The Giving Season & Speed Dating (Books 4 & 5/26)

My parents gave me a Kindle Fire for Christmas, and it's seriously screwing with my Amazon recommendations. Because even though it's usually cheaper to buy books I want through Kindle versions, there are hundreds and hundreds of free books on there. Sure, there are the classics, but I know how those go. So I've been downloading lots of really horrible novels just because they're free, and deleting them about 20 pages in. I've probably read about 10 more books total, it's just that those 10 books are made of the first chapters of many, many books. And now that's all Amazon wants to show me--pages upon pages of covers that either look like pastel explosions or are in dark & bold colors with half-obscured bodies on them.

Anyway, two books that I did manage to make it through are The Giving Season and Speed Dating.

The Giving Season was actually pretty enjoyable. A bit trite (but aren't all romances?), and the story's set-up leaves you thinking that the heroine has some serious judgement problems (she's lonely and desperate enough that she agrees to spend Thanksgiving through Christmas with a man who she just met on a bus?), but after the first couple of chapters she becomes really relatable and likable. He, of course, is Mr. Dreamboat, his kids are adorable, and even his mom is awesome. Other than the "going home with a complete stranger," there was nothing outlandish about the plot (always a huge gripe of mine with romance novels), which casts the crazy-ass ex-wife seeking a reconciliation as the villain. By the end of the book, I kind of wanted to go ride random buses and see if a guy would invite me home for a month...So, The Giving Season is definitely worth the small purchase price if you're looking for a few hours' worth of entertainment.

Speed Dating is one of those novels I'd seen on racks in Brookshires by the check-out counters and mocked mercilessly. It's from a NASCAR-themed Harlequin series, and nothing seemed more redneck woman than that. When I saw it for free, curiosity won out, and I have to admit--I almost didn't count it toward my challenge out of pure shame that I read the whole thing. I think it was the plot's similarity to my admitted literary obsession--marriages of convenience--that kept me hooked.

An actuary, through an implausible series of events that make the girl in The Giving Season seem sane from the get-go, ends up travelling around the South with a hotshot NASCAR driver as his good luck charm/fake girlfriend (to prevent his crazy-ass ex-wife from continuing to pursue a reconciliation--which of course she doesn't [stop, that is]). It's got the added squick bonus of a real NASCAR driver making "cameo" appearances and aiding with the romantic storyline, and something just seems wrong about that...although I'm sure he probably got enough money to keep him from feeling too weird about it.

The scene that I'm sure is supposed to be the climactic scene left me honestly saying out loud "Where the fuck did that come from?" because it suddenly turns from adults in a tense situation that should be handled seriously to a husband telling his wife he's washing her mouth out with soap and then spanking her, and he is serious. I guess it wasn't a horribly terrible read (unlike the "doctor inherits twins" book I deleted after 1 chapter earlier today), but I certainly wouldn't even pay a quarter at a thrift store if I stumbled across anymore books from this series.