Good Girls Do
Grade : F

Is there a book titled Romantic Comedy Clichés 101? Because if there isn't, Good Girls Do provides a perfect outline. To establish my humor creds, I'll simply say when it comes to humor I like it all. I love verbal humor, I love subtle comedy, and I love slapstick too. I'm quick to laugh and easy to please, but this book fell flatter thana badly timed joke. I began reading it with anticipation and finished reading it in a bad mood. I didn't laugh once - I didn't even smile.

Julia Wright is the reference librarian in Serenity Falls, Pennsylvania, a beautiful small town whose up-tight mayor is obsessed with getting it into the top ten best small towns in America. Julia is a pretty young woman (a non-frumpy librarian is the only saving grace about this book) whom we first meet at the annual town fair. She is dressed up like Bo Peep and manning the Stump The Librarian booth.

Right out of the blue comes a tall, dark and handsome, black leather wearing, Harley riding stranger who flirts with her. He's Luke Maguire, former town bad boy who has come back to take over the family tavern because of an only-in-a-romance-novel clause in his father's will. Yes it's a bit silly but this is a comedy, so I was settling in for a good time. But when Julia's mother, sister and niece come into the scene, I began to grind my teeth.

Julia's mother Angel is a hippie-dippy flake who talks to crystals and goes wherever her karma takes her. Angel's karma tells her that Serenity Falls is a great place for her latest venture - llama breeding. Julia's sister Skye makes her own laws and breaks all the others, and Skye's four year old Toni bites things and talks about her vagina. I hated them all on sight, but I told myself to quit being grumpy and give them a chance.

So, I read on. Luke doesn't seem to know too much about running a business, but the cook at the tavern does. But Luke doesn't listen and does some really stupid things like give away almost all the tavern's furnishings to an order of nuns called the Sisters of the Poor Charities. I am a Catholic...that is such a stupid name! There is an order of nuns called The Sisters of Charity and one called The Little Sisters of the Poor - a tiny bit of research would have turned this up.

Luke and Julia finally get together, although she has to choose between him and a handsome mega-millionaire. Angel even finds love with one of the town characters, and according to the back cover blurb, Skye will get her own book. I will avoid it. I can't remember when I have read such a silly, stupid book as Good Girls Do.

Even zany slapstick has to make some sense, but this book never did. Silly as it is, the universe that Stephanie Plum inhabits is grounded, however tenuously, in reality but this book is just out there. It's as if the author googled "zany characters" and then jammed all of them into the story whether they fit or not. The trouble was most of the characters (especially Skye, Angel and Toni) were simply obnoxious. I've begun books despising characters and ended up liking them - or at least understanding them. I disliked these characters on sight, and never ever warmed up to them.

The book's style didn't help at all. The author has a habit of writing pages of dialogue without tags. There were a few times when I had no idea who was talking, although given the sheer silliness of this book, I wasn't all that interested. I've worked in a library for 25 years and am very proud to be in the profession. I am not happy to give such a low grade to a book featuring a librarian heroine. But even the realistic portrait of a non-frumpy librarian is not enough to save it. I'm sorry we can't give F minus grades any more at AAR since I figure any book that's supposed to be a comedy but leaves me in an angry mood deserves it.

Reviewed by Ellen Micheletti
Grade : F

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : January 12, 2006

Publication Date: 2006

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Ellen Micheletti

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