Book Review - Wedding Season
Here's a prescription for chick lit books:
Make your main character a woman in her late 20's, who's employed in the literary (columnist, copy writer) or advertising fields, has lots of cool friends with fabulous jobs (no chronically unemployed, too depressing), lives in a big metropolitan area like NYC, LA, London or Chicago yet manages to constantly run into people she knows, is completely nuerotic, manages to offend her friends and family with her self absorbed behavior and end the story with them somehow all living happily ever after. Write the story in first-person so it's easier to illustrate the insane thought processes of the heroine and you've got a best seller on your hands.
Some chick lit authors manage to rise above this formula. Jennifer Weiner comes to mind. The same can't be said for Darcy Cosper and her work, Wedding Season: A Comedy of Manners, Matrimony & 17 Marriages in 6 Months. This formulaic effort's main character is a 29 year old who's sworn off marriage vehemently and vociferously to everyone who knows her but is forced to attend 17 weddings in a 6 month time span. During the 6 months, she ends up engaged to her live-in boyfriend despite suspecting he's having an affair and making a lot of choices where you just go, "What the hell did she do that for?"
I do give props to Cosper for character development. While the boyfriend isn't completely fleshed out (he just seems like a nice guy with a crazy girlfriend), there are several characters more clearly defined whom I grew to actually care about.
Make your main character a woman in her late 20's, who's employed in the literary (columnist, copy writer) or advertising fields, has lots of cool friends with fabulous jobs (no chronically unemployed, too depressing), lives in a big metropolitan area like NYC, LA, London or Chicago yet manages to constantly run into people she knows, is completely nuerotic, manages to offend her friends and family with her self absorbed behavior and end the story with them somehow all living happily ever after. Write the story in first-person so it's easier to illustrate the insane thought processes of the heroine and you've got a best seller on your hands.
Some chick lit authors manage to rise above this formula. Jennifer Weiner comes to mind. The same can't be said for Darcy Cosper and her work, Wedding Season: A Comedy of Manners, Matrimony & 17 Marriages in 6 Months. This formulaic effort's main character is a 29 year old who's sworn off marriage vehemently and vociferously to everyone who knows her but is forced to attend 17 weddings in a 6 month time span. During the 6 months, she ends up engaged to her live-in boyfriend despite suspecting he's having an affair and making a lot of choices where you just go, "What the hell did she do that for?"
I do give props to Cosper for character development. While the boyfriend isn't completely fleshed out (he just seems like a nice guy with a crazy girlfriend), there are several characters more clearly defined whom I grew to actually care about.
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