Nathan, Melissa - The Waitress

[oyceter]

I suspect this would have been a much better book if it had been half as long as it was.

Katie Simmonds is currently a waitress, though every week, she decides she wants to be something else (educational psychologist, author, director, you name it). Her best friend Sukie, also a waitress at the same cafe, is an aspiring actress, and her roommate Jon is a socially phobic writer.

I got the name of Melissa Nathan off a rec for romances via desayunoencama, so it was interesting to find that the book feels more like chick lit than genre romance (less time devoted to the romance and more time devoted to the heroine's group of friends and social life).

Nathan can be funny, but often, I just wanted to slap Katie for being stupid. I think we're meant to sympathize with Katie's foibles, since everyone's life is a bit of a mess, but I just can't, because Katie willfully does not deal with her mess, and that drives me insane. Also, because of this, the plot relies on a few too many Big Misunderstandings. I.e. there is more than one Big Misunderstanding, and for me, one is already one too many. I had a very difficult time believing that characters who had the brains to start their own business would be that stupid emotionally.

I am not speaking of those people you know who have no emotional intelligence. I am speaking of everyone in the book acting like high schoolers when they are in fact in their late twenties or early thirties, as far as I can tell.

Hrm. I think this write up sounds much angrier than I meant; I wasn't mad at the book per se, but it just made me roll my eyes a lot. I've read this book in about a dozen incarnations, and I'm really just not that interested in reading yet another.

Comments

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Yes! I don't read romance, but when I watch movies and there is the big misunderstanding I cringe inside because I hate it.

[oyceter]

Urgh, yeah.

I did forget to mention that I enjoyed the parts of the book that were about the restaurant itself, but yeah.. the romance bits totally didn't work for me.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I haven't yet read it, although I picked up THE WAITRESS as well based on the woman who's rec'd romance and chicklit for me at WisCon. Sorry it's got such stupid characters, and is half as long as it should be (it did look like it was trying to be a Marian Keyes in a lot of ways, although from the sound of it, she--Keyes--does a better job of making use of all those pages).

[oyceter]

The book is funny at times, and I liked the look at how the cafe ran, but yeah... I think it had a few too many pages. I think I may try Marian Keyes sometime; I've heard she was fun. Will be interested to see what you think when you read it!

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

My fave Keyes is probably RACHEL'S HOLIDAY, although I also liked her first, WATERMELON.

You may like THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY just because of the publishing-industry stuff.

I actually found ANGELS to be interesting, although it was a book that made me glad not to live in the US (and definitely not in Los Angeles).

The only one I really didn't like was LUCY SULLIVAN IS GETTING MARRIED.

[oyceter]

Oh, awesome, thanks for the recs!