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Happily Ever Madder: Misadventures Of A Mad Fat Girl (2012)

by Stephanie McAfee(Favorite Author)

3.79 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0451238052 (ISBN13: 9780451238054)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

NAL Trade

series

Mad Fat Girl

review 1: Ace Jones has moved from Bugtussle,Mississippi to Pelican Cove, Florida. She had been a high school art teacher in her hometown. Her fiancé, Mason, is a lawyer. He has made it possible for her to open her own art gallery.Ace is not well received in the uptight new community even though she makes an effort to be nice. She does have an adventure or two with the girls she does make friends with. Her escapades annoy her fiancé.The author makes it ok to be love food, overeat, and get plastered. Being fat is good according to our author.Ace's dog, Buster Loo, is my favorite character.This would be a fast beach read but some of the language was offensive to me.
review 2: Janet Evanovich is the reining champ in the humorous popular fiction category. Her original Step... morehanie Plum novels are a hoot. Its hard to imagine not laughing out loud at the antics of Grandma Mazur and Stephanie Plum's trials as New Jersey's worst bounty hunter. Imagining a similar experience, I read Happily Ever Madder: Misadventures of a Mad Fat Girl. But the comparison's are not warranted.Happily ever Madder, Stephanie McAfee's second chick lit book in her Mad Fat Girl series made me mad, mad that I chose to read it. Although the author is clearly adept at painting a picture of busybody old ladies in housing communities who snoop into other people's lives, the novel, overall, is not very funny, is too full of reality, endless amounts of walking the protagonist's dog and has a bunch of plot points that fall off the mountain. Plus most of the male characters are either slimeballs or fools. Ms. Evanovich this is not. The main problem here is this book tries to do too much with the character. Ace Jones is a fat girl but a true one, who wears her heart on her sleeve and is not afraid to speak her mind. But here, she is trying to be good and not be her own person, too afraid to annoy her boyfriend. The author shackles her into an annoying relationship with her dream boyfriend and in the interest of being “good” makes her boring.While McAfee does put Jones in some funny situations – her run in with the honking driver at the burger drive in, a funny annecdote about a man with a big sex organ, or when she and her friends are almost arrested with a sex toy in plain view, or her plot to embarrass the local social doyenne who has made Ace’s life hell, the novel is too realistic and boring. Or maybe is just too repetitive.Ace Jones has left her home in Bugtussle, Mississippi to live in Pelican Cove, Florida with Mason, her lawyer boyfriend, that she has loved since she was a little girl. But reality is much worse than dreams. Ace has opened gallery to sell her art, but somehow has gotten on the side of the nasty old social biddies that run Pelican Cove. As the novel opens, the chief annoyer, Lenore Kennashaw, accosts Ace, but Ace sucks it up because she wants to fit in. Kennashaw even asks for some art for her local charity which Ace gives to Kennashaw.But the days are long for Ace and for the reader because nothing sells at the gallery. Its never clear if this because of a plot of Kennashaw, because the town looks down on Ace or because her art is ugly. What it means, however, is that Ace has too much time to kill, and the reader almost dies too. How many times do we have to hear about her chiweenie and his little walks. Another bummer for Ace is her boring romance with Mason. Mason is stuck in a big case and although he sometimes has time to spend with Ace, he works incredible hours and practically disregards his girlfriend’s life merely inviting her to eat with him in his conference room at night. Is there some romance, yes, but its very reduced. Ace is all alone. Since her art is not selling, Ace loses a lot of self esteem. I found his lack of empathy particularly realistic, but bad for the story. Her feud with Kennashaw is never adequately explained. Why does Kennashaw steal her art? Why does Ace never see it put up at the auction? Why did Ace not tell Mason about how Kennashaw blocked her application for the local art festival? Its never clear. What does happen is Ace tries to take on Kennashaw herself.It almost seems like the whole purpose of the novel is to show how Ace is going to fail at her attempt to fit in in Pelican Grove so she can go back and entertain us in Bugtussle. Realistic depiction of life in South Florida. Yes. Fun and funny book to read. No. less

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