Can You Keep a Secret?

A friend recommended this Sophie Kinsella book, so I decided to pick it up one day when I was spending double my Mother’s Day B&N gift card. I don’t read a heck of a lot of chick lit. I’ve read some authors whose books I’ve liked before they moved into chick-lit-type books, and once in a while an individual title catches my interest, but generally, it’s not a genre I seek. I just can’t identify with most of the protagonists, which is not a fault of the genre or of me—it’s just a matter of circumstance.

It’s also a matter of me not caring for first person very much, being disgusted by heroines who can’t hold a job or manage any part of their lives without screwing it up, and absolutely detesting present tense narration.

So anyway, I picked up this book, Can You Keep a Secret?, and started reading.

It was in first person.

Present tense.

And the heroine was angsting about her job, then proceeded to completely muck up an important business meeting by being too self-congratulatory. {sigh}

I now understand why publishers love trade paperback. I paid 12 bucks for the darned thing. It was kind of hard to throw it against the wall after only a couple of chapters.

Luckily, Sophie Kinsella writes well. It’s a very smooth read, and she has great characterization, which makes for a visual story, though it’s not a descriptive one. So I kept going. And I found myself laughing. And then tears pricked my eyes. And then, even though it was 12:45 a.m., I didn’t want to put the book down.

And that’s really saying something.

P.S. This book is totally a romance. I’m just sayin’.