My fluff-read The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn
Blurb: At the age of ten, Miss Miranda Cheever showed no signs of ever becoming a Great Beauty. Her hair was lamentably brown, her eyes the same muddy colour, and her legs, which were uncommonly long, refused to learn anything which might remotely be called grace.
Only, in 1811, the nineteen-year-old Viscount Turner – eldest brother of Miranda’s closest friend – had kissed the hand of an awkward ten-year-old girl and promised her that one day she’d be as beautiful as she was clever.
Now, eight years later, Miranda is a grown woman, and Turner an embittered widower. But she has never forgotten his kindness. Indeed it is only in her diary that she confides the truth: she has never stopped loving Turner, and she has never stopped hoping that one day he will see her as more than a naïve girl.
Opinion: Okay, so this is a) complete fluff, b) highly predictable and c) not even remotely realistic given the time it’s set in. But, and here’s the kicker, it’s funny! The ugly duckling angle was detached and sort of glued-on, totally unnecessary. The ending was mushy to a degree of making me need some insulin. You could see the twists and turns of the story miles away. But, all that can be forgiven. It’s chick-lit, it’s fluff, after all. The crucial thing is, is it funny? And Quinn does funny. Very well! So, while I knew how the story would end, while I read this like I’d read it before, it kept me up till 4am. Because I wanted to see what line would make me laugh next. Qinn’s characters are modern (more room for jokes, you see?) and slightly one-dimensional, but in a good way. I wanted to know the story of Olivia, Miranda’s best friend and later sister-in-law (come on! I’m not really giving away a plot development you didn’t see coming, now am I??? Exactly!), which to me is always a good sign.
7/10, as I can’t really overlook the poor plot and so on.
The Collection by Gioia Diliberto
Blurb: Isabelle Varlet, charming and naïve, comes from a long line of seamstresses in a small town in France. A series of unfortunate events and her prodigious sartorial talent carry her to Paris, which in the wake of World War I is electric with new life. When Isabelle takes a job in the atelier of Coco Chanel, she finds herself in the heart of a glamorous and ruthless world filled with arrogant designers, handsome men, beautiful women, and fashion thieves who prowl Paris hoping to steal designs before they hit the runways. As Isabelle brings an exquisite dress to life for Chanel’s fall collection, she navigates the tempestuous moods of the couturière, the cutthroat antics of her fellow workers, and her own search for love.
Opinion: I read this before the Quinn-fluff. And it’s really quite the opposite. I didn’t like the style of writing on this one, it failed to engage me. I didn’t feel for the characters, I didn’t feel I was there. But the story itself was good. And of course, there’s Coco. It was fun reading this, and remembering all those stories I’d heard from grand-mère about her. It was a credible story, it was interesting, it was fluent. The writing, however, was a major turn-off, and only the good bones of the story kept me form tossing the book early. I was disappointed, I have to tell y’a.
6/10 (do note that the criteria is different than for the book above!)
