Monday, December 7, 2015

clutch / Lisa Becker


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Romantic Comedy/Chick-Lit/Romance

Approximate word count: 40-45,000 words

Availability
Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: NO Smashwords: NO Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Lisa Becker is the author of the Click trilogy, the first of these, Click, a nominee in the 2014 BigAl's Books and Pals Readers' Choice Awards in the Chick-Lit/Women's Fiction category. Becker lives in Southern California with her husband and two daughters.

For more, visit Becker's website.

Description:

clutch: a novel is the laugh-out-loud, chick lit romance chronicling the dating misadventures of Caroline Johnson, a single purse designer who compares her unsuccessful romantic relationships to styles of handbags – the 'Hobo' starving artist, the 'Diaper Bag' single dad, the 'Briefcase' intense businessman, etc. With her best friend, bar owner Mike by her side, the overly-accommodating Caroline drinks a lot of Chardonnay, puts her heart on the line, endures her share of unworthy suitors and finds the courage to discover the 'Clutch' or someone she wants to hold onto.”

Appraisal:

Off the top of my head I can think of one other comedic chick-lit novel I've read with the premise of protagonist-as-serial-dater. I'm sure there are others because it is an idea that should resonate with much of the target audience. Caroline would be a heck of a catch, and flawed man after flawed man gives it his best shot.

However, clutch is different than that other book I read in two ways. That other book (no, I'm not going to tell you the title, this review is about clutch) left me thinking, “boy, women sure are fussy about some silly things.” (At other points, my thought was “oops, I'm definitely guilty of that.” But I don't wanna talk about those things.) In this instance my reactions were the opposite, each time thinking, “kick that guy to the curb, you can do better” and “even I wouldn't do that.” Both were funny, but the laughs came for different reasons. The other big difference (possibly a spoiler, so if that's an issue, stop reading) is that clutch rides the line between chick-lit and romance. The reason, which starts to become apparent mid-book is that the guy Caroline needs to end up with has been there all the time, waiting for her to figure it out.

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: **** Four Stars

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