Connie Parker is in her early
twenties and mother of a three-year-old. She had got pregnant without quite
planning for it and chooses to be a stay-at-home mom. Her relationship with her
boyfriend, Kurt, isn’t all that great. In fact, the author has written a very
realistic relationship where both want to try making it better each time they
are alone, but the interaction is so broken that together they just cannot get
it right. Connie sublimates her romanticism into writing during those little
pockets of time that bringing up her baby gives her.
During one of her kiddie-activity
she meets Maria, another mom with a three-year-old. Maria is completely put
together, seemingly out-of-Connie’s-league rich, warm, funny and openly gay.
Maria extends the hand of friendship to Connie and slowly they start spending
time together.
As Connie’s relationship with Kurt
deteriorates, her relationship with Maria thrives and grows…so much so that the
book she is writing began with cynicism about love and is growing into a
romance.
Our minor issue with the book is the
conflict. There is some guideline for romance writing that a book should follow
an attraction – conflict – resolution/climax trajectory to be good. The author
follows this dictum and introduces a really weird plot twist to bring in the conflict.
The reason for the conflict between the MCs is not really worth the conflict.
The way Maria behaves during this part also diverges from her characterisation.
So this part not only didn’t work, it brought down the enjoyment of the
heretofore thoroughly enjoyable book. Another pain point was the characterisation
of a minor character, Louise. She is really quite nice but there was too much
of trying to cast her as a bitch (uncalled for) and actually having her swept
away with a broom! Not cool.
We feel rather rewarded when we
meet a book where we like both MCs equally. When there is humour and sweetness
in the book, that is even better. So this is a wholly enjoyable book with some
truly funny scenes and engaging dialogue.
⭐⭐⭐☆
