Worth the price

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Aly-oops! @ 2011-02-11

Not Low Maintenance

$0.99
This is an interesting, albeit far-fetched, tale of, well, sisters & love...& exes...& food...& other stuff too.

Viva's a food stylist (which means she arranges food to be photographed...never read that one before) who drops everything (& apparently quits her job, tho it's never addressed) to fly back home to the East Coast with the thought of rescuing her sister (Bel) from a poorly executed business venture in nuts. Not just any nuts, tho! No, these nuts are "crystalized...in demerara sugar and liqueur."

Just an FYI, there's a lot of food descriptions throughout, so if you're on a diet, this might not be the book for you. But I digress.

Bel is a talented chef, so the sisters decide to pool their resources to make some much-needed money by catering for the well-to-do inhabitants of Connecticut. Through their endeavors, Viva manages to anger her ex-fiance (David), meet a potential new beau (Joel), get sued (by David through Joel), become an impromptu relationship expert (with some surprisingly decent advice...think He's Just Not That Into You), & become embroiled in a murder mystery (but that doesn't come up until much later).

There really is a lot going on in the book, but it's surprisingly simple to keep it all straight. Viva is very likeable, as is Bel, & I found myself wishing I was their long-lost sister. Joel's a sweet guy, & the exchanges between him & Viva added some humor & spice. David is a complete jerk, & there's really no love lost b/t him & the reader. Morgenroth's sense of humor is steady, & I was chuckling through most of the book, though not regularly laughing out loud.

Dialogue was strong & occasionally eye-catching. That a lawyer would pursue the woman his client is suing seems unlikely, but Morgenroth makes it work (even if your eyebrow rises occasionally). I was kind of annoyed at having to read Espanola spelled Espagnola (b/c that's not how the town spells it...it's supposed to have one of those little wavy lines above the n), but that's just being nit picky.

The bottom line is that this is a cute, pleasant story that is certainly worth 99 cents. Unfortunately, I found the tale somewhat forgettable, despite it holding my attention for several hours. There's nothing earth shattering here. This is just a pleasant way to spend a few hours. So I'll give it 4 stars b/c the writing was decent & the story, entertaining. I'm kind of left feeling ambivalent about it, tho.