On Wednesday, Quinn McKenzie adopted a dog and changed her life. On Thursday, she tried to get somebody to notice. On Thursday night, somebody did. When Quinn McKenzie decides to change her "beige" life by adopting a stray dog, everything begins to spiral out of control. Now she's coping with dog-napping, breaking and entering, seduction, sabotage, stalking, more secrets than she really wants to know, and two men who are suddenly crazy... for her.
Comment: This is the last book I had to read by author Jennifer Cruisie. There's still one from her backlist I wish to read too but I haven't gotten it yet. I was very eager to read it and see if I would again share the opinion of the majority of those who liked it.
In this book we follow Quinn McKenzie in her letting go of a pre established, boring life when she decides to adopt dog her boyfriend doesn't want. This is the reason she needed to change her life, to start looking for other goals and she is ready to defend her dog no matter what. She decides to leave her boring boyfriend, their shared apartment and buys a house, gets the dog, changes her haircut and decides to pursue her ex brother in law for romantic reasons.
But with so much change, are the ones around her ready for a new Quinn? And her ex can accept his new status? Will the man she wants finally come to terms he wants her too?
I've read around five books by the author (some years ago)and this is definitely the one I liked the least. I mean, I struggled to not be annoyed at the author for having written such a weak book in my opinion. After all things considered, to me, this book didn't have anything appealing for me to think about or to want to remember fondly.
The story is centered on Quinn and how a dog makes her reevaluate her life and how people around her are living too. I get it that the point in the whole book is to tell us it's never too late to change your mind, to look after the things you need to be happy and to be brave to let go of the things that we might feel are stopping us from being happy, we should not just settle. Ok, but then the tactic of doing this in a obvious comedy style - which is valid and the author's trademark - isn't something I feel worked that well with the importance or the level of importance the author also intended to give to the story.
Quinn didn't win me over. I was actually feeling very annoyed at her, where was her practicality? I applaud she felt the will to change her life, to look for a happiness in her reach, but the way things happened seemed silly and unrealistic, no matter how funny this is supposed to be. Quinn came across selfish and reckless and I fail to see how can this be endearing to anyone.
Then the author decided to make Bill, the now ex-boyfriend, a crazy person. Of course this enhances Quinn's validity to have broken things up with him, to need to get away, but it sure looked like an easy way out and very unlikely and ill used. Of all the ways this could have developed, I never thought craziness would be a solid tactic. I think the author could have maintained her funny, comedy side while giving a better emotional quality to certain aspects and a more serious impact to things too. Like she did in other books, which seemed much better balanced.
The romance didn't convince me either, no matter how many years they have ben feeling the attraction. Nick seemed very immature and despite enjoying his quiet nature and solid presence, his overall attitude of letting things happen seemed very annoying at times.
The secondary characters were funny some times but others seem a very obvious caricature of a stereotype needed as supporting roles in romances and sincerely I got to a point where most little things started to annoy me.
Sadly, this book wasn't good for me. Sometimes it's just the way it is. I appreciate some things, some passages seemed interesting and well thought, otherwise my grade would be lower.
But I feel sad that interesting elements here were so ill used for the sake of a laugh. And then things weren't that funny for me...
I know most readers didn't see things this way, but the whole story really started to annoy me and I'm sure I'll have it forgotten in no time...
Grade: 4/10
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