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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated How Hard Can It Be? in Books

Mar 10, 2019 (Updated Mar 10, 2019)

How Hard Can It Be?

Allison Pearson | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry

7.0

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

Things have taken a bit of a turn for Kate Reddy--she's nearing 50, her husband has lost his job and spends most of his time cycling, and her kids are busy teenagers. With Richard out of work, Kate has to return to work. However, she finds that the financial community isn't welcoming to a woman on the cusp of fifty. When Kate decides to pretend she's seven years younger to enter the working world, she winds up working at the hedge fund she originally started. Once back at work, though, she finds herself overwhelmed dealing with everything: the unhelpful husband, the ungrateful kids, the demanding colleagues, and an unexpected appearance from an old flame.

This was a tough one for me. It was a slow read, although in its defense, I read it during a very busy time at work. I empathized with Kate's return to working motherhood--especially juggling kids and work and dealing with a male-driven workplace. I didn't enjoy the intense focus on how old Kate was, making her seem nearly decrepit at fifty. It's one thing to deal with turning the big 5-0 and its ramifications, but its another to make it seem like it's the end of the world. Even worse, while Kate could seem so strong in the workplace, she was such a pushover with her children. She was supposedly clueless with technology, unable to keep up with their exploits, and a complete doormat. (I also couldn't handle the endless endearments she used with her kids--there's only so many "sweeties" and "darlings" I can take.)

There are certainly humorous moments in the novel. This is a sequel to Pearson's first novel featuring Reddy and the parts I enjoyed here were the parts I liked about the first one: Kate's wit, her ability to take on the "big boys" at her fund, and the snippets of emails between her and her friend, Candy. There were definitely pieces of the novel that I found myself nodding along with--her moments of anxiety; her rants about how working moms are treated; some insights into kids and the social media era, etc. And Kate certainly doesn't have an easy go of it, with her clueless husband, helpless kids, crumbling house, aging parents, and stressful job.

That being said, I could see most of the plot twists coming a mile away, and you couldn't help but get frustrated that Kate couldn't see them too. Overall, while I found parts of this novel funny, refreshing, and quite apropos, I couldn't really get over Kate's obsession with her looks or her one-sided relationship with her children. In the end my rating is probably bumped up a bit for a little Kate Reddy nostalgia.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review (thank you!).

Kudos

Boingo Wi-Finder

Utilities and Productivity

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Wi-Finder helps you say connected at more than 1 million hotspots worldwide, at locations including...

Ships Monthly Magazine- Cruising, Freight & Naval

Entertainment and Magazines & Newspapers

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Britain’s best selling monthly magazine for ship lovers. Britain’s best selling monthly...

Cori June (3033 KP) rated The Bone Witch (The Bone Witch, #1) in Books

Dec 3, 2018

The Bone Witch (The Bone Witch, #1)

Rin Chupeco | 2017 | Paranormal, Science Fiction/Fantasy

7.9

(7 Ratings)

Book Rating

This book is written in two parts, the before and after. We are introduced during the after. It is in italics told from first person p.o.v. by an exiled bard. It is usually one to two pages sometimes more, it is at the beginning or end of each chapter usually letting people know what the next chapter is about. The before is told in first person p.o.v. by Tea (the main character) as a story to the bard. It is about how she became a bone witch and what a bone witch is also hints to why she was exiled.
Now there is a lot of description in the book about who dresses in which hua and what people look like and how they act and what they do.

If you want an action pacted fast paced book: This is not that book.

This book is what I would call a builder book. Its whole purpose is to build the story for the next book. it builds the world it is set in and helps you understand the characters motivations. A beautiful book, however, it can get draggy in the narrative. something that Tea does comment on in the after part of the book.

Kudos

Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth

Buckminster Fuller

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Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was an architect, engineer, geometrician, cartographer, philosopher,...

Cyn Armistead (14 KP) rated The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance (Otherworld Stories) in Books

Mar 1, 2018

I'm extremely surprised by how much I enjoyed this anthology! I picked it up intending to just read the stories by authors I know I like—Kelley Armstrong, Ilona Andrews, Carrie Vaughn, Holly Lisle, Jeaniene Frost, Maria V. Snyder. I had never heard of some of the other authors. A few names I remembered seeing in other anthologies and not enjoying their work.

I did, however, deliberately put myself in a tolerant mindset: this is a book of romance stories. It wouldn't be fair to judge them as anything else.

That worked rather better than it has in the past. I still got a little annoyed at having so much of each story dedicated to couples (and all het/mono couples, at that!) rather than some intriguing world ideas, but managed to stay on track.

In the end, I only skipped one story—I just don't like the Weather Wardens stuff at all. I found a couple of others substandard, but all in all, Telep chose very well. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys paranormal romance (maybe even those who usually stick to just romance), and most urban fantasy fans.