Chick Lit · Contemporary · Humor/Funny · Romance

Neanderthal seeks human – Penny Reid

17673307| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: There are three things you need to know about Janie Morris: 1) She is incapable of engaging in a conversation without volunteering TMTI (Too Much Trivial Information), especially when she is unnerved, 2) No one unnerves her more than Quinn Sullivan, and 3) She doesn’t know how to knit.

After losing her boyfriend, apartment, and job in the same day, Janie Morris can’t help wondering what new torment fate has in store. To her utter mortification, Quinn Sullivan- aka Sir McHotpants- witnesses it all then keeps turning up like a pair of shoes you lust after but can’t afford. The last thing she expects is for Quinn- the focus of her slightly, albeit harmless, stalkerish tendencies- to make her an offer she can’t refuse.

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My thoughts: Sometime I wish that GoodReads had the function to choose half stars when it comes to rating. Because this is one of those books that are more a 4 star in rating than a 2 but did not quite reach all the way. So more like 3,5. It is a good book, I liked it, but the 300 + pages of self esteem rant totally destroyed it for me.

Janie is a great character. She is a little naive, stuck in her own head and do not have the best ways to handle feelings. She is witty, a lot insecure and a lot more “girl” than what you first would think. And by that I mean, that constant rant about how “big” she is, tall, big feet, big hands, big ass, big hair and so on. Everything is big with her. She is according to herself not beautiful, and definitely not in a league for a good looking man like Quinn. And when she is done ranting about her body, she goes on to her mind and personality. She is freaky, she talks to much, she can’t flirt, she know too much uninteresting trivia, she is uncontrollably gabby, and on and on and on. And when she is done with that, she starts to rant about events, what she did that particular event and what the persons there did, reacted and so on. I do understand low self esteem. Been there, done that and at some ways still are fighting with it. Everybody does! But there is a limit of how big part of a book it should take. I’m not a big fan of mental insecurity and angst. Some can be great. Too much I just feel I want to punch the character in question and say “there is more to life than this”. It should not take over. And here it takes it all.

If we scaled it back like 50% but kept the rest of the story, I would probable be a five star, freaking loved the book, book. So that’s too bad. Reid did however do a great job with not including Quinn in this rant. He did not confirm or deny her verbal rants. (The most of them was mental though). I loved that he didn’t try to change her toughs through words, but by action. And he kept asking her, pushing her out of her shell and genuinely was intrigued by her mind and personality. So the rants did ease up a bit towards the end. It is a great love story where there is more than a female with hot sexy body and a alpha caveman, with psychotic tendency. Besides, I did learn a lot of facts since Janie is a trivia nut and talk about a lot I didn’t know but now do.

Great story. Funny. Loved the way it started. The whole situation with family and friends was funny and awesome. Was some angst, but not much and it was quickly over. Loved that there was several bad situations but they had not much to do with each other. There is no cliff-hanger, nicely tided together in the end! Can be a great series to follow. Not every girl in this series is like Janie I hope. One is enough.

Chick Lit · Contemporary · Fiction/Science Fiction

The Rosie Effect – Graeme Simsion

23492671| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman are back. If you were swept away by Graeme Simsion’s international smash hit The Rosie Project, you will love The Rosie Effect. The Wife Project is complete, and Don and Rosie are happily married and living in New York. But they’re about to face a new challenge. Rosie is pregnant.

Don sets about learning the protocols of becoming a father, but his unusual research style gets him into trouble with the law. Fortunately his best friend Gene is on hand to offer advice: he’s left Claudia and moved in with Don and Rosie.

As Don tries to schedule time for pregnancy research, getting Gene and Claudia back together, servicing the industrial refrigeration unit that occupies half his apartment, helping Dave the Baseball Fan save his business and staying on the right side of Lydia the social worker, he almost misses the biggest problem of all: he might lose Rosie when she needs him most.

Get ready to fall in love all over again.

My thoughts: I absolutely loved the first book. I loved Don and Rosie and even disgusting Gene. I connected with Don in a way that I rarely do in books and I think that it is because I have more knowledge than the general person about these types of people. Growing up with a mother with Asperger, a sister who is high functioning Autistic/ADD, a brother with Asperger/autism and another brother with ADHD. And I have been diagnosed OCD. It is so much that Don says, thinks and do´s that are so familiar to me.

So I loved the first book, this one however I did not love. I liked it, but no love here. My heart breaks for Don. He is just trying so hard to be what Rosie needs and when one thing fails, he tries something ells. Rosie who choose to not communicate does not make it easier and I actually gets a little mad on here for her selfish ways. Yes Don has secrets and even tho i´m all for communication and honesty, I think it would not have made a difference at all if he would have been honest or not, and as a result by being dishonest, he meet new people, gets new experiences that in the end will be god for them all. Even his friends who have there own secrets and problems gets to experience new things with Don that has a positive impact on there own life.

BUT, there is no red thread or a clear plot. Rosie is pregnant, we hardly see her rest of the book except to ignore Don, do it harder on him or do something bad. Gene has a really big part of the story but he really don´t do anything. Its kind of weird. Then we have Dons friends who are there with Don trough it all. Rosies reasons for everything does not make sense to me and i cant really say anything more without giving you spoilers and we definitely don´t want that.

So no, i´m so sad. But I cant like this book as much as the first one because there is nothing besides Don him self who is touching my heart and that is just not enough. Certainly when I was bored for like 70% of the story.