Author: Jo Barrett

Review: This Is How It Happened by Jo Barrett.

Posted January 19, 2008 by Rowena in Reviews | 5 Comments

Review: This Is How It Happened by Jo Barrett.Reviewer: Rowena
This Is How It Happened (not a love story) by Jo Barrett
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: October 13th 2009
Pages: 320
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four-half-stars

He lied, he cheated. He destroyed her life.

How difficult could killing him be?

Madeline Piatro devoted four years of her life to her boyfriend Carlton—and, in return, got romance, flowers, and the best sex she'd ever had. But then he dumped her—by e-mail, no less! He used her, he broke her heart...and he even cost her the marketing job she dearly loved. Now Maddy's on a mission. She wants revenge and she wants her career back.

But Maddy's about to discover that getting even, no matter how justifiable, isn't as easy as it might at first appear—even with a batch of arsenic brownies, the help of a professional (if bumbling) hit man, and the advice and best wishes of her very best friends.

This is my first ever book by Jo Barrett and I’ll tell you one thing, it will not be the last. I’m on a mission to go and find the other book by Jo Barrett and I will be reading that very soon. Right now, I’m in a chick lit mood and when I get in these moods, they can get pretty crazy. I love me some chick lit books, sometimes, a looser storyline, less sex scenes is just what I need to boost up my reading slump and I dived right into one while I was reading my last book.

This book plunged right me right back out of that slump and I’m already half way done with my next book.

This book was just great.

It had everything in it, it had humor, a great storyline and a great leading heroine. This book is about revenge and getting back at the person who broke your heart. It’s about getting back your self esteem and getting back the dignity the ex took when they dumped you and Jo Barrett does a great job of showing you things from Maddy’s perspective.

I mean, right from the very beginning you see that Maddy’s in dire need of a reality check. The book starts with her making poisoned brownies for her ex boyfriend and you think, what the heck? All over an ex boyfriend but then you read the story and you’re like, BRING ON THE BROWNIES, BRING ON THE BROWNIES! You sympathize with Maddy, you want Maddy to get better and you want her to move on and then you get mad when she’s hell bent on destroying her ex, you get angry at her for wasting so much time on trying to exact revenge on Carlton, the sleazy ex. You get angry that she’s letting Carlton get to her on a level that is just not healthy.

But then you see Maddy start to heal and you see that she’s starting to move on with her life and then you start wanting her to exact her revenge, not in the form of kiling Carlton or getting him beat up but you want her to get back at him and you’re totally rooting her on. You want her to ruin him (because hello, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned) and the anticipation mounts until you’re at the very end and you’re just dying to read what happens.

I read this book in one day and it was such a fast read for me, one that had me all engrossed from the very first page to the very end. There were times when I wanted to choke Maddy the hell out for obsessing over Carlton, because as the reader, you felt like you were one of Maddy’s friend and you just wished she would get over Carlton and move the hell on with her life. You saw how slimey Carlton was and you wanted to make Maddy see what was really in front of her because you cared for her. You wanted the best for her and at the end of the book, the romance in all of us will be delighted and the bloodthirsty wenches in all of us will be totally satisfied.

This book has it all, romance, intrigued, a witty storyline and a great cast of characters, you can’t ask for anything more from a book and I think Jo Barrett hit this one out of the ballpark and I look forward to reading more from her.

Great read!

four-half-stars


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