"The Importance of Being Married" Gemma Townley

Well, it's Friday. And I'm not feeling great. One of the fabulous things about living in Canada is that the weather has a tendency to change abruptly, and all of the sudden I'll find myself under the weather. The thing is, with three little boys I don't have the luxury of being sick, so I just have to suck it up and take some Advil. Not that I'm complaining, maybe I'm just whining a little. Hee hee. Anyways, I've decided that I'm going on housework strike today, so after I did my morning bus run and went out to buy birthday gifts for my son Ethan, who turns nine tomorrow, I came home, sat the boys in front of "Blue's Clues" and decided to finish reading "The Importance of Being Married" by Gemma Townsley.

I'd heard to expect something similar to Sophie Kinsella from Gemma Townsley. Since I generally love chick-lit, I was happy to be able to get a copy of this book from my library to check it out for myself. I don't know what it is, but I think that lately I've read so much fabulous fiction that I'm growing out of chick-lit a little. It's sad, but its a little like growing apart from an old friend, I guess. Anyways (sorry for the rambling....it's all the Advil I've been popping!) I picked up the book not knowing if I was still into the chick-lit thing, but I enjoyed the book. I didn't love it, but I liked it, which is encouraging. It's a cute story about Jessica Wild, a woman who loves her job, doesn't have time for boyfriends, and likes to keep a low profile. She's happy as she is until she meets Grace, a woman who also lives in Jessica's grandmother's retirement home, who thinks that Jessia should be out there dating and finding herself a husband. Jessica invents a fictional boyfriend, her very real boss at work, to keep Grace happy. Things go so far that at one point Jessica tells Grace that she and Anthony have gotten married. This is all fine and good until Grace dies and leaves her inheritance to Jessica. Mrs. Jessica Milton. Suddenly Jessica has to figure out a way to actually become Mrs. Anthony Milton in the next 50 days or else her four million pound inheritance will be lost to the government. What follows is what happens when Jessica Wild tries to become something that she's not; something that she doesn't even want to be.

I could safely label this book "cute". Like I mentioned earlier, although I have a soft spot for chick-lit, it pales in comparison to the great fiction I've been reading lately. The plot was a little predictable, but the resiquite happy ending was present, so even though I'm feeling under the weather, I've got that happy-ending glow thing going on. This is the first of a trilogy about Jessica Wild, and I'm sure that when Townley comes out with the second two books I'll take the time to check them out.