The Grand Finale

The Grand Finale by Janet Evanovich

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I checked this one out as a downloadable audiobook when I was testing our new service (OneClick Digital) and needed something to practice with. I love Janet Evanovich's books and thought this one sounded like a light, fun thing to listen to in the car on my way home. Well...it is light and fluffy...and utterly, teeth-grindingly idiotic. I listened to the first half hour, and it didn't get any better, so I will not be listening to the rest.

Reading the print version might have been better. At least that way I wouldn't have to listen to the narrator simper through Berry's dialogue and attempt to smolder through Jake's. Then again, the characters and story itself are ridiculous. She's a dingbat, and he's unrealistic in the extreme. I mean, really? I'm supposed to believe he gave up a lucrative chemist/inventor position for the glamorous world of teaching first grade because he hated the corporate life, just "happened" to have a degree in elementary education AND a teaching certificate, and he wanted to use students as his guinea pigs? Oh, and he has a perfect body, etc. Riiiiiiight. I nearly went blind from rolling my eyes so much in that excruciating half hour drive home.

Likewise, Berry's character made me gag. She's supposed to be all independent and self-sufficient, pulling her life back together after her divorce from her philandering husband, but...she's an immature adolescent in an adult's body. A flighty airhead. Vapid. I can buy that she's nervous about delivering a pizza to an isolated, dark, creepy old house. I can even buy that she climbed a tree to rescue a kitty and was distracted by the sight of a gorgeous male stripping out of all of his clothes in his bedroom. Her internal dialogue about it makes me cringe, but OK, whatever. What put me over the edge, though, was 1) her idiotic conversation with Mr. Large Pizza (Jake) and 2) that after protesting being saved from going over a cliff with her Jeep, she insists on walking home (from the middle of nowhere!) WITHOUT first climbing down to salvage her purse and other important personal items and documents from her crushed vehicle. Really?!?

*sigh*

For Reader's Advisors': skip this one. Or only suggest it to someone wanting total fluff.



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