Review -- Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe by Jennie Shortridge

Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe
by Jennie Shortridge
Penguin, 2008
400 pages
*I received a copy from the author.

Summary (from Barnes and Noble): When she learns that her college sweetheart husband has been seeing another woman, Mira Serafino's perfect world is shattered and she wants no one, least of all her big Italian family, to know. She heads north—with no destination and little money— stopping only when her car breaks down in Seattle. She takes a job at the offbeat Coffee Shop at the Center of the Universe, where she'll experience a terrifying but invigorating freedom, and meet someone she'll come to love: the new Mira.

Review: An intriguing novel about finding out who you are without the constraints of family and friends, Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe is an easy and entertaining read. Author Jennie Shortridge introduces the reader to the likable Mira, who through a variety of misunderstandings and misinterpretations, runs away from her small town life to became the manager of a coffee shop. She misses her old life but finds beauty in the new one she creates with the help of the coffee shop staff. The writing is wonderful but the story doesn't have a same magic as Shortridge's Eating Heaven. Many of the supporting characters are annoying and I had difficulty sympathizing with many of them. However, I did enjoy the ending and am looking forward to reading more by this author. Rating: *** out of 5

Currently Reading!

Over the weekend, I am reading A Hopeless Romantic by Harriet Evans. Here is the Barnes and Noble description:

Laura Foster is a hopeless romantic. Her friends know it, her parents know it - even Laura acknowledges she lives either with her head in the clouds or buried in a romance novel. It's proved harmless enough, even if it hasn't delivered her a real-life dashing hero yet. But when her latest relationship ends in a disaster that costs her friendships, her job, and nearly her sanity, Laura swears off men and hopeless romantic fantasies for good. With her life in tatters around her, Laura agrees to go on vacation with her parents. After a few days of visiting craft shops and touring the stately homes of England, Laura is ready to tear her hair out. And then, while visiting grand Chartley Hall, she crosses paths with Nick, the sexy, rugged estate manager. She finds she shares more than a sense of humor with him - in fact, she starts to think she could fall for him. But is Nick all he seems? Or has Laura got it wrong again? Will she open her heart only to have it broken again?

Have you read this? If so, what did you think?

Friday Find -- 1/14

This meme is hosted by Should Be Reading.

Happy Friday! My Friday Find for this week is Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato. Here is the Barnes and Noble description:

Fear doesn’t come naturally to Mathilda Savitch. She prefers to look right at the things nobody else can bring themselves to mention: for example, the fact that her beloved older sister is dead, pushed in front of a train by a man still on the loose. Her grief-stricken parents have basically been sleepwalking ever since, and it is Mathilda’s sworn mission to shock them back to life. Her strategy? Being bad. Mathilda decides she’s going to figure out what lies behind the catastrophe. She starts sleuthing through her sister’s most secret possessions—e-mails, clothes, notebooks, whatever her determination and craftiness can ferret out. More troubling, she begins to apply some of her older sister’s magical charisma and powers of seduction to the unraveling situations around her. In a storyline that thrums with hints of ancient myth, Mathilda has to risk a great deal—in fact, has to leave behind everything she loves—in order to discover the truth.

What is your Friday Find?

Review -- Star Island by Carl Hiaasen

Star Island
by Carl Hiaasen
Knopf Doubleday, 2010
337 pages
*I borrowed this book from the library.

Summary (from Barnes and Noble): Meet twenty-two-year-old Cherry Pye (née Cheryl Bunterman), a pop star since she was fourteen—and about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster. Now meet Cherry again: in the person of her “undercover stunt double,” Ann DeLusia. Ann portrays Cherry whenever the singer is too “indisposed”—meaning wasted—to go out in public. And it is Ann-mistaken-for-Cherry who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by obsessed paparazzo Bang Abbott. Now the challenge for Cherry’s handlers (über–stage mother; horndog record producer; nipped, tucked, and Botoxed twin publicists; weed whacker–wielding bodyguard) is to rescue Ann while keeping her existence a secret from Cherry’s public—and from Cherry herself.

Review: This book was a breath of fun, fresh air when I was in a reading slump. Author Carl Hiaasen writes a kooky story filled with eccentric characters and a nutty story line. For me, the book totally worked. I loved the crazy characters (even the obnoxious Cherry Pye) and the demented plot (seriously - Ann gets kidnapped by a crazy man living in a swamp and that is in the first 25 pages or so). The book flew by and left me laughing. It is also a great satire about celebrity culture and the lengths people will go to sculpt their public image. I will definitely read more by this author. Rating: **** out of 5.