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When In Doubt, Add Butter (2012)

by Beth Harbison(Favorite Author)

3.69 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0312599099 (ISBN13: 9780312599096)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

St. Martin's Press

review 1: I was in the minority of my book club—most people really enjoyed the book. There were a few too many "where did that come from" moments for me as I was reading—where a seemingly important life detail like the birth or death of a significant family member just came out of the blue to help in the plot movement. I also had a few too many questions about a few logical/logistical things that kept me from really getting into the story.That said, it was a fun, light read as long as you don't think too much or question too many of the details.
review 2: This is my first Beth Harbison book. I am not sure I will try her other books. Ms. Harbison creates very interesting characters and the dialog is often witty and humorous. Several critical components necessary to a... more good book are there. But the interesting characters were unfortunately the secondary characters and they were not utilized fully. This was one of those books that when you finished it, you had no interest in learning what happened next to the main characters, but felt a mild curiosity about some of the secondary ones' futures.There were three critical flaws with the plot. First, the first half of the book meanders along with basically no plot. She introduces eccentric characters, has some funny dialog, but there is really no story there. Then once she gets to the main relationship of the book, she rushes through it so rapidly, it makes absolutely no sense. She spends so little time on the budding relationship between Gemma and Mac it is hard for the reader to accept that in the last 30 minutes of the audiobook they realize they are madly in love, willing to make major changes in their lives and he accepts what she has been hiding as if it is no big deal. They were virtual strangers. There was no relationship there one minute and the next, they were soul mates who lived happily ever after.The second flaw was that she did create sympathetic secondary characters and Gemma makes some pretty strong commitments to some of them. Commitments that she evidently abandons, based on the epilogue. That makes Gemma unsympathetic and dislike-able to me. Other characters you become interested in either just disappear or you get a rushed update on them in the epilogue that doesn't bring closure to the characters, and actually seem so out of character you wonder if she forgot what she had written about them previously.Finally, plots based on coincidences, poor timing, and a characters inability to clear things up when they first get the chance are almost always weak. This was no exception. It was so obvious who the mysterious Mac was it was hard to accept that Gemma really couldn't figure it out. This book would have been much more entertaining if the focus was on building the relationship between the two characters, not on the number of times they "almost" figured it out. It all seemed artificial and contrived.I finished this book with a sense that the author sat down to write a book that could be narrated in 7 hours and 55 minutes. Shed dilly dallied along with her characters until she looked at the clock, realized she had already written 7 hours and 25 minutes of content and spent the remaining 30 minutes developing and adding an actual plot, bringing it to a conclusion and writing an epilogue.I've read enough "Chick Lit" to know that they often spend more time on the main characters "inner thoughts" than an actual plot. That can work if the main character's "inner thoughts" are remotely interesting. In this book, they weren't.The narration was very good. If it had not been I would not have finished this book. less

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