Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Tuesday Review: Adventures with Max and Louise


Adventures with Max and Louise
By Ellyn Oaksmith
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Release Date: 
February 12, 2013

Molly Gallagher is content to fade into the background. Even her career as Diner X, a newspaper columnist who shares her take on Seattle restaurants pseudonymously in her newspaper column and blog preserves her anonymity. But her life changes dramatically when she goes into the hospital to have scars on her chest removed and ends up with breast implants when her chart is confused with that of another patient. The surgeon is properly horrified and apologetic about the mistake, but he is adamant that Molly must wait several months for him to perform a second surgery to correct his mistake.

Molly finds it difficult to adjust to all the male attention that she’s getting after the change in her appearance. When the men paying attention includes Chas Bowerman, her high school crush, she begins to think her new figure may have some advantages. There’s also a new guy whom she can’t ignore—even when she’d like to do so. When her desire to cling to her old way of life conflicts with a longing to embrace life with all its risks, she gets advice from Max and Louise, voices that emanate from her enhanced boobs.

This book was self-published in 2011 under the title Knockers. Had Avon kept that title, it’s unlikely that I would have requested the book. But the new title had a certain appeal, evoking associations with Thelma and Louise, a connection intensified by the cover. The book description was promising, and so I found myself reading it. I liked Molly who has some significant issues with guilt over her mother’s death. Her guilt and her poor self-esteem give the story substance that balances nicely with the humor. The secondary characters were also likable and amusing. But I just could not get past the talking boobs.

I liked Oaksmith’s voice enough to check out other books by her, but this one was that rare review book that was a DNF for me.


Have you ever read a book you wanted to like but one facet of it created an obstacle you could not move past?




4 comments:

irisheyes said...

Talking boobs! Very funny, Janga. I'm not sure I could get past that, either.

I tried to read a shapeshifter once and I just couldn't reconcile myself with the heroine basically being turned on by a wolf. I know a lot of author's give their heroes animalistic qualities but this hero was a REAL wolf! I mean that just seemed kind of icky to me. I guess it's just not my cup of tea.

Quantum said...

This book sounds quite topical considering recent scandals over silicone implants but the plot sounds a bit thin. Like Irish, I think I might stop on learning that Max and Louise refer to the implants! LOL

DNFs tend not to be memorable and get dumped into a special DNF folder on my comp. Taking a look I see that I have been quite fortunate in that numbers are low. I attribute that to excellent guidance received here and elsewhere.

To mention one DNF, I rather like Terry Brooks's fantasy books but one entitled 'Armageddon's Children' was so depressing that I dumped it.

Brooks is a good writer so I guess I'm just not into dystopian tales. Romance is so much more entertaining!

Janga said...

I'm not a big fan of shapeshifters either, Irish, although I have liked books with shapeshifters by Nora Roberts and Christina Dodd. But even the shapeshifters didn't present a challenge that equaled the talking boobs. LOL

Janga said...

I avoid dystopias as a rule too, Q. I think I served my time with depressing books during my years in academia. :)