Star Book Review: Misery Loves Cabernet (Charlize Edwards #2) by Kim Gruenenfelder

Misery Loves Cabernet welcomes readers back into the life of personal assistant, Charlize “Charlie” Edwards where we find her in the next phase of her life. When we last read about her in A Total Waste of Makeup she was harried with the wedding of kid sister, Andy. While she’s off-duty as a stressed out maid of honor, Charlie is still busy bailing out another person close to her, neurotic boss and A-List movie star, Drew Stanton, of whatever wacky hijinks he’s got himself wrapped up in now, from getting his hand stuck in a toilet (again!) to kidnapping her ninety year old grandma, Mawv. Bffs, Dawn, Jenn and Late continue to keep Charlie on solid ground, maintaining their weekly girls night out to enjoy the eclectic entertainment of the newest drag queen shows in town. Charlie is still pining after handsome photog, Jordan, who has fled the states for a job in Paris and it doesn’t sound like he’s coming back anytime soon; but luckily a new man has entered her life in the form of a gorgeous Irish producer, Liam, who wants to cast Drew in his newest Indie film and it will be up to Charlie to convince Drew that scaling back to do a little film is in his bigger interests. Usually, she’s not one to get caught up in the business side of Drew’s life but when Liam says the magic three words, “filming in Paris” Charlie is on her phone to make sure Drew reads that script! Of course, life never works out nice and neat for Charlie and from here on she’s on yet another wild adventure as she tries to get to Jordan half-way across the world.

Charlie is such a lovable character that she and the crazy antics of her friends and family are definitely what made the story. In fact, I became so engaged in the book that I never really stopped to wonder what the point of it all was. Don’t get me wrong, because it is most definitely entertaining from page one to page 368. I even found myself laughing out loud at various parts to the point of a few eye-brow raises from others in my reading vicinity. I also must say that I just love the cover of this book! I think it is so cute, humorous and perfect to attract the eye of any chick lit fan and I will miss carrying it around. I was a little disappointed by the way the ending wrapped up and wished maybe things hadn’t ended so quickly, but all in all, I was entertained and reading Misery Loves Cabernet was like coming home to an old friend, Charlie, who I’d met in A Total Waste of Makeup. I can’t wait to check out Kim Gruenenfelder’s third novel, There’s Cake In My Future which just came out late 2010.

3/5 Stars