TBR Challenge: Kelly Harms - The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay

A young painter, Lily has reached a crossroads in her life. Her career hasn't taken off, her best friend may no longer be the trusted friend she thought, her boyfriend is a disappointment, and now she can't keep up with the rising cost of living in the city. With no one to turn to, Lily is forced to move from her beloved apartment, but while packing she comes across a piece of mail that had slipped to the back of her junk drawer: a letter detailing further action needed to finalize the annulment of a quickie Vegas wedding. Ten years ago!
Lily decides it's time to turn over a new leaf and the first item on her list of things to fix is getting the annulment... but you can't just send a reply ten years later, "Hey by the way we are still married." This is something that must be addressed in person. Lily takes to the road to track down her husband - the charming, fun, and sexy man she connected with all those years ago - Ben Hutchinson.
Ben Hutchinson left a wealthy dot-com lifestyle behind to return home to his family and the small town he loves, Minnow Bay. He's been living off the grid and the last thing he expects is a wife he didn't know he had to show up on his doorstep.
By chance, Lily arrives at the magical Minnow Bay Inn, and there she will discover not just a place to lay her head, but new friends, a thriving art community, and maybe even the love of her life.

Comment: The old cliché is true: time does fly. It's already November and it just does not seem possible that the end of the year is so close again. 

Anyway, for this month, the challenge theme is "change of plans" and I had a lot of choices but ended up intrigued by the possibilities of this one and since I had already read a book by the author which I liked, my pick was more or less easy.

Lily is a dedicated painter who works as a barista to pay the bills. Her life in Chicago has bee everything she always wanted, although her best friend seems to be getting further apart and now she can't even pay the rent on time. While trying to find a solution she comes across several papers, including a forgotten divorce agreement she failed to send back, meaning she is still married to a Ben Hutchinson she met in Las Vegas. In an attempt to solve something in her life, she discovers Ben's location and travels to Wisconsin to deal with this situation in person, but the longer she stays in Minnow Bay, the more her plans change...

Back in April, I had read another book by this author and liked it enough to want to try something else by the author one day, although I wasn't planning on it happening so soon, but this story seemed to be a good fit for the November's topic. Lily is at a crossroads in her life, and a change of plans is the motivation she needs to improve herself and her life. I think the story was engaging and I wanted to know what would happen next, especially how would Lily learn about what wasn't going so well around her.

Lily is a painter and she has a sort of boyfriend who owns a gallery so, to her, things are great. But money wise life is tricky and Lily sometimes seems to be a little too distracted and naive, including on how she can cannot see her friendships aren't as solid as she imagined. At first, Lily seemed to be a bit too much of a scatterbrain to me and I wasn't too invested in her, but as the layers are being peeled, we can see she is actually quite alone, others don't take her into much consideration and she was being taken advantage of by those around her.

Her decision to look for Ben and deal with the marriage papers is the big change she needs to change everything else, but part of me was like, can you really forget you are married... still, in novels and movies, noting is impossible so I just went with it, and started picturing the romance, the usual situations in these types of stories. Surely, Lily would realize Ben was actually perfect for her, life in Wisconsin could offer her things Chicago couldn't and the new friendships would prove to be stronger than what she was leaving behind.

In a way, I think this is the traditional expectation of any romance or woman's fiction plot out there, and this book was marketed as such, but I should have guessed the author would give it her twist, as seen in my experience with her other book. Therefore, all the things I imagined kind of happen, but not as sweetly or as romantically as I wanted. This is to say, the story progresses in a predictable way, including other little things I didn't mention, but it's not in a syrupy or cutesy way. There are things that suggest a more dramatic vibe and I think that while this is an intriguing choice, it wasn't always one I enjoyed... Lily does change her life for the better but not without some "price" to pay.

I would say my favorite part of the story was how Lily got to learn things about herself and realize her new life could include all the things she liked,  especially about who she is as an artist. This is extremely cliché  of course, but it felt like the best executed part of the story. As things reach the end, I was glad for her, but some details ruined things a little, and without much need. I can only suppose this is the author's trademark, a HEA can exist only if including some kind of "but".

The epilogue helped me, however, to think of this story in a brighter way, and that compensated for the less positive vibes I had here and there as the story developed. Lily is a likable heroine, but only from a certain point on, in my opinion. Still, I liked her journey and end.

Grade: 7/10

Kelly Harms - The Bright Side of Going Dark

As one of the most popular influencers on social media, Mia Bell has lived her life online for years. With her celebrity dog and gorgeous fiancé, she is planning the ultimate virtual wedding—expensive, elaborate, and entirely paid for by sponsors. But off-camera, her world is far from picture perfect. After being jilted by her fiancé and faking her nuptials to please her sponsors, Mia finally has had enough. She heaves her phone off a cliff, ready to live—and maybe find love—offline for a change.
Mia’s sudden absence doesn’t go unnoticed, especially by techie loner Paige Miller, who hacks Mia’s account and begins impersonating the internet celebrity. Paige has her reasons. Her half sister, Jessica, idolizes Mia and desperately needs something to believe in. If taking over Mia’s online persona is Paige’s only means of connecting to her sister, so be it.
Creating a like-worthy life is more fun than Paige expected. But when she grows too bold and is caught in the act, a fiasco ensues that could forever change Mia, Paige, and the people who love them. Because somewhere amid the chaos is an invaluable lesson—one that only real life can teach.

Comment: One more book I cannot remember why I added to the TBR. Now that I've read it, I can see it combines some subjects I like, such as characters who need to improve their life somehow, some hints of romance and some mental health content that needs to be addressed for characters to go on improving.

Mia bell is a young woman who reached stardom in the social platform Pictey with posts about herself and her three legged dog she rescued. But what started as a genuine desire to share things about life and yoga and mindfulness quickly turned into sponsored content that millions see. Mia is now locked in this situation and the wedding she planned to post about online is now off. Mia decides to ease up her followers' expectations by pretending she needs space while posting trivial content and then not posting at all.

While this is ongoing, Paige Miller, one of the people who checks the flagged content on Pictey is warned about her younger sister's attempted suicide, which had been hinted at on Mia's feed. Paige believes Mia should have done more, and while investigating she realizes Mia hasn't been posting for a while and quickly decides to impersonate her. At the same time, she also tries to bridge the gap with her sister with whom she hadn't been in close contact either...however, lies never last...

This sounds as if it's a confusing story but it's really not. Apart from obvious lack of ethics here and there, this is a very simple woman's fiction tale about learning to "do the right thing" and enjoy life for what it is. I liked both Paige and Mia in general and I certainly would not want to be in either's shoes but the positions in which they place themselves do offer food for thought.

The story is told by both Paige and Mia in alternated chapters. Each of their voice was very distinctive and they had different issues to deal with, with obviously different takes in life too. I think the author did a good enough job with the portrayal of contemporary issues, of situations the modern people certainly face at some point and while this can feel a little dated in a few decades, right now seems to be very on point. Since this was my first attempt at a story by this author, I was positively surprised, even bearing in mind the elements I wasn't as fond of.

Mia is the first protagonist we meet and she embodies all the cliches we tend to assume about the so-called "influencers". She became famous on a social platform very quickly, at first for genuine reasons and as the number of followers increased, she stopped having time to do and to post about the things that made her famous. Now her feed is all about the sponsored content she can advertise and everything is planned to the smallest detail. Reading about Mia reminded me of a certain celebrity I used to follow here, not on social media but I used to check out that person's blog. The posts were funny and about things I found interesting. Then, slowly, it was more about fashion and suggestions and sponsored brands.... I've stopped reading since it no longer appealed.

Mia here has a sort of similar path and when the story begins, she is at a point where it's all too much and she discovers she wants to go back to simpler things. While the story develops, she goes deeper and deeper into a place where it feels there's no way out but, of course, she eventually "learns" the lesson and with the help of her mother and a few other people she meets, her life does change. This only happens, however, after the big conflict regarding the hacking of her feed...

To explain how Paige comes to hack Mia's page is a bit trickier without spoilers but it has to do with her sister's Jessica attempt of suicide. Let it be said that Paige herself faced mental health issues before and this colors the way she now reacts to know her younger sister facing similar issues. I didn't like how Paige decides to deal with her frustrations and while the hacking of Mia's page is meant to be seen as mostly a comedy and a carefree ploy, it still causes considerable damage. I understand why this was the option but it still felt too wrong. At least there are consequences, although not as serious as it should... I guess wrapping up the novel was more necessary but the author could have done this better.

As with so many things in life, the right way to behave, to act, to do something is within some boundaries, is by having balance in everything. Being on social media isn't the problem, but perhaps how long we do that starts impacting our life... I think this novel and all the allusions to what it means to be online and to act in a way where we rarely need to face the consequences of what we do hiding behind a a screen is important to discuss, but the author also wanted to include other elements, so in this regard, the "lesson" to be learned might not have been as strong as it could.

I liked the author's style and I will try something else by her. In this novel, however, there were some elements which could have been dealt with better and others which were too secondary... perhaps less elements and more focus on one or two would have gotten a better balance. Despite some details I liked less, this was still a very entertaining story, though.

Grade: 7/10