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Cherry Baby – Rainbow Rowell

Cherry Baby – Rainbow Rowell

I bought this at the airport, it seemed a fun holiday read.

Here’s the blurb …

Everybody knows that Cherry’s husband, Tom, is in Hollywood making a movie…

Almost nobody knows that he isn’t coming home.

Tom is the creator of Thursday—a semi-autobiographical webcomic, turned bestselling graphic novel, turned international phenomenon.

Semi-autobiographical. That means there’s a character in this movie based on Cherry… “Baby.”

Wide-hipped, heavy-chested, double-chinned Baby.

Cherry never wanted this. No fat girl wants to see herself caricatured on the page—let alone on the big screen. But there’s no getting away from it. Baby looks so much like Cherry that strangers recognize her at the grocery store.

While her soon-to-be ex-husband is in Los Angeles getting rich and famous and being the Internet’s latest boyfriend, Cherry is stuck in Omaha taking care of the dog he always wanted and the house they were going to raise a family in… and wondering who she’s supposed to be without him.

Cherry had promised to love Tom through thick and thin.

She’d meant it

One night, Cherry decides to leave all her problems, including Tom’s overgrown puppy, at home. She ventures out to see her favorite band play her favorite album… and someone recognizes her from across the room.

Russ Sutton knew Cherry when she was a young art student with a fondness for pin-up dresses and patent leather heels. Before Tom.

Russ knows Cherry. He likes Cherry.

And best of all… he’s never heard of Thursday.

Cherry Baby is Rainbow Rowell’s richest, most ambitious — sexiest — novel yet. Told with deep tenderness and shot through with Rowell’s signature wit—this is a second-chance romance for grown-ups. For people who understand how rare it is to get even one chance at love, and how impossible it can feel to make it work.

This was fun – I loved all of the references to Cherry’s wardrobe and her family. There was probably a bit too much about how fat she is and how fat everyone (apart from Hope) is in her family for me. Also there are graphic sex scenes, so if you’re more of a ‘closed door’ person, skip those bits. I liked that this was about a couple trying to find their way back to each other.

Kirkus review.

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Filed under 3, Fiction, Paper, Romance

Slow Dance – Rainbow Rowell

Slow Dance – Rainbow Rowell

I wanted a break from my Booker prize longlist reading and this was recommended by the Hill of Content people.

Here’s the blurb …

Back in high school, everybody thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together . . . everybody but Shiloh and Cary.

They were just friends. Best friends. Allies. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh’s porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha—Shiloh would go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change.

Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed.

Now Shiloh’s thirty-three, and it’s been fourteen years since she talked to Cary. She’s been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she’s back living in the same house she grew up in. Her life is nothing like she planned.

When she’s invited to an old friend’s wedding, all Shiloh can think about is whether Cary will be there—and whether she hopes he will be. Would Cary even want to talk to her? After everything?

The answer is yes. And yes. And yes.

Slow Dance is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. Two friends who lost everything. Two adults who just feel lost.

It’s the story of Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought would end up together, trying to find their way back to the start.

I had the wrong idea of this novel. I was hoping for something fun and light-hearted. This has single parenting, dealing with aging parents, and family conflict. I didn’t find either of the main characters charismatic and their relationship, to me, seemed a bit flat. Having said that, this is a story about second chances, picking yourself up and continuing when things have gone badly. It’s probably a bit too realistic for me.

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Filed under 2, Fiction, Paper, Romance