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~True
Love and Other Lies~
by Whitney Gaskell
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Heroine:
full-figured, voluptuous |
Claire Spencer isn't bitter about love, oh no. Seeing her
parents divorce didn't leave a bad taste about marriage in her mouth.
And having her lover flee her didn't affect her in the least.
Not at all.
So when an attractive fellow American catches her eye on a trans-Atlantic
flight, she's surprised and a bit suspicious that he'd hit on a bigger
girl like herself, but decides that engaging in a little harmless
flirtation to pass the time would be reasonable. But she didn't
count on falling hard for him during that overnight flight. And
Jack (think Owen Wilson meets Matthew McConaughey) was wonderful enough for her to reconsider the dating scene, right up
until he dropped the other shoe. He was in a relationship,
albeit one he was about to end.
And what's even more distressing, Claire knows the girlfriend in question very well
indeed. She swears to herself that she will not get involved in the upcoming
romantic mess, but she's so drawn to Jack that she just can't help it. And before long she's entangled in a web of lies,
deceit, and guilt.
What good is it to have a great new guy in
your life if you can't actually talk about him and feel guilty for
even knowing him?
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What worked for me: |
I totally get Claire's interest in reading high-end home decor
magazines and wanting not just the profiled homes but the lives of
their owners. I, too, wish I could be in a gourmet kitchen
serenely washing baby arugula leaves, but my lifestyle and personality
dictate that instead I lift my feet as kids and cats race under them
while I give the iceberg lettuce a quick pass under the faucet.
And if I don't score two points by swishing the core into the trash can, so be
it. It's probably not going anywhere, so I'll pick it up later.
The litany of movies in this story was a blast from the past for this
child of the 80s.
I enjoyed the cute little email exchanges between Claire and Jack, but
things got a bit confusing when other people were added to the
correspondence. Of course, I imagine it was a bit confusing for
Claire too.
Size-wise Claire sounded abundant, but only in the way she thought of
herself. At the end of the story we find out that she is tall, a
size 14, and built along the lines of a young Liz Taylor.
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What didn't work for me: |
It was fine for me, but some folks might not enjoy the first person
point of view.
The
story could have used a tad more polishing in spots. And Claire's low
self-esteem and unwillingness to sort out her own life really annoyed
me at times. (But mainly because it hit too close to home for comfort's
sake.)
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Overall: |
"True
Love and Other Lies" is a quick and funny read. Worth picking up
for that last visit to the beach this summer.
Warning: there are some coarse words and sexual
scenarios in this book.
If you liked
"True Love and Other Lies" you might also enjoy
"Love at Large", "The
Way It Is",
"Inappropriate Men", "The
High Price of a Good Man",
"Bridget Jones's Diary", "Good in Bed",
"Coffee and Kung Fu",
"Separation Anxiety",
"Jemima J.",
"Waking Beauty", and
"Fat Chance".
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