smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich

[lightreads]

Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Read on the Los Angeles - Kauai leg of a really long day. Ideal in those circumstances, less so under any other, I suspect. I realize I'm about to do the thing where I take a book far far more seriously than it takes itself, but I stopped feeling weird about that a long time ago because I'm perfectly happy believing books matter as much as I think they do, even silly fluffy slapsticky romcoms about accident prone bounty hunters.

So the thing is, this is a book in which the heroine does exactly what I've been pleading with her to do for the past ten books, and starts hooking up with both the men in her life, instead of just endlessly waffling. Except she does it in the most irresponsible way possible. There are ways to sleep with two people at once -- to have a serious but open relationship with one and a long-standing fling with the other -- in a way that everyone can feel good about at the end of the day. …This isn't it. This is someone completely failing to take responsibility for herself or her actions, or to make decisions like a grown up, who repeatedly slut-shames herself into feeling awful no matter what she does. It wasn't about progress or -- don't make me laugh -- personal empowerment. It was just setup for drama and what I suspect will be a very fast monogamy reset button.

…So pretty good plane reading, then.




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