It's snowing here is Jersey and not just a little dusting this time either. It is snowing HARD. So what better way is there to spend a day snowed in, than with a book review that takes place near, but not exactly on, the beach? That's right there is no better way! It just isn't possible.
So I picked up a copy of Susan Mallery's A Million Little Things a couple weeks ago at used book store called Footnotes, that specializes in romance novels. It looked adorable, and as you all know, I absolutely adore the shore. Perhaps maybe even more than books.... okay maybe not. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I judged this book based off of the cover, bought it, and brought it home.
Jillian hasn't read this novel. In fact, I don't think I even talked to her about it yet, but I think that the two main characters in it our our soul sisters. The two of us are defiantly equally both of the two characters. We're semi-insane and definitely quirky. (Jillian, you can have it after I give it to my Grandma. Promise.)
So in this novel, we meet Zoe. Zoe recently broke up with her boyfriend after she purchased a house thinking that he and his children would move in with her, they'd marry, and have a happily ever after life. Zoe even quit her job as a teacher, taking a different job that allowed her to work from home so that she could stay home and theoretically raise her boyfriend's children. But then, they break up! And big surprise, the little fantasy that she planned her life around just didn't happen. The back of the novel says that Zoe "is more than just single - she's alone." But she's not really alone. I mean, she does have her cat. And when Zoe gets stuck inside her windowless attic early on in the novel (the door with the drop down steps got stuck) her cat was stuck with her.....
Now, the other main character we meet in this novel is Zoe's best friend Jen. Jen has high anxiety. Her husband is a cop who recently took a promotion as a detective, and her son (I think he's 22 months old?) will not speak. Jen is constantly worried that something bad will happen to her husband, and is equally, if not more so, worried that there's something wrong with her son. Everyone tells Jen that there's nothing wrong with her son, but she's so anxious and hypocondriatic that it just makes her even more anxious that no one seems to take her seriously. Jen needs to come to the crystal shop with us and buy some lavender oil.
Unlike a lot of romance novels, which can be sappy, cliche, and really sort of dull, Mallery draws the readers into her characters and their actual lives. Lives that don't primarily revolve around finding and keeping a man, but I guess as one always secretly hopes, does play a role. So Dewey Readers, I leave you with a rating of 4.5 out of 5 Coffee Beans!
Happy Reading!
~Jessica
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