Helpful Score: 3
This is a contemporary novel set in a beach community on the eastern coast of the USA. The main character is a 41 year-old single woman who is wondering why she is still unmarried despite having had a prolific number of boyfriends. She is experimenting at being a jewelry artist while living freely in an above the garage apartment her parents own.
The supporting cast: her parents, her sister, her sister's family, a boyfriend (Noah), and her pets, have lots of personality. The problem is the main character Ginger is dull. Everyone else is rippling with interesting things about them. The dad loves to pick up junk at the dump and bring it home, the mom comes across as an ex-hippy type who is still free-love with her husband, the sister is uptight about turning 50 in the extreme, even Noah the boyfriend who is supposed to be pretty much a non-entity according to Ginger, is interesting and comes across as much deeper than the other characters give him credit for.
Ginger on the other hand is like dust in the wind: whichever way others blow her she goes. The only decisions she makes are ones that don't really propel her life in any significant manner. Maybe she is supposed to be this way, but I like a main character with more moxie. Even just a little more moxie would have helped the story.
Furthermore, I didn't think there was ever a real ah-ha moment, which I relish in a good book, and the metaphors (gifts of frogs and the idea that she lived in a FROG [finished room over garage] meant to indicate that she jumps freely from relationship to relationship when things get rough) is also lamely done.
The humor is sometimes humorous.
Overall, the story was entertaining but not riveting. I was not uncomfortable putting it down and doing other things and leaving it lay for a few days at a time, which I did too often. A really good book would not create that nonchalant response.
The supporting cast: her parents, her sister, her sister's family, a boyfriend (Noah), and her pets, have lots of personality. The problem is the main character Ginger is dull. Everyone else is rippling with interesting things about them. The dad loves to pick up junk at the dump and bring it home, the mom comes across as an ex-hippy type who is still free-love with her husband, the sister is uptight about turning 50 in the extreme, even Noah the boyfriend who is supposed to be pretty much a non-entity according to Ginger, is interesting and comes across as much deeper than the other characters give him credit for.
Ginger on the other hand is like dust in the wind: whichever way others blow her she goes. The only decisions she makes are ones that don't really propel her life in any significant manner. Maybe she is supposed to be this way, but I like a main character with more moxie. Even just a little more moxie would have helped the story.
Furthermore, I didn't think there was ever a real ah-ha moment, which I relish in a good book, and the metaphors (gifts of frogs and the idea that she lived in a FROG [finished room over garage] meant to indicate that she jumps freely from relationship to relationship when things get rough) is also lamely done.
The humor is sometimes humorous.
Overall, the story was entertaining but not riveting. I was not uncomfortable putting it down and doing other things and leaving it lay for a few days at a time, which I did too often. A really good book would not create that nonchalant response.
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