Amazon discontinued the ability to create images using their SiteStripe feature and in their infinite wisdom broke all previously created images on 12/31/23. Many blogs used this feature, including this one. Expect my archives to be a hot mess of broken book cover images until I can slowly comb through 20 years of archives to make corrections.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Special Ed


Ever see a book that looks kinda cute, sorta fun - a bit of fluff to wile away an afternoon when WHAM-O! Something in the back cover blurb smacks you in the face like Mr. Universe swinging a 2-by-4. Exhibit A:

Pink Jinx by Sandra Hill. She's got a new publisher in Warner books, this is the first book in a new series (naturally), and it's due out in November.

Description:
BAITED...
Caught! Straight-laced Boston lawyer Veronica "Ronnie" Jinkowsky knows something's fishy when her estranged grandfather lures her to his New Jersey treasure hunting business with woeful tales of old age and bankruptcy. But she never expected the salty old dog to shanghai her into a hunt for pink diamonds with her poker-playing, four-time ex-husband Jake Jensen in tow.

HOOKED...
Betting her heart on Jake was always a losing proposition; yet just the sight of his come-hither blue eyes is still enough to melt her steely resolve. Now she's on a high seas' adventure that throws together lost gems, lost ship, and lost love--not to mention a Mafia widow, her two goons, and an elderly Cajun matchmaker hankering for hanky-panky--

AND GOING DOWN FOR THE LAST TIME!
Ronnie is trapped with the man she could never learn to live with--and was never happy without. A jinx of the best possible kind.

Hello? Four-time ex-husband?! She-it, even a toddler learns not to touch the stove after the first time they get burned. This does not bode well. Now I can understand tap-dancing around an ex (hell, I've done it). I can even (almost) understand marrying the same guy twice. But wouldn't you think the idiot heroine (OK that's an assumption on my part - but seriously four times!) would learn her lesson here? And why go through the hassles of getting married and divorced...four bloody times? Wouldn't you think one of these morons would say after Divorce #2, "Hey honey, maybe we should stay the hell away from each other" or "Hey let's try not getting married and just move in together. Think of all the money we'll save on divorce lawyers!"

And yeah, I'm reading way too much into this (a nasty habit of mine), but seriously - married four times to the same guy? Geez.

5 comments:

Rosie said...

Sheesh! I'd be putting it back on the shelf. Did no one think that might not be a good selling point for a romance novel?

Kristie (J) said...

She wrote another one in her Cajun series where the heroine was married a bunch of times too. Although I read the others in the series, that particular book didn't interest me in the least. I figured someone who got married that many times just kept making the same mistake over and over. When I was reading the outline on this one - that's what jumped out at me too. I'm just not interested in a book with a that many married times theme. She's an interesting author for me. Some of her books I really dig - others I can barely tolerate. I think it's because the first one in a series is fresh and fun but by the time she gets to the third of fourth - it's just the same old same old.

~ames~ said...

I read a viking book by Sandra Hill, and thought it was silly. This sounds even worse. Four times? Maybe somebody was watching Friends reruns?

Toni Lea Andrews said...

I don't know anyone who has married the same person four times. But we did have a family friend who married two women twice each. Sequence:

Married A, had 2 kids. Divorced A, married B. Still saw A.
A got pregnant. Divorced B, remarried A. Still saw B. By the time A gave birth, B was pregnant. Re-divorced A, remarried B. Started seeing C - divorced B.

Got conviced of embezzlement, went to prison. Having trouble supporting various exwives and offsprint and keeping up house payments (tends to happen while in prison). A & B and kids moved in together to save expenses.

The story actually gets MORE complicated but I'll spare you...

Rowena said...

LMAO!

She-it! I LOVE IT!!!

4 times ex husband, what the hell is wrong with this broad? I wouldn't pick this one up at all!