Genre:
Chick Lit
Description:
“Dawn
Ellis needs to escape from her painfully dull existence. Her
unemployed husband spends all day complaining about life, moping
around, or fixing lawnmowers on her kitchen table. The local writing
class proves to be an adequate distraction with its eccentric
collection of wannabe authors and, of course, the enigmatic Jason,
who soon shows a romantic interest in her.”
Author:
A
regular contributor to The Huffington Post, UK author Carol E. Wyer is
the author of three other books: Surfing
in Stilettos, Mini
Skirts and Laughter Lines, as
well as the non-fiction humor (with a bit of relationship counseling
and self-help thrown in) guide for older wives, How
Not to Murder Your Grumpy.
Find out
more from Carol’s blog. *Ms. Wyer has published several new books
since the time of this review.
Appraisal:
Reading
fiction can be a way to put yourself in the life of someone unlike
you as way of understanding others better. If a fictional character
has similarities to you and you’re prone to introspection, it might
help you understand yourself better. Just
Add Spice goes one layer
deeper. A fictional character who creates another fictional
character, and it helps working through her own issues. It’s not as
convoluted as I make it sound.
Our
protagonist Dawn is bored with life and, if we’re completely
honest, a touch boring herself. But aspiring author Dawn’s
work-in-progress has a kick ass heroine, Cinnamon. As Dawn’s novel
progresses the line between the two layers of fiction slowly blurs.
Not just a clever idea, but a fun and entertaining read.
FYI:
Author is
from the UK. Spelling conventions and vocabulary reflect this.
Added
for Reprise Review: Just
Add Spice was a nominee in the
Chick Lit/Women's Fiction category for B&P 2014 Readers' Choice
Awards. Original review ran August 2, 2013.
Format/Typo
Issues:
Review is
based on a pre-release copy of the book so I can’t comment on this
area.
Rating:
***** Five stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate
word count: 70-75,000 words
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