Star Audio Book Review - Big Girl by Danielle Steel; Read by Kathleen McInerney

          Victoria Dawson looks nothing like her parents. She is blonde, with blue eyes, plump and even has a bulbous nose. She looks like Queen Victoria, at least that’s what her father, Jim, has always told her. She envisions a beautiful, regal woman in elegant dresses and decadent up-dos, but one day, when she’s six years old, she stumbles upon a picture of the queen and she realizes that her father’s comparison is more a cruel joke than a compliment. When Victoria turns seven, Jim and wife, Christine, have another baby girl, much to Jim’s dismay, who desperately wants a boy, but the winning consolation of it all is that newborn Gracie, looks exquisite – the perfect resemblance of both her mother and father. 

          Victoria grows up to be smart, successful and independent in her own right, fulfilling her dream of graduating college, living in NYC and becoming a teacher. Of course, all of these goals do not meet her parents expectations or wishes for her and there relationship continues to be strained. Gracie grows more beautiful with every day. She models, has many friends and boyfriends and above all, is the apple of both her parents’ eyes. In fact one day, Jim tells Victoria that she was the “Tester Cake” and Gracie the prized pie.

          As you might imagine, Victoria pulls farther away from her family with every year, insult and family reunion gone wrong; but when Gracie announces she’s getting married to her college sweetheart, Victoria has no choice but to return to the family that has shunned her all her life. This time armed with a successful, handsome, and smart boyfriend, Victoria is not alone in her misery. In fact, she’s not miserable at all and it might surprise a few people.

          Big Girl explores many issues in its saga of the life of Victoria Dawson, most notably weight, family and parenting, sibling rivalry, love, forgiveness, trust and growth. I was amazed at how much time Danielle Steel covered in this book with out feeling like she left out anything. She has a way of highlighting important dialogue and integral events to flesh out her characters and evoke just the right emotion from her readers. Partnering with Brilliance Audio and Kathleen McInerney, who read Big Girl, I felt like I was right there with Victoria through all of her moves, transitions and struggles. Kathleen McInerney has quickly become one of my favorite narrators, first listening to her on Emily Giffin’s Love the One You’re With, she has impressed me with her enunciation and soothing sound. It brought a level of calmness to some of the more infuriating scenes, but still evoked the necessary strength and compassion of Victoria’s story.

All in all, a quick and straightforward listen. Although it was a tad predictable at times, it left listeners with a happy ending and don’t we all need happily ever after sometimes?

      3 STARS

Girls Night Out! Chick Flicks – Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin, The Movie

Second Date

I thought for the second rendition of Girls Night Out! Chick Flicks I would combine a Chick Flick I have been eagerly (obsessively) anticipating for the past two years, Something Borrowed with a book review of its original text of the same title by chick lit queen, Emily Giffin.

Emily Giffin broke out into the chick lit scene one of the heights of the genre. Red Dress Ink was firmly established in the US as a popular publication house for chick lit novels only, with the UK’s Little Black Dress books right on its tales. Although Emily Giffin never published any of her books with either of these houses, she became a prominent figure in the genre of chick lit, where she remains firmly planted to this day and Something Borrowed was the book that set her career in motion. A classic tale of two rivaling best friends, Darcy and Rachel – perhaps, better known today by the term coined by tv show, Sex and the City, as “frenemies”, aptly labeled for their love-hate relationship which continually crosses that fine line between friends and enemies. As Darcy deals with the stress of planning her wedding to handsome lawyer, Dex, and Rachel deals with the stress of turning 30 and still being single, the two best friends’ lives intersect in more ways than ever before. Through all the fights and milestones, nothing has torn them apart, but Darcy and Rachel’s friendship is about to be tested in ways they never could have imagined.

In the opening scene of the novel, Something Borrowed, we find Darcy, Dex, Rachel and all their friends at a Manhattan bar, celebrating Rachel’s 30^th birthday. Darcy, ever the party girl, is in her prime, drinking, dancing on tables and otherwise stealing the spotlight as she has always been so inclined to do. After her umpteenth cocktail, it’s decided that she’d be better off calling it a night, and Dex, usually the perfect gentleman and boyfriend, puts her in a cab and stays behind with Rachel and friends. By night’s end, when the last of their friends, Marcus, announces his departure, it’s only Dex and Rachel left standing – and “standing” quickly shifts into a more horizontal position as they, too, leave, together for Rachel’s apartment. Unplanned, unpredicted, but definitely not unwanted, Rachel is confused, to say the very least at what has just happened. Was it a one-night stand? Does Dex actually have feelings for Rachel? What about his engagement to Darcy? Is it over? Will he tell her? Should she tell her? When sex, best friends, fiancés, and a wedding are on the line, things can only go in one direction – down and Dex and Rachel learn how “one-night” can quickly turn from complicated to dangerous to disastrous. Who will be left standing and who will be together in the end?

Something Borrowed was an unforgettable and incredible debut from St. Martin's Press author, Emily Giffin, who has since reigned as one of the foremost queens of chick lit. She dares to broach subjects that others may feel are too taboo to write about, such as lovers, affairs, fantasies about ex-lovers, love triangles between best friends and fiancés and more scandalous plot lines to tantalize all your reading senses. I listened to the audio version, which was narrated very eloquently by Jennifer Wiltsie. She created an audible world of friendship, overcome by love, passion and betrayal, taking my imagination of the novel to new heights. This classic chick lit book will remain on my shelf for years and decades to come. A + + / 5 Stars

Warner Bros. romantic comedy, Something Borrowed, is due for release in theaters nationwide May 6, 2011. It stars Kate Hudson as Darcy, Ginnifer Goodwin as Rachel, John Krasinsky as Ethan, Steve Howey as Marcus and Colin Egglesfield as Dex.

(Bonus: Be on alert for an Emily Giffin cameo in the movie!)