Review: 20 Times a Lady by Karyn Bosnak.

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

Main Character: Delilah Darling
Grade: 4 out of 5

How many men does it take to find true love?

Delilah Darling’s magic number was supposed to be twenty. She always thought she’d find the perfect guy by the time she’d slept with twenty of them. But when she wakes up naked in her disgusting boss’s bed after a drunken night out, she’s filled with regret — and realizes she’s hit her self-imposed limit. Unwilling to up her number but unable to imagine a life of celibacy, Delilah does what any girl in her situation would do: she tracks down every man she’s ever slept with in a last-ditch effort to make it work with one of them.

A hilarious romp through Delilah’s past loves, 20 Times a Lady proves that in the end, numbers don’t matter. True love will come when you’re open and ready to accept it.

I picked this book up because my friend Ames totally loved this book. She led me over to Karyn Bosnak’s blog, Pretty in the City and I read some posts and thought, holy wow this woman is hilarious, so I was pretty stoked to get this book and read it.

It started out really good, I was hecka loving Delilah and I was loving her personality, her apartment and her sexy neighbor, Colin but then she went on this outrageous road trip to find her ex boyfriends in hopes of finding happiness with them so that she doesn’t up her number to 21.

How crazy is that? She hires her next door neighbor, Colin to track down all of her exes and she goes on a road trip to see if she can reconnect with any of them. I’ll be honest and let you know that it made for some hilarious scenes but as she went from city to city stalking and then trying to get to know each of her ex boyfriends, I got hecka embarrassed for her and then I groaned over some of the things that she did because some of the things she did made me wince in embarrassment for her. I was embarrassed for a fictional character and though I ended up liking the book, I got good and pissed with Del more than once in this book.

So she’s on this road trip to find her exes so that she can keep her number at 20 (and by her number, I mean her sexual partners) and she’s running around trying to make things work, build happy endings with men that she broke up with. Men that did things, were things she didn’t want to be with anymore and still, she went to see all of them and out of all the men that she ever went out with, the one that I thought oh okay, maybe this guy I could see her having a happy ending with (well with the exception of the man that she actually ends up with) was the guy who’s in rehab and a total nut case.

And the things she did in order to see these guys was just laughable. She got a dog to see the first one (and Ames, I totally thought about you with Rod and his dog named Max), she checks herself into rehab for another one and then she gets stuck in rehab for a few days and when she finally comes out, everyone is beyond themselves with worry over her and after that, I found her to be totally irresponsible and though she was sorry for it, I thought that okay, she finally realizes that what she’s doing is not the best way to handle things but does she stop? NO! I was so mad when she didn’t let up on this whole ridiculous chase after the whole Matt King thing that I wanted to stop reading and then things got better because she went back home, still single and still going to end up with a #21 but does it end there and does she stop from pissing me off?

NO!

Eventually she gets it right but the getting there was pretty ridonkculous and I wanted to slap her in the head so many different times but I’m glad that I finished this book. I’m glad that I got to know Del and I’m glad that she ended up with the guy she ended up with. This book was a rollercoaster of just everything and I’m totally glad that I read it. I rejoiced with Delilah and I got so pissed off at her but I ended up really caring about her the same way that Michelle cared for her and the same way that Colin, her Mom, Daisy and everyone cared for her.

This was a good book and I totally recommend it to anyone who is looking for a spunky heroine with a self journey that is going to drive you totally bonkers but make you laugh anyway.

This book is available from Harper Paperbacks. You can buy it here.

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Tagged: 4.0 Reviews, Chick Lit, Karyn Bosnak, Reviews, Rowena's Reviews, Single Girl Lit

Review: Always the Bridesmaid by Whitney Lyles.

Posted December 8, 2008 by Rowena in Reviews | 4 Comments

Main Character: Cate Padgett
Grade: 4 out of 5

What do you do after you walk down the aisle at four weddings over the course of just a few months–none of them your own? What’s left after you’ve donned the must-have-not dresses of the season, forked over your cash, and faked smiled your way through countless photos? After you’ve dealt with the smashed guest, the mushed cake, the dashed hopes, and the missed bouquets? That’s what Cate Padgett is starting to wonder, as she embarks on stint after stint on the sidelines, watching friends swap bar-hopping for baby-naming …while her own love life goes nowhere fast. But is Cate unwilling to settle down–or just unwilling to settle? And can anyone really judge her if they haven’t walked in her dyed-to-match shoes?

Wild, witty, and full of weddings to cry over, Always the Bridesmaid is an endearingly romantic comedy about standing out in the corwd even when everyone’s wearing the same celery-green dress ….and daring the make every day The Happiest Day of Your Life.

I didn’t intend to buy this book, I was just browsing the bookstore shelves and came across this one and started reading it right there in the aisle and before I know it, I’m almost done with the book and the store is closing and even though I didn’t want to buy the book because I’m poor and this book cost $14 (I know, I’m cheap too!) but I ended up buying this book because I wanted to finish it and I did and I enjoyed the book.

This story is about Cate Padgett and how she’s always a bridesmaid, never ever a bride. She’s dating this good looking guy who never remembers to return her calls and she’s getting fed up with it all. She does a lot of things for him and even though Paul (the boyfriend) could be sweet at times and he was good looking, I never did warm up to him. He got on my nerves with all of his not calling and then the hike in Hawaii sealed his fate on my I DON’T LIKE YOU list.

Over the course of this book, we see Cate as she goes from one wedding to the the next while still in this dead end relationship and you see her just living her life and learning from everything. You see her hanging out with her friends, wondering why her boyfriend doesn’t call as often as a boyfriend should and though this book is about Always being a bridesmaid, I thought it would be more like 27 Dresses but it wasn’t.

It was more about Cate then about being a bridesmaid. It was an easy read, one that wasn’t hard to fall into and though I enjoyed the book, I didn’t exactly love it. It was just good, the ending was really abrupt which would have pissed me off even more if there wasn’t another book out for this book, so this is the first book in this series (I don’t even know what this series is called but I’ve seen three books after this book so far) and I’m curious enough to finish the series out so I’ll be looking forward to reading more books by this author. I ended the book and thought, “What the hell? That’s it?” and then Chloe reminded me, “Well there are other books in that series, right?” So I stopped being irritated.

I enjoyed Cate as a main character and I enjoyed Ethan and all of Cate’s friends. This was a delightful read and I enjoyed the cast of characters in this story, I’m curious enough to read the other books so that should tell you something.

Should you read it? If you’re into chick lit, then yeah I say give it a go just don’t expect fireworks. This was a fun and quick read and enjoyable and that’s about it.

This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here.