I enjoy romantic comedies, whether movies or books, but this one was a waste of time as my Amazon First Reads pick of September. Could the characters be any more generic or shallow? I think not. Could the heroine and hero be any more clueless? Nope. Should I admit that I made a huge mistake in my September First Read? Most definitely.
If you are a young 20-something female, this book could appeal to you. It's a cutesy romance with cutesy characters, even a cutesy dog. The heroine, Madison, comes from a very wealthy, upper-crust, snobbish, unbelievably-horrid family. She has refused to work for the family business and instead studied to be a teacher. Now she is trying desperately to survive on her teacher's salary, since she has been disowned and her trust fund taken away. Oh, and she also has refused to marry her Richie Rich longtime boyfriend, who has never in their many years together managed to stay faithful to her for more than ten consecutive minutes. (Please keep in mind that she has known about this little problem he has for years and he was still her boyfriend. Doormat much, Madison?)
And our hero, Tyler? He's rich too, but apparently self-made. He's also oh-so-handsome and oh-so-nice and, oh my gosh, he loves his dog! That's about as much as I gathered about his personality, besides the fact that he enables his horrid mother. (Yep, I guess they will bond about horrid families and the fact that they are both good-looking and nice. And love that dog.)
So how do these two bland cardboard cut-out characters meet? She's poor, you remember, and needs a place to live now that Mummy and Daddy aren't subsidizing her life. He needs a roommate, one who will take care of his beloved dog when he's traveling and who will take up the housecleaning slack. She moves in. Problem solved.
Except Madison hasn't a clue about housecleaning. Hence the comedy here, I guess, if you enjoy cringeworthy actions by a character who doesn't even seem to have common sense. So she does all kinds of stupid things that we are supposed to laugh at. Not to mention that she doesn't even seem to be all that great at her career, since she can't figure out on her own how to deal with a student who is acting up in the classroom. (When I studied to be a teacher, years ago, we took courses about dealing with troubled students and about classroom control and also did practice teaching. She behaves as if she hadn't a clue.)
And Tyler seems pretty clueless about his job too, IMO. For being a hotshot and making a bunch of money, he doesn't seem to have to spend much time working. Money just seems to fall into his bank account. Maybe because he is so handsome and so nice?
This is a book with a slight plot and cartoon characters. And the problems they have are definitely first world two-per-center ones. I could not relate to the bubblegum heroine and the blandly insipid hero. (In spite of the fact that they were so pretty/handsome and so nice. And love dogs.)