Is Chic Lit That Hard to Write?

Take a look at the last three entries - non-fiction, classic, non-fiction.  Not surprising that I felt myself ready for something slightly lighter... the particular something available was yet another Jill Mansell, so that's what I picked up next on that Shabbos afternoon two weeks ago, after finishing not one, but two books previously.  I don't know whether the high caliber literature I had become used to ;) made me more sensitive than usual to the book's defects but...

Well we all know what those defects are.  Jill Mansell doesn't exactly write for the ages.  Her characters are often overblown, some of them are always completely uninteresting to me, her writing can just make you wince... but for all that, there are times when she's good, solid, chic lit.  This was not one of those times.  You know how I'm complained how the last one I read failed the chic lit litmus by not centering on the romantic tension of the two characters? How we knew right away they liked each other, it was just annoying dithering that kept them apart? Guess what? She did it again! I mean seriously, the same plot.  Girl likes guy, but he's a bit of a player so she's afraid to get involved, despite the fact that it's obvious he like her too! I mean really, two in a row? To be fair, it wasn't actually two in a row.  I skipped over one because this one was new and couldn't be renewed, and the other one could be.  But I literally had ZERO patience for this book.  I think the most exciting part was when there was a fire, which would normally just provoke an eyeroll at the overdramatic plot lines and then a light skimming (not that it didn't do that anyway, just that I felt actually a little more intrigued by that twist than most of the book).  It didn't really ever get better,  I basically just plowed my way through to the inevitable, ridiculous sappy ending.

Verdict: 2/5