Katie Fforde - Living Dangerously

Polly Cameron is happy being thirty-five and celibate, living in a small Gloucestershire town with a possessive cat for company and a Rayburn for comfort. After all, a relationship would only complicate things ...
But Polly's life is already complicated. In addition to her job in the Whole Nut cafe and her part in the 'Save Our High Street' campaign, there's her pottery career to get off the ground. Not to mention dodging the efforts of her friends and mother to find her a husband ...
 
Comment: This is another book by Katie Fforde I had to read. I've had read Wedding Season last year and it was interesting but not amazing and I didn't think to keep up reading the author. However, I did have a second novel in my TBR list and despite not being as thrilled as that to read it I always kept in mind I would read it, more so to just get it out of the way. I wasn't expecting much and the beginning was a bit too boring, but then...

This is the story of Polly Cameron. She's 35 and single, she works in a café, she has her work as a potter when she has the time and she wants to help her neighborhood to preserve older building with lots of history. She is also trying to dodge other people's ideas about her needing a husband, which she doesn't because she is a believer of women's independence an celibacy.

I have to say I was quite surprised by how I liked this novel. It wasn't as boring as the other one I've read by the author and somehow the story seemed much more interesting and easy to follow. At least I wanted to know what would happen next...and it did have subjects I enjoyed seeing.

First of all, I liked Polly's personality. I thought she might be a silly woman that I saw often in some more oriented chick lit previous reads or the colder attitude of some British female characters as well. Thankfully, I was wrong and Polly has a refreshing personality for a woman of 35 and living a not very demanding life. Polly has a job as a waitress, mainly. She is good at it but it certainly isn't glamorous like the occupations some of the women she knows have. She has what many call a hobby but for her it's a true identity, she is a potter and her biggest dream is to do it full time. She is someone not eager to marry or to have social status. I liked this a lot because she wasn't an empty brain or sex crazed, something I find boring and tiresome in women's fiction or chick lit or contemporaries nowadays. I was very glad to see Polly as someone I could be like.

The action starts when Polly is at a fancy dinner and a old friend who she recently has met again after many years tries to impose her at David, a widower who seems more captivated by the most beautiful - married - woman in the room. Polly dislikes him and realize he feeling is mutual but she goes through it out of respect. Then later she just leaves the house because she can't stand the environment anymore as she feels she doesn't have much in common with others. From then on, we see Polly meeting most of the characters from the dinner in other occasions and in th end of the book Polly has gained a lot and still maintaining her values, ideas and identity. I liked her interactions with everyone, from her mother to Melissa, her vain friend.
The plot was simple but it was presented in a way I enjoyed. It helped that Polly never changed her personality even when her feelings were changing. I liked her and the romance a lot. Things too their time and it all felt more believable.

The writing is still very culturally obvious, as the writer is clearly British and it shows. Many details are hard to miss for the cultural differences opposed the usual American style are in evidence. Nevertheless, I had no problem following and it was better inserted in the tet than it was in the other book I've read, at least I had that notion.

So far, I've read two books by the author and this one was a positive surprise. I have doubts about trying more and ruining my experience with this one but...risks are meant to be taken and in the future who knows if I'll be in the mood to buy another and try...

Katie Fforde - Wedding Season

Sarah Stratford is a wedding planner hiding a rather inconvenient truth -- she doesn’t believe in love. But as the confetti flutters away on the June breeze of yet another successful wedding season she finds herself agreeing to organize two more events, on the same day, and only two months away. And while her celebrity bride is all sweetness and light, the other bride, Sarah’s own sister, quickly starts driving her crazy with her high expectations and very limited budget. Luckily, Sarah is aided in her seemingly impossible task by two best friends, Elsa, an accomplished dress designer, and Bron, a multitalented hairdresser. All three are very good at their jobs, but romance doesn’t feature very prominently in any of their lives. As the big day draws near, every moment is spent preparing for the weddings, and they certainly haven’t got any time to even think about love; or have they?

Comment: I have no idea how I came to get this book. I'm not sure why exactly I decided to get it, there must have been something about it somewhere that made me do it. It's one of those books we're never sure how ended up in our TBR list.
Well, after a long time like it happens with most my books, I decided to read it.
The story follows Sarah, Bron and Elsa, three British friends who work in the wedding business, each one with a different task. Sarah and Elsa are single and Bron lives with her boyfriend but their relationship isn't wat it used to be. We start the book in a client's wedding and how each girl helped and because of it, all of them kind of meet someone that will have a key role in their personal life. After the wedding, Sarah, as wedding planner learns that her younger sister is pregnant and will marry in two months, she has to before showing. However, at the same time an american actress wants Sarah to organize her wedding because she wants something classy. This means Sarah has to prepare two weddings and still finds time to start falling in love with Hugo, a photographer.
First of all, I just have to mention how strange it felt to read this story. This is a british author writing about british people in a british setting with british words. After so much American English in books, to read one where there are no "americanisms", if I can call them that, is very weird. I know it helps us to get into the story and the whole environment but it still sounds strange. Then, the thing that kind of bothered me a bit, it's a cultural thing I'm sure, and it shows but it's very annoying. Every single time any character would meet with another person whether to talk or discuss something, whether in a friendly or professional way, there wasn't a single time, not once, they didn't drink wine or champagne or some kind of alcoholic drink! How annoying to have to read what they were drinking, how many glasses of it all the time! I guess it must e true because in all the movies in contemporary England I've watched they did this same thing but after the first two or three meetings it starts to get so annoying, can't they see each other without some wine to go with them?? Very annoying indeed.
Apart from this, the story felt a little bit too medium. The characters had reasons to act the way they did, I understand it, but it was all a bit too distanced, too automatic. I'd guess also a cultural thing, but it made the whole thing seem to controlled. I liked seeing the characters fall in love but I wasn't convinced of their love, not in the same way I am when reading a american novel in the same style. The writing wasn't that bad, but there's nothing in it that makes me eager to want to read more. If I were to grade it, I'd say a 3 out of 5 because it delivers but it's not wow, even putting aside the annoying things.
I have another book by the author, but I'm not reading so soon...Oh and another word for the cover. It's sweet as are all the author's covers...just proves that not everything that's sweet is perfect.