Cavendish Library Blog

The Marriage Spell by Mary Jo Putney

This book was so bad that I’m on my third time reading it….or listening to it as the case may be. I love romance novels.  Who doesn’t? They’re adult fairy tales.  I picked this one up years ago and gave it a listen and couldn’t stop.  I dragged my CD players around with me, not to find out how it ended, because come on, it’s a romance novel, but because it was so unintentionally funny that I didn’t want to miss a bit of it.

The story takes place in regency era England and concerns a woman with healing powers named Abby who is in love from afar with Jack Langdon.  He is injured in a hunting accident and nearly dies before she performs a “healing circle” with other people of wizardly powers and heals him.  Her price for this is marriage.  The added piece to this is that Jack also has powers and he hates wizards.  As the story unfolds predictably Jack learns to accept Abby and her powers and his as well as he battles (I LOVE THIS PART) his evil stepfather.

 The dialogue is ridiculous and the plot twists are enhanced with Abby using her powers to heal everybody in sight.  Enhancing this mix are the vocals by Simon Prebble who puts an overwrought emphasis on such literary masterpieces as “I’m going to make love to you until all your bodily energy is restored”.  I can’t even type that line without giggling.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who finds bad dialogue and an overwrought reading style funny or who just loves grown up fairy tales.  This book may be checked out in the audio book section of the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library.

The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale 339 pages, copyright 2009.

I generally don’t write reviews about books I don’t really like, but I’m going to make an exception in the hopes of saving the time of unsuspecting readers.  The Actor and the Housewife tells the tale of Becky Jack, a Mormon housewife who writes movie scripts in her spare time. She flies to Hollywood to discuss the sale of a script and meets Felix Callahan, a movie star.  The two become friends. 

The story twists on and on with Becky and Felix deciding not to spend time together because it bothers a spouse, then getting back together.  The only novelty in the book is that they are friends who are not of the same gender.

There are a few predictable plot twists, some crying and wringing of hands.  I kept reading it because I was stuck under a hairdryer at the beauty parlor and I kept hoping it would get better.  Really, the best part of this book was the ending, and it was unsatisfactory. 

Don’t read this book.

This book will be hidden behind a potted plant at the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library.  Please don’t ask for it.

Seriously, it can be found on the shelves in the library, but spare yourself the trouble. I can suggest a much better book.