Comments on: REVIEW: Sweet Spot by Susan Mallery

By: limecello

limecello — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 01:50:04 +0000

AnimeJune – makes a lot of sense. I thought Hawk was a bit wishy washy but I think I was more ok with it than you. Everything went along swimmingly until he realized what was really going on and everything fell apart. (Seriously – he thought his daughter never lied to him??)
I did really respect Claire for showing up again and again. I *do* wish, however, that she would have stood up for herself at least 100 pages earlier. She didn’t have to be mean about it, but she could have said something – I like Claire and Nicole equally though.

Brittany… ugh. I just can’t think about her. Ugh.

By: AnimeJune

AnimeJune — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 01:25:08 +0000

Well, in a nutshell, I’ll say I loved Nicole’s character and could completely relate to her, but the events in the novel were too contrived. Hawk was good, but I didn’t like how he slid from being a capable parent in the novel’s first half to a completely powerless and incompetent parent in the second – it seemed unrealistic.

In Sweet Talk, I actually liked how Claire handled things. I thought the fact that she kept showing up to work and to help out, even after Nicole and Wyatt and nearly everyone else told her how useless she was, showed an endearing amount of gumption, just in a more passive way than the usual “fiesty” heroine stereotype.

But YES, I wanted to smack Brittany SO BAD. SO BAD. Who still sticks out her tongue at people and calls them “mean” when they’re eighteen? Who, I ask you?

By: limecello

limecello — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:46:14 +0000

AnimeJune – Hi – didn’t like… Sweet Spot? So did you like Nicole but not her book? (Which I can see.)
I liked Sweet Talk a lot, but I felt Nicole was too bitchy there, and that Claire was too spineless for much of the book. [And Jesse pretty much constantly annoyed me, until her book, Sweet Trouble, but by that point I thought it was a bit weak.]
I loved Hawk – other than how utterly clueless and idiotic he was. Seriously? (But, ok. Also he totally reminded me of the hero in “Not Another Bad Date.”) And Brittany’s character too… her, I sooo wanted to smack. How could anyone regardless of what stories they grew up with believe it’d be all sunshine and roses to go through a teen pregnancy? Idiot.

By: AnimeJune

AnimeJune — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:32:33 +0000

I’m going to have to be the fly in the ointment here and said I didn’t like it, and still think Sweet Talk is my favourite. The first half was great – and for once we have a hero who knows immediately what he wants and goes after it instead of stewing in angst! Yeah! But in the second half, once all the pregnancies start accumulating with unbelievable speed, and a couple of characters (notably, Brittany) undergo complete U-Turns, it became a huge slog.

Loved Nicole, though.

By: limecello

limecello — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:11:54 +0000

Haha – coulda if you’d started at page 145

I’m unsure about Sweet Trouble I knew it’d be set a few years later… but I anticipate liking it less. I can only hope I’ll be wrong.

By: Sybil

Sybil — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:04:48 +0000

damn them all

LOL honestly I don’t think I could have finished Talk if I read it first. ::shrug::

By: limecello

limecello — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:17:55 +0000

I thought so too. I wanted to smack Brittney a few times, but mostly to knock some sense into her. Even with all the fluff and yay stories her parents told her how could she think that? Maybe it’s good you read this book first. Sweet Talk took certain aspects a bit far.
Also, I read some review where the reviewer absolutely trashed the book… but she couldn’t even have finished the first, considering the way she completely missed Nicole’s personality. Aish, “reviewers.”

By: Sybil

Sybil — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:03:32 +0000

This was my favorite of the bunch and the first one I read. Just loved Nicole and Hawk. And he was such a blind man when it came to his kid. Something I thought played out very true and well. And good god was she a stoopid girl. The fact Nicole didn’t run and run fast after all she put up with Jesse sez something I think.