Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

You know when there’s a series you like but one of the books is the kind of plot that drives you crazy? But you can’t just skip the book because the series builds and you’d miss out on details that matter? That, my friends, is how I felt about The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove. I’ve enjoyed the Dove Pond series–the first two books as well as the two novellas–but this one drove me crazy. I’ve never liked the sort of plot where people are lying to each other (or afraid to tell each other the truth) and won’t just spit out the truth already. Add to that the fact that I didn’t exactly love Ella, and it took a bit for me to get through this one.

It’s not that Ella is precisely awful, mind–she’s talented and fun and has a back story explaining her “wanderlust” and serious commitment issues–but that wanderlust and those issues were still a bit hard for me to take. The commitment issues would be seen in a rather less flattering light if she were a man, and the double standard (and total lack of awareness of the other point of view) annoyed me; the “wanderlust” would be better described as “rootlessness” and I couldn’t help feeling that Ella was too old not to be aware that that sort of lifestyle indicates a troubled psyche. Gray, the love interest, is really the saint in all of this, which is its own kind of plot imbalance. I most enjoyed the festival portion of the plot, as that’s a significant part of the series’ ongoing story line, and the denouement did manage to soothe my irritation some. Ultimately, however, if I go through the series again at some point, I’m likely to skip this one.

In other news, my kids made a terrifyingly impressive candy haul last night, and the younger two had a good time at my hubby’s work thing. How was your Halloween?