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| Not My Type |
Pepper Spicer is about 20% jerk and 80% loser when we first meet her. She throws a fit when her family refuses to ignore her birthday and, gasp, make her a chocolate cake. This heinous act shall not stand and our heroine flips the cake over onto the floor. Do you know what my parents would have done if I had done something when I was her age (23)? Forget it, do you know what my mom would do to me if I did that now in my fifties? Hint, it wouldn’t have involved kind counseling and calm voices. Besides, who doesn’t love chocolate cake?
It took me a long time to like Pepper, and not just for the cake incident. She’s not very likeable and she’s so self-centered and mopey that there wasn’t much to like at first. It doesn’t help that she’s the exact opposite of me with her taste in music, clothing, and men. If I hadn’t read other books by this author, I might have given up, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt and hung in there and I’m glad I did.
Pepper gets to be a lot more interesting when she starts making changes for the better and once she gets her column, “Dating in the City,” she turns out to be pretty funny. I liked that the parents in this book are supportive and likeable, if a little unrealistic, and they provide some nice moments of clarity for Pepper.
The book is fun but, like Pepper’s column, it’s funniest when Pepper is the butt of the joke. I think she redeems herself nicely by the end and the romance was healthy and honest. So many romances and chick lit have unhealthy relationships between the hero and heroine, but this one avoided that. It was a refreshing change.
Fun book and lots of humor. Five happy stars.
