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That's (Not Exactly) Amore

Tracey Bateman
FaithWords (2008)
ISBN 9780446698955
Reviewed by Tina Avon for RebeccasReads (10/08)

I like reading dedications at the beginning of books.  What first caught my attention with “That's (Not Exactly) Amore,” written by Tracey Bateman, is the cool dedication: “to Julie Young - a forever friend.”  For some reason, this touched me and gave me even more of a reason to dive into this chick-it book.

I have been on the record as saying that chick-lit seems to be on a downturn.  However, I am glad to report that this book gives me hope for the genre.  Our main character, Laini, is a struggling designer; she gets the chance of redesigning Nick's restaurant, which will give her the opportunity of (hopefully) graduating from "design" school, and thank goodness Jazz will be there to actually "do" most of the hard work.  While Nick may think this is a great idea, his nephew (and hunk), Joe, does not; in order to compromise with Lainie, Joe brings in some extra help.

I loved, loved, loved this book.  The storyline has it all: a cute hunk who is clueless, until he realizes that another cute hunk is after the girl he wants (Lainie is quite baffled by this! Two guys after her! Wait a minute , last week there were none).  We also get some great food descriptions (which is always a plus in these types of books - yummy), and we also get lots of miscues, miscommunications and most importantly, lots of humour.

What also makes this book work so well is the connection between Lainie and her friends, particularly Jazz , who all seem to honestly love each other and watch out for each other. This is refreshing in chick-lit.

I loved the character of Lainie who never seems to take herself seriously, I hated Joe who spent much of the book either clueless or a day late and I loved the character of Mark who sounds charming and is devoted to pleasing Lainie (my kind of guy).

The writing is fresh and cute, there are no gratuitous scenes and the book makes a wonderful weekend, beach read.  This was a great read.

    

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