Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

That’s how my fall break was, friends. On Thursday morning I left with my 15-year-old and my youngest to drive to Idaho; on Saturday morning I drove to Burly to meet my husband, my oldest, and my son so they could have some time in Idaho as well; on Monday we all drove home. There wasn’t much of a choice, though–my oldest had to work on Thursday night and my son and hubby got tickets for last Friday’s ‘Imagine Dragons’ concert months ago (it was a significant part of his birthday present). And leaving them home completely wasn’t going to go well–my dad’s been asking when we’re coming to visit ever since our summer visit ended. The lovely thing was that my mother made her amazing doughnuts on Saturday, which were thoroughly enjoyed by all, and we had a lovely time with family. What’s more, I was surprisingly, blessedly alert for all of Thursday’s drive and the vast majority of Monday’s–I was barely starting to get a bit tired when we hit the northern Utah rest stop and my oldest took the wheel. Tender mercies for sure.

In the meantime, I listened to Sarah Adams’ The Enemy on the alone portion of my drive and at various times thereafter, hoping to like it as much as I liked The Match.

I didn’t.

I really didn’t like the beginning, but I was prepared to overlook that, based on the reviewer that liked the book but deducted a star for the beginning; when it did get better, I had high hopes. What’s more, Adams knows better than to drag out a misunderstanding interminably, so kudos for Ryan laying things out on the table relatively early on. (She avoids the same quagmire later on as well, but that would be a definite spoiler.) Perhaps I’d better make a pros-and-cons list from here…

Pros:

The aforementioned avoidance of rom com’s most annoying trope

Likeable main characters

June’s family

Nick Lachey

June’s business evolution–and how Ryan’s career path is handled

Cons:

Cheesy writing

The ‘girl gets hammered and the guy stays sober and sweetly takes care of her’ scene–the second such scene in my experience with Adams’ books. (Which is concerning, since I’ve only read three.)

The annoying physical perfection of the guy, as described to the reader over and over. Also, June may have body image issues herself, but that only made the overall male perception of her annoying as well

Not enough time with side characters–more of June’s family would have been fabulous

Hmmm. I suppose, looking at that list, that I liked it a bit more than I thought, but I still definitely preferred its predecessor. Adams needs to work on making her female protagonists sound their age inside their own heads; arguably the weakest part of the whole book is the obsessive adolescent horniness of June’s inner monologue. Yes, she also appreciates Ryan’s tenderness, etc., but while having a less experienced guy and a (somewhat) sexually freer girl makes for an interesting subversion of one of romance’s most common tropes, Adams tries a little too hard to get her point across.

On a different note, wish me luck. I’m chaperoning a field trip today, and I’m thinking I could have used a few more days to recover from our trip first…