Review: Happiness Sold Separately

Happiness Sold Separately – Lolly Winston

From the book jacket -

Elinor Mackey has always done the right things in the right order – college, law school, career, marriage – but now everything’s going wrong.  After two painful years of trying, Elinor has learned that she can’t have children.  All the doctors can tell her is that it’s probably because of her age.  As she turns forty, she withdraws into an interior world of heartbreak.

Elinor’s loving husband, Ted, a successful podiatrist, has always done the right thing, too.  Then he meets the wrong woman at the wrong time, and does the wrong thing.  Ted’s lover, Gina – a beautiful and kindhearted nutritionist – always eats the right thing, but is unlucky in love and always falls for the wrong men.  Soon Ted has to fight to make everything right again.

Can Elinor and Ted’s marriage be saved?  The answer is alarmingly fresh and unexpected as New York Times bestselling author Lolly Winston introduces us to characters as memorable as those of Anne Tyler and Nick Hornby, but who are indelibly all her own.

My thoughts -

I found this to be a very charming, quick read.  Just the kind of thing to curl up with on a rainy day… not too heavy, but not sticky-sweet either.  The story in this novel moved along pretty quickly, and had enough surprises to keep me interested the entire time.  What I liked most about this novel, however, were the characters.  The interesting thing was that the most flawed characters – Ted and Gina – were the ones I ended up enjoying the most, and feeling the most empathy for, while Elinor pretty much just annoyed me.  I know I was supposed to feel intense amounts of sympathy for her, but I simply did not find her as real as the other two.  Gina was probably, oddly enough, my favorite of the three.  Although she was the most minor of the major characters, I liked her personality the best, and I felt like of all three of them, she was the most authentically written.  Even the minor characters in this story, such as Gina’s son Toby, were well-written, and positively affected the book.

I thought the ending to the book was just OK.  Obviously I’m not going to share how it ended, but for those who have read this novel, what did you think of the ending?

I’d recommend this book for a quick, light read with enjoyable characters.

Also reviewed by:

• Jill at Under the Dresser
• Gayle at Everyday I Write the Book Blog

Review: Good Grief

Good Grief – Lolly Winston

published 2004 – 342 pages

From the back cover -

Thirty-six-year-old Sophie Stanton desperately wants to be a good widow – a graceful, composed, Jackie Kennedy kind of widow.  Alas, she is more of the Jack Daniels kind.  Self-medicating with ice cream for breakfast, breaking down at the supermarket, and showing up to work in her bathrobe and bunny slippers – soon she’s not only lost her husband, but her job, house… and waistline.

With humor and chutzpah Sophie leaves town, determined to reinvent her life.  But starting over has its hurdles; soon she’s involved with a thirteen-year-old who has a fascination with fire, and a handsome actor who inspires a range of feelings she can’t cope with – yet.

My thoughts -

So this novel would definitely be classified as “chick lit”, but it’s more Jennifer Weiner-esque than Sophie Kinsella-esque, if you catch my drift.  It’s what I would like to call smart chick lit.  The book is dealing with an extremely serious subject – death of one’s spouse – but turning it into a very sweet, and even funny, story about a woman who sort of finds herself after she feels like all has been lost.  Oddly enough, I wasn’t completely enamoured with the character of Sophie (the narrator and main character), but still managed to really enjoy the book.  Part of that is because I liked a lot of the secondary characters more (especially Crystal – LOVED her, she was so incredibly real), and part of that was because the story was actually very compelling and written pretty well.  Sophie really developed as a person throughout the book, and even though some parts were very sad, as is the topic itself, this novel is very, very sweet and completely engaging.  I won’t say it goes into my top ten or anything, but it’s definitely worth a read, especially for someone looking for a lighter, sweeter, feel-good type of story.

Also reviewed by: Gayle at Every Day I Write the Book Blog.