Heartbreak for Hire by Sonia Hartl
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
2.5 stars, rounded up. I have a lot of thoughts about this story.
On the one hand, I will say that it was a quick and light read in that I read it in one sitting, and enjoyed the time I spent with it.
On the other hand, I felt like most of the characters were not as layered as actual people are and this left the novel feeling not as enjoyable because everyone was playing a part in some ways. The really cold and distant mom (though she has a reason she’s that way, don’t we all?) to the point of cruelty. The really nice man, Mark, Brinkley meets that starts changing everything and he is just so nice again and again (even though he messes up once.) The weird closed-off boss who’s doing it all for your own good…. The other women who work with Brinkley were some of my favorites in the book. The side characters were fun, light, interesting and added the color the story enjoyed.
But the way women and men are treated like single dimensional beings in this story both makes it light and frustrating and frivolous. If you don’t spend too much time on it, you can enjoy the story and see it as a journey Brinkley is experiencing during what’s a low time in her life and how she’s building it back up. But if it’s hard to get past it, it will shadow too much of this story for you.
with gratitude to netgalley and Gallery Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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