Katie Fforde....good grief

[MrsDickens]

Have just got back from my hols in which I ended up ransacking the small library of books left behind, having finished all the ones I took with me (cue major panic as I have to have something to read at all times). And Lordy, how bad was Katie Fforde's 'Love Letters'? Quite gobsmacked, really. Anyone else read it? What did you think?

It's not usually my cup of tea but I'm not averse to chicklit if there's nothing else on offer - will happily devour most things tbh, as a print junkie - but gosh, it was tedious. If you're going to write chicklit, at least do it well, I say.

That's all I have to say, really!

Got my book today, thanks Charlotte!

I definitely preferred her earlier books, didn't mind Going Dutch, but was a bit forgettable!

My favourite was the one where the woman is living in the big house thats being restored and does wine tastings there!! Cant remember the name!!

I quite enjoyed the first few of hers I read but then they became so samey that I've given up now. I detest the 'middle aged, slightly plump lady has crush on hunky slightly younger man, has sex with him then conscience gets the better of her, refuses to see him again, he helps her out of a crisis, they go to a bothy in Scotland for reconcilliation (wtf is that about, it's been in at least 4 books, the bothy with no running water) and they live happily ever after' premise which at least half a dozen are written on.

The other storyline is 'younger girls, one very 'feminist and practical', one very 'arty and impractical' and the other with a big secret become instant friends, start a business within a couple of days, fall in and out of love but all end up happily married'

Her female characters are so old fashioned with a very odd idea of what is moral behaviour but supposedly being real feminists too. They're just so unreal and irritating. Her more recent books seem to have changed to younger heroines but they all speak and act like some hideous middle aged spinster from the 1940's. I don't find there is anything in them that I can relate to.

It's the parts like

Heroine: 'Oh, we had unplanned sex, I might be pregnant'
Hero: 'Well, if you are, I'll marry you'.

that drive me bananas and wreck what has the potential to be an okay read.

The 21st century has arrived, Ms Fforde, even in the dim and distant 20th century people didn't immediately feel the need to propose because of one session of unplanned sex.

Arrrrggghhhh.

I still have all the ones I bought on my bookcase but they're in line for donation to Oxfam Books next time I have a clear out.

Phew, that feels better.

Someone lent me a KF book fairly recently. I couldn't be bothered to finish - for pretty much the same reasons given by Olihan.

It's Mills & Boon by another name. Rubbish and not even particularly well written.

Give me Jasper Fforde any time, or Robertson Davies for the best read.