Future Development?

Being proud of my Seattle local, I once again grabbed a book based on a Seattle location. So let’s see what I can say about it. Stats:

Title: Good Things
Author: Mia King
Publisher: Berkley Books
Date: 2006
My start date: 6/3/10
My finish date: 6/7/10

Honestly, I am not sure how I feel about this novel. In some ways I loved it. In others… Hmmm. Well, to start with, much like my experience with Patterson’s Alex Cross series, I don’t know that I would really fall into the target audience. The things I didn’t like were subtle and could easily be attributed to that. But let me see if I can put a more exact finger on what I did and didn’t like.

I had a hard time liking the main character. We had very little in common. Beyond that, I just didn’t like her for some reason. She was high-maintenance, a serious neat freak (which I am NOT) and overall pretty selfish. Her development was only minimal it seemed. So it is hard to really get into a novel when you don’t love the character. However, this problem in particular could be connected to what I mentioned above about perhaps not being the author’s intended audience.

The other thing I should mention is a little trickier. The book is classified as straight up a fiction novel. At parts, however, it borders on needing to be re-categorized as romance. Now, there is nothing wrong with romance novels, but generally you should know that you are reading one. While her plot is far more developed and present than a lot of traditional romance novels would be, at times she, umm, shifts into that genre. Traditional mainstream novels will approach a sex scene and then subtly “cut to morning” or otherwise give you a couple of minimal details about the encounter. Of course, I am generalizing here, but obviously, I have read a few novels, and trust me, this is generally the case. King, however, prefers to give you the whole scene. In vivid detail. Every. Move. This kind of scene is much more common in a romance novel than in a mainstream novel. As I said, there is certainly a place in the market for romance novels, it is simply that usually, when you read a romance novel you know what you are getting. These scenes seemed out of place. As I said, the rest of the novel would not necessarily fit in the romance genre, so I think my problem is mostly with the feeling of disconnect. This book doesn’t really fit comfortably in either genre.

Now having mentioned those things, I have to admit that I really did enjoy the book. There was a good plot there that with a few tweaks could have been really great. To my knowledge, this was King’s debut novel and I think she has good growth potential. I feel like I will probably try her works again. She has a sequel this novel out, as well as another novel set in Hawaii, where she lives. Having gotten her feet wet with this novel, I think she might have grown into her next works and am curious to check it out. We shall see.

Ok, I must admit one other feature that I loved in this book. Since her main character is supposed to be a culinary whiz and food plays a rather large role in the books, King has a tradition of including recipes in the back of each book. All of the dishes and drinks mentioned significantly in the story can be made in your own home from the recipes provided. I am a sucker for books with recipes. I don’t know why, considering I can’t and generally don’t cook, but nevertheless, I get excited about the presence of recipes every time. Maybe I think that one day one of these books will prove to be the key to a sudden shift to culinary brilliance. Who knows. Whatever the reason, I like it.

So we will just have to wait and see what else King has in store for us.
In the meantime,
Keep reading!
Sarah