Light and sweet, or thoughtful and insighful?

books:


	• The Breakup Club (Red Dress Ink) Melissa Senate Red Dress Ink, 2006 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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Quite okay

Melissa Senate's "The Breakup Club" centered around four individuals who were basically in the midst of a breakup. Lucy, a successful editor of a major publishing company was shocked when her seemingly normal husband, Larry, shoved the the tray of their Thanksgiving turkey off the table in front of their family members. She was even more shocked when she realized Larry's one New Year's resolution was to leave her. Lucy's sister, Miranda was dumped by her boyfriend Gabriel after she suggested that they might get married someday. Unable to accept Gabriel's decision, Miranda hoped that he will changed his mind. Christopher, Lucy's colleague, was recently dumped by his wife who left him for an older, richer man. Not to mention, Christopher had to share their only child, Ava, with his former wife's beau. The last individual, Roxy, left her husband to be on their wedding day and went to Manhattan (from Brooklyn) as she decided that she could not be the person her husband, family and friends wanted her to be; a suburban wife. All four decided to form the "Breakup Club" to share their problems and woes.

This was an okay book as the individual stories were somewhat interesting. I think the whole idea of the "breakup club" was kind of lame and the author did not really expand on that. As this is not the author's first attempt at a novel, the writing was quite good and the pace of the book was fast, so there aren't many slow, and uninteresting moments. This is not the best book in this genre but it is certainly better than the average.

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Fun read.... just like her other books.

I liked this book. It's one of those books where each chapter is dedicated to a different character in the book... so you are constantly switching back and forth between each person's life, and then from time to time, their paths cross and you see how they relate to one another. I liked it. I was entertained by all of the characters' stories. I probably liked Roxy's and Chris's storylines the best.

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Absolutely Impressed

Pros: I read other reviews and I was amazed that anybody could possibly NOT like this book. I thought it was fabulous! The only Red Ink books I'd read were by Lynn Messina and from that alone, I realized that I might like this publishing line a lot. It's always interesting to read about people my age who are trying to figure out their career, their future, their family, etc. so I connected with Roxy the most, who absolutely did not want to fall into the normal "marriage/kids/cooking/gossiping with female relatives." It entertained me that she was the "guy" in the relationship, because I'm usually accused of the same thing. I thought Christopher's character was interesting because it is so rare to read a story about a single dad whose wife left HIM behind, and who is turning women down instead of humping everybody. I thought Lucy was a realistic portrayal of how a married woman acts when her husband is a lunatic, without being stereotypically desperate. Miranda couldn't have been more different from me, but she reminded me of friends I've had over the years, who are constantly chasing love. Basically the book is about four people who have either been the broker-upper or the brokee-upper, and how they deal with each of their situations. I liked how the story was told from different perspectives so we got the chance to learn more about each characters

Cons: It seemed like everybody in this book looked alike, minus Roxy when she died her hair. Blonde hair and blue eyes throughout the whole novel--no variation. With all of these different characters, I'd have been content if the characters had more stand-out features.

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Light and sweet, or thoughtful and insighful?

I really think that Melissa Senate is one of Red Dress Ink's best writers, so this book was disappointing. On the plus side, I really enjoyed the story and -- real love and real loss, and, as a refreshing change, the longevity of romantic love, as opposed to the theme that tells women that if you can just find your prince, everything else will fall into place. The people in this story are all trying to figure out what it means to be in love and stay in love -- and to fall out of love. In that way, this is perhaps one of the more substantive chick lit love stories out there.

On the other hand, the writing is rushed and sometimes too superficial. The plot has everything necessary to go just a step or two deeper, but does not follow through. Why did Larry really leave his wife? Other than missing his wife, how did Chris feel about her decision to leave him? The real motives and emotions seem to be skipped over. And some parts of the plot seemed to get skipped over too. For example, it just seemed that all of the sudden Roxy was a brunette, and I thought maybe I had skipped a page. I hadn't -- there was no paragraph explaining that she had changed her hair color and her clothes, or why. I actually think that Roxy's conflict could have carried the whole novel -- her family, her search for herself were really compelling, and seemed to steal the show.

Overall, a fun read, and it walks the line between fun, light reading and thoughtful, insightful romance. I'll still read whatver Senate writes next. I think that this will also make a good movie, like See Jane Date.

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Will there be a sequel?

Meet Christopher, Lucy, Lucy's sister Miranda and Roxy. Each has experienced some type of breakup in their relationship. They form the Breakup Club as a way to help each other cope. I liked that the author allowed each character to have his or her own chapter. What disappointed me was the ending. It was to open-ended and I wasn't sure where the characters were in their lives after the breakup. I immediately thought the author purposely did that as a way to continue the stories of this group of friends.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Meet the Members of the Breakup Club . . .

Lucy Miller-Masterson: Superstar editor of bestselling books, supermom to a precocious preteen and superwife of a hot doctor . . . until she learns her husband's New Year's resolution of "Leave Lucy."

Miranda Miller: Stuck under her big sister's shadow, this twentysomething editorial assistant hopes her perfect ex-boyfriend will come crawling back . . . with a diamond ring.

Christopher Levy: The women at the office think he stole Lucy's promotion. The moms at the playground think he broke up his family. But this weekend dad can think only about figuring out fatherhood.

Roxy Marone: This Brooklynite shocks her traditional family when she skips her own wedding to hop a train to Manhattan for a life-changing job interview.

In her most ambitious novel yet, Melissa Senate explores life after heartbreak for four very different yet equally memorable New Yorkers, with her characteristic warmth, wit and wisdom.

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