The Bachelorette has become one of my guilty pleasures. I blame it on the combination of Jesse always working late on Monday nights, leaving me home alone and bored, and the numerous #Bachelorette tweets on my feed. I was to weak to resist.
One particular set of tweets were retweets from someone who followed Jennifer Weiner, a successful author who is just as widely known for her live tweets of the Bachelor and Bachelorette. The tweets were hilarious, so I started following her myself. As the season progressed, when Jennifer wasn't tweeting about the show, she tweeted about the release of her new book, "The Next Best Thing." Although I thought she obviously had a great sense of humor, her self-promotion (although necessary) annoyed me, so I wasn't too curious to buy the book.
Then one of her short stories (Swim) popped up as a free read from Amazon. I read it and really liked it, and, as it turned out, her novel was based on the main character from the short story (nice job, Amazon). So of course, I wanted to know what had happened to Ruth, the girl who's face was severely scarred from a car accident that killed her parents. This girl, this insecure yet witty girl who swam as an escape and who struggled with life in LA after heartbreak and rejection. I had to know - did she find her happy ending?
So I purchased and read "The Next Best Thing"... and, at the end, left thinking I should have stuck with the tweets and short stories of Jennifer Weiner's. Although the storyline was unique and interesting, and I applaud Jennifer for having a nontraditional hero (which she states is one of her main reasons for choosing to continue Ruth's story), I just didn't care for the book overall.
Ruth writes a sitcom which gets picked up by a network. The process of being chosen to being on air was interesting, and probably realistic since the author has experience writing a television show, and that kept me reading. But the descriptions were overdone (remember, I enjoy Fitzgerald's concise characters and details), causing me to flip and skim more than read. For example, when Ruth enters the main office of what later becomes her mentors, it is described as, "I shook my head, looking around as Dave helped himself to a Fresca and the little dog - Pocket - crunched up her treat, licked her lips, then began chewing on a cylinder of red rubber. The office, up on the eighth floor overlooking Alameda Avenue, was large and sunny, with big windows that let in plenty of light. It was equipped with couches and chairs and beigey-gray carpet that had most likely come from some office supply warehouse........." It keeps going and going. I'm sure some readers enjoy this - they get a clear picture of the setting and the characters. It just isn't for me.
My only other complaint with the book is there were two sex scenes that seemed completely random and out of place. The book just didn't feel like "that kind of book" and it totally threw me when those scenes began. It didn't seem necessary.
Regardless, as I stated earlier, Jennifer Weiner is to be applauded for choosing characters that are more "real" (Ruth isn't the only one - the love interest in a man in a wheelchair). It's refreshing to see that. And her storyline is unique and intriguing.
However, I don't know that I'd recommend her.
Well, unless you like the Bachelorette. Then by all means, follow her on Twitter.
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