Too Good To Be True

So this book was all over the place. The main character is a high school history teacher, a compulsive liar (about boyfriends), and a Civil War reenactor. She's also a touch neurotic, but I found it more endearing than annoying, oddly enough.

So, I really liked this book. Maybe I just really got Grace. Maybe it's the awesome cast of supporting characters, including gay dance instructor best friend and the grandmother with a permanent stick up her ass. Maybe it's just that this book is superbly funny.

Grace Emerson doesn’t consider herself a particularly pitiable person. She loves her job teaching American history. She has her own house and an adorable dog named Angus. But when her fiancé dumps her and begins dating her younger sister instead, Grace discovers that everyone in her family feels sorry for her. To escape their pity, Grace tells them that she’s started dating someone else — a wonderful, handsome, sensitive pediatric surgeon. Too bad he’s fictional — unlike Grace’s sexy new neighbor, Callahan O’Shea, whose sarcastic barbs annoy Grace even as she finds herself increasingly attracted to him.

This is my second encounter with Kristan Higgins (after Just One of the Guys), and I think I can safely say I’ve found show more a new author to enjoy. Every once in a while I just want to read a light, fluffy contemporary romance, and Higgins definitely fits the bill. Her books are a little unconventional for the romance genre, for two reasons: (1) there are almost no sex scenes — she mostly uses the fade-to-black approach — and (2) the story is only told from the heroine’s point of view. That’s one aspect of the book I didn’t like so much; I would have loved to see some of the events from Callahan’s perspective. But other than that, I enjoyed this book a lot. I especially liked the fact that there was no Big Misunderstanding keeping Grace and Cal apart. The obstacles to the romance are realistic and don’t seem contrived. I’ll definitely seek out more by Higgins in the future. show less

Grace Emerson's ex-boyfriend is a prick. Seriously. And her younger sister? A spoiled moron. Grace sure isn't perfect either.

Luckily, she has better luck next time around in the love department with her neighbor Callahan (I love the name Callahan, by the way). She accidentally hits him with a hockey stick...and then a couple of other times too. Luckily, he has a well-developed sense of humor. He also appreciates that Grace's neurotic tendencies can be construed as cute instead of completely insane.

Once again, Kristan Higgins and both her trademark humor and poignant moments hit dead-on and make the book fabulous.

One of my new favorite swoon-worthy moments of all time also occurs in this book. Four words: Gone With the Wind.

Anyway, I've show more come to regard Kristan Higgins as one of my favorite comfort read authors. I know that when I pick up one of her books, I will get a well-developed love story, tons of hilarity, and also a few moments that leave me in need of Kleenex. She is great at making her readers get caught up in the lives of her characters. My favorite book of hers remains Just One of the Guys, but this one is a great read as well. show less

I loved this book! I enjoy all of Kristan's books--her characters are fantastic: flawed, yet always seem like people you'd love to get to know in real life, and by the end of her books they feel like friends--but this one will always stand out for me. Its heroine, Grace Emerson, is a history teacher and weekend Civil War reenactor. As a history teacher and reenacter wannabe, I just loved reading her story! (One of my favorite parts will always be when Grace, reading an email from a parent asking how their student can pass her class, wants to respond "Work harder. Think more." but of course writes something much more P.C.)

Grace has a lot to deal with as the story opens. Not only does she have a demanding job and a busy weekend schedule, show more her sister is dating her ex-fiance, the guy who helped her pick out the house that Grace now owns. After a particularly stressful family gathering where Grace, sick of impertinent questions about her love life, has unwisely...well...*invented* a boyfriend, she comes home to witness the vacant house next door being broken into. After calling the police--and hitting the intruder with her old field hockey stick--Grace discovers that she's actually just met her new next door neighbor, Callahan O'Shea. Of course, it'll be a match made in heaven; how could it miss? show less

Grace has a bad habit of making up boyfriends to get out of awkward situations, divert a pity party, and more. Her latest fake boyfriend—a golden-hearted pediatric surgeon—comes in the weeks leading up to her youngest sister’s wedding…to Grace’s ex-fiance. Of course, it doesn’t take a surgeon to see through her stories, as evidenced by the fact that her neighbor, Callahan O’Shea, an ex-con-turned-handyman with whom she got off on a rather clumsy foot, seems to have figured out her most embarrassing habit. With her sister’s wedding looming but her having not yet fully moved on, Grace needs to find an eligible (read: real) man to transfer her affections to…

More chick-flicky romantic comedy than the more scandalous show more affairs I’ve become used to when it comes to romance, Kristan Higgins’ writing will have you smiling, bouncing, and sighing over this straight-up romance with the best of intentions.

Grace is a smart and funny woman with a really awkward weaknesses when it comes to talking to and about guys that will make you both pity and empathize with her. Sometimes her stupidity when it comes to guys drove me crazy: you kind of just want to shake her and yell in her face, SNAP OUT OF IT, ALREADY!

But when Grace is not making a fool of herself regarding guys, she’s the best, with an endearingly geeky love of Civil War reenactments (have you ever met a character who was into Civil War reenactments? I didn’t think so) and appreciation for teaching history. This makes it totally possible for us to cheer for her happy ending, when she finally gets it…and Callahan is no slacker in the “ideal guy” department, if yanno what I mean.

Complete with zany family members and laugh-out-loud dialogue, Kristan Higgins’ books will now be on my radar forevermore when I’m looking for a sweet and funny romance. Highly recommended! show less

I didn't care for this one as much as I've liked the other books by Kristan Higgins I've read. Once again told in the first person point of view (though in the past tense this time, thank God). It just felt like you got a lot of Grace's point of view, and none of Callahan's, which doesn't make for a very fun story for me. I like to see the inner workings of the leading male's head and heart as well. Also, Grace is way too neurotic about her horrible dog. And what's up with Kristan Higgins' need to (1) make up a new way to swear in her books that sounds ridiculously unnatural ("God's nightgown!" Who says this? Really? Is she a 90 year old lady?) and (2) reinvent "blah blah blah" (still trying to decide if this book's iteration is more or show more less annoying than the last one's "blah blah bleeping blah").

ALSO, one of my pet peeves is American authors who use British-isms.
You live in New York. People live in apartments, not flats. You did not "have a good shag," you got laid. This sort of nonsense throws me for a loop and abruptly jerks me out of the story, which makes me grouchy. It just makes me think that the author read too many British romance novels and watched Bridget Jones' Diary a few too many times. Please write in the vernacular your characters would actually use. Now if your character was addicted to romance novels, esp. those of the British variety (like a certain friend of mine), then OK, I can see her being a weirdo and using words like "flat" and "shag." (I HATE the word shag, btw.)

OTHER THAN ALL THAT - this was another cute romance by Kristan Higgins. Fluffy with just a little puff of steam, not in the least raunchy. I love how Grace calls Callahan "bub" - so cute. show less

I was hesitant about this book, mainly because I have never been a fan of first person writing. Add to that the fact that though I read several reviews that said it was laugh-out-loud funny - the same thing I read about another book which I barely found amusing - and I was feeling gun shy when I picked it up. I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised, however. There were indeed several places where I found myself laughing like mad. Just one of those moments was here: "Mom, alas, was generous with her art, and so my cellar was littered with glass girl parts." I know that reading it out of context doesn't work, but for whatever reason, this moment in the book and this sentence in particular just had me hysterical with laughter. show more Read the book. You'll appreciate it when you get there.

So, this book turned out to be far better than I expected. There were a few things I found annoying or at least cliche. Her best friend is a gay man? Hasn't that been done to death, yet? Also, a few of the writing mechanisms Ms. Higgins employed got old after a while. Still, as a whole this book was a wonderful read. I got far more attached to the characters than I usually do, and even shed a tear at one of the especially poignant parts near the end. Grace is a funny, neurotic mess and I loved her. Angus McFangus was pretty darn adorable as well. show less