I took this book with my on my recent sojourn to Florida (www.annahitsamerica.blogspot.com) and so it will always give me glowy feelings because I associate it with reading on the balcony overlooking a lake across which I could see the Disney fireworks. Life doesn't get much better that a book, a balcony, a burrito and unaccustomed heat. (I miss those three last things.)
But the pertinent question here is was the book any good? Did I enjoy reading it because I was on a balcony in Florida, or did I enjoy reading it because it was a great book?
Well, both. The writer is capable and the prose flowed well, it was perfectly edited (I didn't find any mistakes anyway) and while maybe not laugh-out-loud funny it was certainly very amusing and entertaining. What's not to love about the line, "He is currently enjoying life as a pig"? The characters weren't quite fully realised, with the exception of the heroine, Kate, but it was nicely unpredictable maybe because of that. For example, I never really figured out Rellie well enough to know whether or not she was happy to marry Rupert. Still, it was quirky and fun, and the mix of modern and fantastical was perfectly executed.
And yet... somehow it didn't grip me. I finished it, but had I not been happily ensconced on my balcony, with none of the demands of my hectic day-to-day life, I might not have done. And if I hadn't I wouldn't have spent any time wondering what happened in the end. I had time for reading, so I read it. In the chaos of home life as a working mother, writer and seminary teacher I might not have gone to the effort of finding the time. (Whereas with the most recent book I read, Wool, I all but took a day off work in order to read it.)
Still an entertaining and amusing read, though.
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