Sammy's Hill

Samantha Joyce #1

by Kristin Gore

Working as a health-care analyst for Ohio Senator Robert Gary, idealistic young intern and hypochondriac Samantha Joyce struggles to balance her seventy-hour work week, a constantly shifting set of neuroses, and a new romance as she makes her way through the labyrinthine complexities of life in the nation's capital. A first novel. 75,000 first printing.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Romance, Humor, Politics, Book Club, Beach Reads

387 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who knows me, knows that i loathe the "chic-lit" genre. (Although I have been caught reading a chic lit book or two in my day.) I find that the books are often cliche at best. Sammy's HIll is a completely different kind of book. Yes, it fits the characteristics of chic-lit. It's heroine, Sammy, is a quirky single girl in her mid twenties who struggles with her interactions with the opposite sex. But the book is so much more.
First of all, the author, Kristen Gore (daughter of Al Gore), is uncommonly witty. To add to her wit, she sets her story not in midtown New York City, but in the political jungle of Washington DC (no doubt due to Gore's own experiences). Sammy is loveable, sympathetic, neurotic, and completely hopeless in almost every arena... except her job. She s a health care policy advisor to Senator Robert Gary.
The book is The West Wing meets The Devil Wears Pradaand a happier combination I have yet to find.

[Amy Newman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had it not been for the fact that this book was a quick read, I would not have finished reading it. The main character, Sammy, was an obsessive worrier who would map out elaborate plans to avoid, for instance, alligator attacks, and who programmed random "birthdates" into her blackberry, i.e., the 25th anniversary of the day KFC was invented. These were humorous at first, but became so abundant throughout the book so that they eventually became annoying.

The character is also quite young, in her mid to late 20s, and it's not really clear why a senator would have chosen her as his healthcare policy expert. Had she been part of a team, that would have been one thing. But she got this job as an EXPERT right out of college. The more I thought about it the more it made no sense, especially since she did the typical stupid chick-list things, i.e., the man she got to testify at the Senate hearing on prescription drug costs showed up stoned.

So it's best not to think about the book must, if you decide you need to read it. It was fun to read the references to various spots throughout Washington, D.C., having lived there four years during college. But other than that, is was a pretty painful read.

[Chea · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would love for someone to explain to me why every moderately successful, intelligent, ambitious young woman in a novel these days needs to be turned into an even more idiotic version of Bridget Jones. It's like if she's too smart and interesting, no one will understand that she's also pretty. I mean really, this book is just soooooo fun because she's completely inept at managing everyday life despite the fact that she's a major part of a vice-presidential campaign! Isn't that hilarious? No. It's annoying.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gore takes the cutesy, neurotic female professional (read: Ally McBeal type)overboard! Just in the first chapter, which I couldn't even get past, Sammy has envisioned herself without a right arm and wears a sling to see if she'd be able to cope; realizes too late that she wore mismatched shoes to work--one high heel and one sneaker; and offers to hold on to the weed from the old man who's supposed to be testifying at a committee hearing. Too much! Each dialogue exchange that Sammy has with another character is interupted by her inane thoughts that show how she's soooo gosh darn wacky, even if her outside persona is professional competence. I had to throw the book against the wall with great force--an action reserved for the truly horrifying books. I wasn't expecting literary genius--just nice, fluffy chick-lit in a new setting, so I had already set the bar pretty low, but this amazing fell under my low standards.

[Nadeen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I use the term "finished" in a different context with this particular book. On page 200 I decided I was finished with this heroine. It was hard to read a book where the main character was so ... boring and annoying. Don't get me wrong; I have read quite a few books where the main character was despicable, loathsome or worthless but yet the story was interesting and the main character provoking in one fashion or another. At times the books might have redeeming social value or a larger purpose. Not this time. This time the main character did not even have that much going for her and at page 200 I thought about the stack of books awaiting me and the prospect of slogging through this one became too onerous to continue. So I found myself finished with the book as it sailed in the trash.

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

While it was interesting to gain insight into the working world of politics, I could not take the heroine. Sammy is so, so quirky and painfully incompetent, except at policy issues. From the hypochondria to the fish to the fashion accidents to the email miscues, it was all just too much. It was hard to see why she would be given such a major position with a senator or in a presidential campaign, and why so many men were interested in her. I ended up not caring about her or her story. Disappointing.

[Kristal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hysterically funny and very clever! I loved the insider's view of working on the Hill and the kind of work that goes into a political campaign. I can't wait to read the next one!

[Roshan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one's tough to pigeon-hole. The first 2/3 is standard fare chick-lit, the last 1/3 is a breathless account of a Presidential campaign. Almost like 2 different books, except for the whacky protagonist. I'd agree with most reviewers that Gore is too wonkish and too witty to be easily dismissed as chick-lit. For instance, her account of Republican hysteria to health care reform is like reading the papers today. So she's prescient too: her America in the run up to the campaign is eerily similar to 2008 America after 8 years of Bush. Which is deliciously ironic since she is, after all, Al Gore's daughter.

[Daphne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was given to me and as I started reading, I connected with the main character. But after about 100 pages I felt a bit stifled: dealing with my own anxiety is plenty of work, I don't really need Sammy's high strung life on top of it! So I've taken it slow and I am verrrrry ready to move on to the next book. As usual I feel this book could have done with more careful editing and could have been at least 30% shorter.

[Grace Waldren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got so much second hand embarrassment from my girl Sammy. But loved the detailed writing of her thought process and stream of consciousness. I often felt like the book was telling me what was happening as opposed to showing me, but nevertheless, I will be reading the sequel.

[✨Bean's Books✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll give this 2 stars because it does have it's humorous parts. However, for a leisurely book of enjoyment, it was entirely too political for me. In reading between the lines of obvious real-life character fill-ins, the author makes her political stance extremely apparent.
I personally could not relate at all to the protagonist (Sammy). Although her nearly unrealistic clumsiness is amusing at some points, her neuroticism draws the lines for me. I just cannot relate with someone who hates themselves so much they have to pick apart a 2-lined text/email from their boyfriend and systematically listing the assumed pros and cons of said message. I'm sorry, but that's just ridiculous. If women really think this way, then this world is in bigger trouble than we thought. Not everything said (especially by a man) needs to be put under a microscope and analyzed. Geez.

[Best · Rating 3 out of 5]

THIS REVIEW ON B'S BOOK BLOG!

Oh myy! I just completed my 2011 reading goal with this book! *throws confetti*

I've had this book for almost a year now and never really wanted to read it, until one day, my main bookshelf became sadly clustered and full, so this had to be taken out. Feeling slightly guilty for it to be homeless, I decided to finally go through with it.

I have mixed feelings about this book, there are some things that I really like about it and some that turn me off. Well, first of all, Sammy is kind of funny, as expected to be in chicklit. She's a health care adviser (if my memory's correct) to Senator Robert Gary (called RG in the book). She's obsessive and ambitious and sometimes reminds me of myself (crying over the death of fish, obsessive thinking, etc.). I find her character to be believable, though I'm not sure if I like her all that much. Secondly, I think this book is too full of political stuff to really be fully identified as chicklit. I found that there are more of professional than personal stuff in it. And yes, it sometimes bored me. Kristin Gore, the author, really knows so much about politics, I assume, but then again I could be wrong, because I'm not really a native and don't know much about America's political system. I like to think I've learned some knowledge on politics just by reading it. Thirdly, the getting together with Charlie Lawton doesn't look very believable to me. It's too easy, after all that's been happening between them and Sammy's many guys. But I can't deny that I like them being together.

There are a couple of things that I specially I like about this book. I like how RG and Sammy seem the care so much about the public good, whereas other politicians view politics as a means to do something for their own goods, rather than for the people. Politicians like that are everywhere, and that's why it's nice to read about the good ones, even though they're fictional. It kind of restores faith in me that maybe there really are the good ones out there waiting to show themselves and make some great impacts. And also, the last page of the book, how it ends, is hilarious. Hahahahhahaha. RG FTW!

[cross-posted at my blog here]

[Bill Gienapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

The debut novel of Kristin Gore (daughter of Al and, perhaps more significantly, former Harvard Lampoon staffer and ex-Futurama writer), Sammy's Hill could best be described as Primary Colors meets Sex and the City, with a little Bridget Jones sprinkled in for good measure. The story tells of the trials and tribulations of Samantha "Sammy" Joyce, an idealistic and endearingly quirky health care advisor who works for charismatic Ohio senator Robert Gary. Sammy mostly juggles her personal life while sweating over important legislation, aiding Gary in his bid for the Vice Presidential ticket and desperately trying to keep her Japanese fighting fish alive and swimming.

While I shudder to use the term "chick lit," it's difficult to avoid slapping the label on this amiable piece of literary fluff. Gore's keen sense of humor mixes well with her insider's perspective of Capitol Hill and Sammy's inherent likeability carries the novel through the occasional moment of strained farce. The weakest element is the tired romantic triangle at the book's center - Sammy falls for silver-tongued speechwriter Aaron Driver, even though we recognize a good 300 pages in advance that Washington Post columnist Charlie Lawton is the guy for her. When Aaron's transgressions ultimately come to light, they're so easily telegraphed, one can't help but wonder why Gore didn't put forth a bit more imagination.

Still, a consistently entertaining and even laugh-out-loud funny effort throughout. I won't hesitate to check out Gore's just-released sequel "Sammy's House," once it hits shelves in paperback.

Final rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Echoing the sentiments of prior reviewers, I have to say that this book fell flat in multiple ways, beginning with its biggest problem: the title character. I'm not sure if Gore meant for her to be in any way relatable, but she has multiple overdeveloped "quirks" which border on crazy and are certainly not realistic or endearing. She has an unrealistic job (and apartment) for her age, education, and sanity. She gets into a terrible relationship with an unlikable man who is so obviously using her that she'd have to literally have a social disability not to see it, and continues to obsess over him in exactly the way sexists imagine that women spend half of their time doing. The setting (Capitol Hill) is, with the exception of the below, done better than expected, but her character is so awful that I can't appreciate it.

Essentially, I hated Sammy and was utterly glad she did not exist. I set the bar fairly low with chick-lit, expecting only down-to-earth, slightly funny women figuring their shit out like real people and having some good makeout sessions with lit-crush-worthy men along the way. This book failed me.

[Shira · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is basically Bridget Jones Diary for policy wonks! The main character is Sammy, an idealistic 20-something who works on health policy for a senator. The book revolves around Sammy's love life and attempting to pass a health care law. Sammy is rather quirky (like the fact that she loves to talk to telemarketers), which is mainly fun though her quirks can be a bit over the top at times.

This book was written by Al Gore's daughter, so there are also a few not so subtle jabs at Bush in it. Of course, I found these most entertaining. The president in the book is fictionalized, but he is a thinly veiled Bush -- someone who can't string together a sentence and who is completely incompetent. The fake president's administration basically ends in disgrace with the entire country, even his own party, fed up with him. Since this was written in 2004, I guess that was just wishful thinking, but it turned out to be true!

In any case, I recommend this book if you are into politics. Otherwise, it probably won't appeal to you.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the first chapter, Sammy gets dressed while pretending to have a broken arm. A lot of people do that, right? Then she discovers on her way to her big Senate hearing that she accidentally put a sneaker on one foot and a dress shoe on the other. I hate it when that happens! We also learn that she loves talking to telemarketers; in fact, she calls them regularly to discuss her personal life. So do I! Or maybe not. This book would have been a lot better if Sammy resembled a real human being instead of a random collection of supposedly humorous quirks. The book does offer a pretty good sense of what it's like to be an idealistic 20-something staffer on Capitol Hill, and there are a few mildly amusing moments. Unfortunately, it then devolves into a chick lit fantasy in which she (surprise!) ends up with the smart, decent guy who seems annoying at first but is actually a lot better looking once you get to know him blah blah blah...

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel dragged a bit from time to time. It is an adequately written coming of age story of a young woman, an only child, who seeks to find her own place in the world, apart from her parents, especially her baby-boomer mother. Sammy's passions as a woman contradict their parental virginal desire for her. Getting laid seems a much more contradictory thing for a young woman, who carries her parents implicit dreams and prejudices, than it is for a young man, for who getting laid is expected, even encouraged. The novel is set in DC, Sammy being an idealistic young staffer for a rising-star senator. The twists and turns of her "relationship" journey is complicated by the image imposed on young female staffers like her. It did keep me reading, and made me laugh in a good way from time to time. Its not Dostoevsky, but it is a fair-to middling good story, and Kristin Gore is a fair-to-middling raconteur.

[Trin · Rating 3 out of 5]

For once the blurbs on the back of the book are pretty much right: this is basically Bridget Jones meets Meet the Press. And it’s not a bad combination. At times Gore does rely too heavily on chicklit clichés, getting her heroine into wacky scrapes involving things like rollerblades and accidentally clicking “send-all.” It’s also insanely obvious who her true love is going to be from the moment he appears. But I very much enjoyed the political fluff aspects of the book, with Sammy, the health care policy advisor to Ohio Senator Robert Gary, standing in for all the hard-working, idealistic government workers we would all so badly like to believe exist. And in her own right, Sammy’s a great character—a smart, neurotic, nerdy, still-getting-laid-a-lot woman the likes of which one rarely sees in fiction. She gets my vote.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

From a blog post I wrote in 2005:

This book by Kristin Gore (yeah, I think she's one of those Gores) is a step above Chick Lit but not a very big step. It's the tale of a young Senate staffer in D.C. and follows her personal and professional life. She falls for a bad boy to whom she feels physically addicted (who hasn't been there?) and helps her boss run for VP.

Our heroine, Sammy, has more ticks than a Wisconsin woods but is still an appealing character. Her break up scene with the bad boy is priceless and the D.C. political stuff is what takes the book beyond the typical Chick Lit. It's actually entertaining, informative and pretty darn funny.

I give it a thumbs up.

[Charlotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is highly enjoyable and I would like to rate it higher, but it is undeniably fluff. Sammy is a marvelous character with a lot of entertaining quirks and the scrapes she got into were both highly entertaining and far too easy to relate to. My issues with the book were more with the plot. Some serious editing and a more solid structure would have given the book direction and kept the plot rolling.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, but I just didn't. The main character was way too neurotic, the plot was pretty formulaic and predictable, and the writing was not strong enough to make it anything special. I like light-hearted chick-lit, so you know I'm not too snobbish to enjoy something like this. This particular book was just a mediocre member of that genre.

I definitely will not bother trying out the sequel.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun quick summer read, and I enjoyed the departure from New York City and the endless fashion labels of most chick-lit novels. I didn't realize that the author is the daughter of Al and Tipper Gore, which actually explains much better her knowledge of Washington politics. I found Sammy to be endearing in the way she never lost her idealism, even if she was frustrating to follow at times.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

What I learned from this book is that if your father was Vice-President you can write 200+ pages of crap and someone will publish it for you. The Senator Sammy works for is clearly a thinly disguided Al Gore, President Pile is clearly President Bush. It's just soooo boring, and Sammy's "quirks" are enough to make me want to kick her in the shins.

[Miquela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original review from 2008 below - read it again with a friend after we enjoyed From The Corner of the Oval Office. It stood the test of time! Entertaining and now moving on to the next book.

i love the inner thoughts of the main character. she is quirky as all get out and I look forward to reading her next novel with the same characters.

[Jess Van Dyne-Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was smart, relevant, quick and funny. Laugh out loud funny. Bridget Jones goes to Washington. Really. Read it.
Just do.

Samantha Jones is a young, single health care adviser on an up-and-coming senators' campaign. She has the passion and clumsiness of youth and she's in just a little bit over her head.

Oh, and she can't keep fish alive. READ IT!

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had high hopes for Kristin Gore so I was disappointed when she fell so short. I couldn't make it to the end; I was bored from the start, had no interest in the characters, and predicted the outcome early on. The writing style was a poor imitation of every other chic lit on the market.

[Kasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, easy read. Perfect for the beach. A total chick book.

[Angie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoning this because it's just awful. Really awful. Way to go Kristin Gore. You're wasting the trees that your dad is trying to protect.

[Nancy Brady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this one for our library book group...found it cute and good enough to read the sequel

[Tzipora]

Have you ever opened a book and by page 2 (Yes! PAGE TWO!) hated the protagonist so much you don't want to go on? Well, me neither. That is, until I opened this book at 4:30am. If you can't even mildly entertain my insomnia and I'm annoyed at page two... Wow. I almost want to keep reading because like an especially gruesome train wreck, I am so shocked by how tragically awful it is, I almost have to keep staring. Yet I fear I'd probably straight out vomit if I kept reading. I've never in my entire life as a voracious read ever hated any book so quickly. This a train wreck ala The Boy In The Striped Pajamas for me. The only book I'm ashamed to own and have ever seriously flipped out while reading. But at least it took some time for me to be completely outraged and I did make it to the end. PAGE TWO!!!!

So what is so wrong with this book? First off, I was pretty much asking WTF at the very beginning. Page one opens with some ridiculous, not funny, I'm not even sure why the eff it's there dream scene. She's drinking with Willie Nelson and Nerfertiti. What? Why? What does this have to do with anything? Winnie The Pooh has the hits for her? Huh? I was hoping these were like weird code names for political figures like the names the Secret Service has for the president and his family. But no. This is a stupid dream. Why???

Our young, too young and oh so close to my age, political advisor protagonist wakes hungover from 99 cent wine. Then she rattles on about how she should meditate, do 15 minutes of abdominal crunches (BS!), yadda yadda, blah blah. And none of it is funny which I guess its supposed to be? I only gathered this was a sorry attempt at humor from reading a couple of reviews, all of which labeled the book in general as trying too hard. Well is it trying too hard if I didn't even get it was aiming for funny? It also doesn't ring as true and given that the she's basically in my peer group I'm just not buying it.

But then, oh boy, we hit an unbelievably awful faux pas. The ultimate way to lose me. Ironically I never knew this was the ultimate way to lose me because I've never seen such utter crap in any novel, especially not on page two! She starts... Neurotically? (I'm not buying it. I could be a freaking expert on neurotic 20-something's. my closest friends are neurotic 20-something's. Okay, *I* will confess to my moments... Yeah my "moments" as a neurotic 20-something. And I'm not buying this for a second.) To reframe, our already completely unlikable totally full of BS protag goes off into some utterly unnecessary, utterly un-cute, utterly un-funny, utterly ridiculous, and then downright offensive drivel about what would happen if she lost her right arm. That's right. Ridiculous dream into ridiculous waking thoughts. And holy crap. I literally want to slap Kristen Gore. If this is her pretentious spoiled brat view of the world and she oh so ignorantly finds this funny and if anyone in all of existence has a fantasy like this well point blank- they deserve to be slapped. And I wish oh so much that I could offer then a one day pass to live my life, inside my body, something I wouldn't wish on anyone. Well, almost anyone. See, I'm disabled. I do have both arms but I've got some big fish to fry of my own (bad metaphor. I can't even swallow or digest food. And my joints are literally falling apart so I had to be damn annoyed to suffer the wrist pain of typing up this review!). This is some effed up crap and I'm trying desperately to restrain my wording here... You are a terrible person if this is how you view disabilities! Even worse if you AT ALL think this is "funny". Though it doesn't seem like our author would know what funny writing was of it came up and have her that much needed slap across the face either...

So "Ooh!" You're saying now. Like a group gathered before a fight. What did she do?! Oh boy, I'll direct quote it for you. From page two of the worst book I've ever opened-

"... So I took a moment to do what I always did whenever these neuroses attacked. I reached for a sling from my pile of medical supplies, fashioned it around my right arm, and continued my routine with this new handicap, confident that I would be the one with the last laugh when I was so ludicrously prepared for life without my right arm.
'Amazing," they'd all say, 'can you stand how quickly she's adapted? Why, she's just as capable as she was before! Maybe even more so!'
And thanks to my brilliant foresight, it would be true. I'd just nod and smile and continues life as a well-prepared, one-armed genius."

Oh no she didn't! First of all, YOU CAN'T "prepare" FOR A DISABILITY! How dare our privileged author think for one minute you can just practice this crap and oh you'll be a freaking disabled hero! Disability can and does come on out of nowhere and it rattles you to the core. If she had a disability she wouldn't even think this way. In fact its eye-rollingly offensive when people who don't even know me (and those that think they do) tell me I'm they're "hero" and I'm so "brave" and the "strongest person they know". What crap. People with disabilities are NOT heroes not are they "geniuses" because they have a disability or because they continue to live their lives, as much as they can, with disabilities! I'm absolutely NOT saying disabled people can't be heroes. They can. But see I'm not a hero or genius or any stronger or braver than anyone else because I have and live with disabilities. I DON'T HAVE A CHOICE! It's NOT A CHOICE! Regardless of what happens to a person, they have to keep living. And quite bluntly, a lot of the time it flat out SUCKS! I'd gladly give my disabilities away to Kristen Gore or to our idiotic protagonist here. Gladly. Even if and maybe especially because I'd be giving away that frankly unwanted and inappropriate and offensive attention and all that looking the other way and telling me what a darn inspiration I am crap. I'd love to truly inspire someone (and I hope I truly inspire you not to waste your time on this book!) but to do so I'd first of all have to do something inspirational. And no its bit inspirational for me to live my everyday often miserable life with multiple disabilities. I don't have any choice in that. And if you don't even know me or even a fraction of what I went through then you have no right to say these kinds of things to me. Quite honestly, I happen to know that's just meaningless BS people say because disability is SCARY! No one wants to be disabled. I also get a lot of pity which I also don't want and the hero genius inspiration crap is really just pity in the end itself. From that point on its clear those people will never see me as anything but my illness. No matter what I do it won't matter at all. Somehow I'm special for just having a disability? No! You're just saying stupid stuff to me when what you really want to say especially when I tell you no I wasn't born sick is that oh my gosh! You're terrified it could happen to you. And you see how it'd throw all your dreams and your whole life as you know it in the toilet. I think we all just be honest. Being disabled sucks. Its hard! But those of us with disabilities don't have any choice. We're not heroes or geniuses. We're people. People who fight everyday so much harder than you can imagine. We don't get the same opportunities and privileges as you do. Often we hurt both physically and emotionally. And no matter how strong we seem on the outside or how well put together, well, we probably aren't. And even years later we still cry sometimes. We ache for health and a full normal body. And we know that no matter what we do we will always be seen as disabled. People will lower their expectations of us. Then mock us when pretending to be so amazed that we even function.

And nothing is more offense and mocking than someone, someone like our protag, who seems to look at disability as a means to gain attention. And unfortunately there ARE people who think this way. I have known a person who actually copied my story to get the medical treatments (which are horrible and themselves life threatening even to someone who is ultimately healthy and faking!) and all that sympathy and attention. And you know what? That's NEVER FUNNY! And people like that are indeed sick. Sick mentally. And very hurtful to this world. Real disabled people don't want this kind of attention or hero worship. We want to be seen as people, as more than our disabilities. And we sure don't want to be the butt of someone's joke. We want to believed too. Not accused of being one of the sick in the head types faking it for attention. We want to live our lives and rebuild out world and create new dreams and goals and achieve them.

I could have liked this book, I thought. After all, before I got sick, I was a Middle East Studies and Poli Sci major. I was a political junkie. I love factionalized accounts of political life that can pull me in. And this book could've been just the thing! A young health care analyst in DC! Totally unbelievable but heck I hoped (though knew I wouldn't be this at 26. Now I just hope I live to see 26...) that I would eventually be a Middle East advisor. Maybe an ambassador or something. And a scholar. An expert in my field. And heck now I have a strong interest in medicine and in health care and health care policy. This book could've been so cool! It could've allowed me to live out through fiction a dream I long ago had to drop. That wouldve been awesome. Perfect really. I read to get outside of my tiny disabled world not to be mocked.

And even apart from the disability stuff, because I did even try to keep reading though I couldn't get very far. I just do not like this protagonist. Not at all! I mean she's not even believable. She's not funny. There's nothing about these first pages that pulls me in. I'm left asking what the heck is the point? Then offended. And I'm sure not laughing at anything. I, more than many, should've been able to suspend my disbelief on how unrealistic the very plot is and just dive into this story and even lose myself in it. Its such a shame. Honestly, it's downright shameful that this book ever got published but ha money can buy you a lot. But it won't buy you respect or writing talent or imagination or humor! I'm not someone who puts books down even when u don't like them. After all, I've got a ton of time to read. But I'm so glad this isn't even my book and I borrowed it from a friend. He told me no rush on returning his books. Well, I'll be gladly turning this one over later today!

Don't waste your time on this drivel! My rant is probably more entertaining than this entire bloated book. Even by chick-lit standards this book is BAD. somehow its also 387 large pages long. Yawn. I think, especially with that rant out of me, my insomnia for the night has been cured! You'd probably be better off taking a nice nap than reading this book too. Your mind and body will thank you!

Avoid at all cost! Hands down the worst book I've ever laid eyes on!