry blonde whom people called Bee because of her initials, stood in front of the whiteboard she'd purchased that day at the Target off Route 103."

Did this make AW want to read on? No

What Works: Weddings seem like a hot topic right now, fascinating to far more people than just those intending to tie the knot in the near future if the multitude of wedding reality shows and are any indication. This novel, and the earlier "Girls in White Dresses", seems to ride the wave.

Why? Why are weddings intriguing for people not directly participating? As a person who was, yes, sucked into regular viewing of one or two of those shows, please allow Apprentice Writer to voice her theory: it's the expanding effect weddings have on the psychology of onlookers. No one (at least, not in this novel) remains within their regular emotional parameters prior and during the wedding. Their highs get higher and their lows lower, and it can be tremendously addictive entertainment to have a window on what happens under those circumstances. As such, AW was sold on the premise of this book.

She enjoyed the ensemble approach, with events looked at through the eyes of multiple characters rather than just one point of view. AW also liked how each POV character had clear strengths and weaknesses; there were none who skewed heavily to the "good" or "evil" side. AW would like to think that this realistic and balanced approach has something to do with the author's background as a newspaper etiquette and advice giver, a perspective that would tend to encourage the view that a) we all have our personal issues to work through, and b) one need not ever given up on anyone completely. This is how the characters come across, and AW appreciated it.

What Doesn't: AW received an Advance Readers Copy, and therefore has no way of knowing how much of the manuscript that finally went to print may have changed and improved. That being said, the authorial style and voice didn't always entirely flow for her. Run-on sentences (as from first page, above) were not uncommon, as was a tendency to repetition: "She was blinded just a few seconds later by a vicious, almost blinding fluorescent light."

AW disliked the biological reality descriptions included in some scenes for two reasons; it seemed to her that the point could have been gotten across without going into as much detail, and also, it seemed to underline how the choices of some characters kept them at what seemed like a high school/college level rather than people moving on and establishing themselves in their professional lives. It is true that often, individuals may be moving forward in some parts of their lives while feeling as though they are stuck in others. This is a common and relatable phenomenon for many if not most readers. But characters such as the woman who accepts and swallows an unknown pill from a near stranger and then (against advice) drinks steadily without eating gets no sympathy when things start going wrong.

Overall: A slice-of-life novel about people trying to find their post-college groove and figure out the age old question of how or even whether to find a partner that manages to make the reader, whether single or partnered, feel their status is valid.

Review: PARIS, MY SWEET

PARIS, MY SWEET:

A YEAR IN THE CITY OF LIGHT (AND DARK CHOCOLATE)

Amy Thomas

Travel Memoir

Sourcebooks, February 2012

Premise: Writer lands dream job in Paris and tracks down elite bakers and chocolate artisans in her spare time while musing on mid-thirties single life.

Cover: Title - Apt and amusing, gives a clear idea of what to expect from content. Art - the cartoony graphics of birds-eye-view of a Paris city map is highy appealing in coloration and retroish style that calls to mind the haute wrapping the equally haute edibles get wrapped in. Perhaps the best cover Apprentice Writer has seen from this publisher to date. Well done, Sourcebooks art department!

First Sentence Test: Did "I guess you could say my story began with a bicycle and some bonbons " make this reader want to continue? YES!

What Works: Like many others, advertising writer Amy Thomas was in possession of a full-on Paris crush. Unlike many others, she was handed a fairy-tale opportunity not only to live there for a year, but to work in an elegant flagship store on one of the most upscale streets. The reader immediately engages with her as she leaps at the chanc.e,happily putting herself in the author's shoes and looking forward to exploring the glittering city like no mere tourist can.

Paris has a way of making one's passions rise to the surface. For Carrie Bradshaw, another transplanted New York single girl (referenced in the text), it was designer boutiques for couture clothes. For others, it might be masterpieces in art museums, exquisite restaurant meals produced by a country that raises food preparation to a kind a religion, or city squares and architectural monuments that played a part in history.

For the author, it is all about sweets. Architecture, "regular" food and fashion are all mentioned but only in passing, as a distant backdrop to the real focus. Carrying on a habit developed in New York, she tirelessly seeks out and samples the city's best in baked goods and sweet treats. The pleasure she derives, the care with which she identifies ingredients and painstakingly developed baking techniques, the way she shows how love of exquisitely prepared food translates to the bigger picture of love of life and intensifying relationships with family and friends, all inspired AW to go on a mini sweet neighborhood exploration trip of her own.

There has a storm of recent headlines about a Food Network celebrity whose cooking involves large portions with much fat, salt, and sugar. After being diagnosed with diabetes the celebrity struck a deal to endorse a brand of diabetes medication. This seeming encouragement to eat in an unhealthy way and then profit financially from resulting poor health translated to bad optics for the celebrity.Hence the question:

Is this sweet-obsessed book a wolf in sheeps clothing, luring readers into self-destructive behavior by literally sugarcoating damaging consequences? AW is happy to report a clear "No". Yes, the author is open about her particular tastebud weakness. But throughout her time in Paris, she lives in a sixth floor walkup, travels everywhere by bicycle, and is frequently satisfied with a single, sublime bite (in contrast to the super-size portions on offer in much of North American fast food culture). Choosing tiny portions has at least as much to do astronomical prices in Paris as with self control, but the message is clear and much repeated in the text: if you want to taste all the best that bakers and chocolatiers have to offer, you must be willing to exercise a lot and know when enough is enough.

There comes a point when the honeymoon phase wears off and a some tough realities set in, both in terms of how extraordinarily difficult it is for a foreigner to crack the nut of French aloofness, and for an ongoinginly single career girl to respond sincerely and graciously to friends moving on to milestones of marriage and children. Though the author's thoughts on the impossibility of having it all aren't revolutionary, AW found them refreshing. Both in terms of her honesty, and because of her low tolerance for travel memoirs that make it seem automatic for people to go to another country and before you can say "Sacre bleu!" be surrounded by newfound friends-for-life, eating delicious food one has cooked oneself for the very first time while laughingly having the best time ever, and for good measure, stumbling upon the impossibly good-looking love of one's life (AW is looking at you, Julia Roberts in 'Eat, Pray,Love'). Newsflash: that's NOT how it happens (unless you are a Disney cartoon princess, or Julia Roberts).

What Doesn't: Fact 1: The author's sweet-based writing background (as opposed to her professional writing background) is in the blogosphere, where writing occurs in bite-sized (Ha!), frequent, of-the-minute snippets. Most of the time, blogposts are not really intended to stand the test of time and transcend the actual moment they are written in.

Fact 2: The food services industry is precarious, the restaurant and cafe business even more so. New places open and close all the time, often with a tragically short interval between the two.

These two facts combined to create a weakness: it seemed that the author didn't attempt to amplify her blog style into a more big picture style that would lend itself to longer-lasting impact, such as by emphasizing the occasions when she spoke with the actual bakers about their career and passions, the provenance of the ingredients, the process of recipe invention, etc. Those occasions where among the most enjoyable of the book. But they seemed to take a backseat to emphasizing specific business names and street addresses both in Paris and New York. The inevitable result is that the book would have an unneccesarily shortened shelf life, as the amount of attention paid to helping the reader find specific places means it grows ever more quickly out of date as the business close or move.

Think this is a petty criticism? Consider: between describing chef, bakery name, and street address in the text, plus at each end-of-chapter summary, plus city lists at end of book, some businesses details are mentioned three times. Four, if you count the illustrated maps. This struck AW as overkill.

She was also surprised by the seeming disconnect between the author's admiration for chef talent (e.g. the anecdote about industrial made croissant dough taking half an hour to prepare in contrast to one boulanger's investment of thirty-four hours for a single batch) coupled with the lengths to which she would go to obtain the end products, on the one hand, and the lack of mention of her own baking attempts. Sure, some people are better at tasting and describing than they are at producing themselves. It simply seemed that since it would be natural for someone with such a pronounced passion to give it a whirl themselves, it would be worth a bit of explanation as to why it didn't happen in this case.

Overall: A charming, easy-to-read weekend book jaunt to inspire one's own neighbourhood search for most delectable mouthfuls.

AW notes this is the second enjoyable travel memoir set in France she has reviewed for this publisher; if this is a trend, she welcomes it.

Review: THE ROSE GARDEN

THE ROSE GARDEN
Susanna Kearsley

Timetravel
Sourcebooks, October 2011

Premise: Grieving contemporary woman returns to childhood Cornwall home and begins travelling back in time to an era of smugglers and uprisings.

Cover: Title - very pretty, but held more significance for the contemporary portion of the story than the historical. Would have liked it if a title had been found that was equally significant to both time periods.
Art - Lovely, and much more eye-catching and also fitting than the art on the ARC Apprentice Writer received, which put her in mind of a story of a brave cancer survivor or some such. This one shows a titular rose, colors that recall the sepia tints of old daguerrotypes, and features hair (in a style which could be historical or contemporary) as the central element - so right for the story. Very well done.

What Works: The author has above average writing skill and an engaging style which draws the reader into the story, an effect which is further enhanced by use of first person and sympathy the reader feels for the protagonist from the first page as she talks of how bereft she is following the death of her beloved older sister.

The choice to have the protagonist keep going back and forth between time periods, as opposed to leaping close to the start and spending the bulk of the story in the past/future, with a final leap back to own time at the end, created a great contrast between typical daily life challenges of average people now (setting up a new business, keeping on old one viable, negotiating dating life) and typical life challenges then (having to be watchful of local law enforcement due to no recourse to higher authority, political choices that can mean swift and bloody death no matter which side one comes down on, gender inequality that placed any female without male protectors with enough muscle and in close enough proximity at risk, the sheer labor and difficulty associated with tasks of daily life).

Finally, a great strength of this book is the historical love interest. How Apprentice Writer adored him, his relationship to his brother and best friend, the way he chooses to deal with economic and political reality of the time, but most of all, how he responds to a woman with modern sensibilities. He was swoonworthy, and AW would have been happy to read more about his backstory and what happens next to him. He gives Jamie Fraser (of the mega timetravel hit "Outlander) - who is #2 on the list of best romantic heros of all times, as compiled by fellow Sourcebooks author Sarah Wendell ("Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romanc Novels" review to come shortly), a run for his money. If anything, Daniel Butler comes out ahead, considering Jamie's unfortunate disciplinary episode (cue groaning of the "Outlander" faithful).

What Doesn't: In AW's view, if you going to write a timetravel, then do the reader the courtesy of not treating the actual timetravel element like a trivial afterthought. In this case, the explanations of where and to whom it happened were tepid and unconvincing (because the conditions for both should have affected many, many more people than it did) while the explanation of why it happened at some times and not others was never given. The fact that the protagonist seemed to show such little curiosity about the mechanics of the thing gave this reader an ever dimmer opninion about her intelligence. It also made her WILD that in contrast to, say, Henry of "The Time Traveller's Wife" who cannot take anything with him from the old place (including clothes) when he shifts, the protagonist here could, but never thought to do so. You can bet your sweet petticoat that AW would have taken care to have a supply of toothpaste/brush, dental floss, aspirin, swiss army knife, and feminine hygiene products with her at times.

Apart from the personal grooming aspect, AW was very surprised at how the protagonist never thought of the possibility of some small gift for the two historical men who literally risk their lives for her, given that having other people of their time seeing her appear or disappear would brand them as associates of a witch. There is a whole subtheme of capacity to create fire (in the form of skill to strike a spark), thus symbolizing access to light, life-giving warmth, capacity to eat, and feeling of security - all of which the hero and his best friend continually bestow on the heroine. The hero even shows special interest in the future invention of matches. But does the heroine think to slip a lousy book of matches for him in her jeans pocket, or some small modern kitchen gadget in recognition of her adopted brother's culinary interest? Not at all. This willingness of the heroine to accept all the tangible and intangible gifts offered to her by these men without any notion of return created an uncomfortable sense of imbalance, all the more peculiar considering the extravagant gift she bestows on some secondary characters in the contemporary time.

Overall: The single word previous reviewers seem to apply most often to this novel is "haunting"; AW would agree with that, as well as the "well-written" description. The story is more about the psychology and emotion of the person going back and forth in time rather than the action-adventure (such as found in "Outlander") or the modern time luxuries/olden time privations angle (such as found in "Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict"). From this perspective, the feelings and actions of the cast of characters was (with exception mentioned above) convincing and satisfying.

Review: TOUT SWEET

TOUT SWEET - Hanging Up My High Heels for a New Life in France
Karen Wheeler
Memoir
Sourcebooks, August 2011

Premise: Romantically disappointed journalist moves to rural France.

Cover: Title - Clever wordplay ("tout de suite" = French for "right away"), and the subtitle is a concise summary of content. Art - Very pretty, eyecatching, and reflective of author's description of everyday life in the village. Altogether, well done.

What Works: The cover blurbs repeated the words "honest" and "charming"; Apprentice Writer is pleased to say that she found both to be accurate. The honesty comes in the lack of airbrushing. The author has the courage to include aspects that do not always show her in the most flattering light, which provides the armchair traveller with the opportunity to recall occasions when they might not have shown the best judgement themselves at the same time as they think "I wouldn't have done that!". The charming comes from the manner in which the heroine prevails, the way she does her utmost to learn, and the way she provides the vicarious experience of sitting in a cobbled, whitewashed courtyard looking at potted flowers while enjoying breakfast baguette, and so on.

The writing has some ups and downs. AW has included it in the "What Works" rather than "What Doesn't" section because even though there is a regrettable pattern of word echoes and repetition in some places, there is also just enough French for this high school level speaker to find it flavorful without becoming confusing (something which she has had more than one occasion to bemoan with other British writers and their casual inclusion of Latin all over the place). And as regular readers of this space know, AW is particularly fond of well-done metaphors and similes; in this case, she enjoyed the author's fashion training being aptly applied to description.

It becomes clear to the reader early on that the idealized mental image the author has of Life in Rural France and reality may not match. It is to the author's credit that by the end of the first year which forms the material for the book, her resourcefulness and adaptability have combined to create a lifestyle that she enjoys and plans to maintain - as opposed to the many expats who, for whatever reason, give up and go home. This reader loved it that she did not allow her single status, lack of contacts, and complete absence of handiwork skills to stand the way of her dream of owning and renovating a home in a foreign country. Bravo, Ms. Wheeler, for doing so and for making the reader want to book the next flight to France for the rewards of the countryside rather than the glitz of Paris.

What Doesn't: For this reader's taste, too much space was taken up with the minutiae of fellow ex-pats' dysfunction, whether romantic or alcoholic. Yes, sometimes moving to a new place can exacerbate rather than heal marital friction, and yes, sometimes individuals used to a greater amount and variety of alternate entertainment may turn to booze as a way to fill the time when such entertainment is curtailed. But must we dwell on it? AW thinks not.

Overall: A feel-good story that proves there is (satisfying) life after love, that sometimes running away to reinvent oneself can actually work, and that homeownership is not just for the handy and mechanically-inclined.