Stupid and Contagious by Caprice Crane

When I closed the cover on this book I was just happy and I still am happy. This is quite possibly the only time I have ever considered giving a book an A grade that wasn't a romance book and had no sex between the H/H.

I think I'm growing up.

*wipes tear from eye*

Upon further reflection and let's face it, my need to perfect my grading system in at least my own mind, I decided on a B+.

Cindy Blurb: Heaven is a, uhm ... well she's the heroine and Brady is the hero of the story.

Huh.

Okay, basically - uh.

I guess I'm making it pretty clear I have no clue how to review a chick-lit book.

Heaven starts the story as a high powered PR executive for a small firm and for some reason gets the boot (I mean, I know the reason, maybe jealousy or maybe we're seeing it from Heaven's side of things but whatever). Heaven gets a job as a waitress at a pretty trendy restaurant and we get the inside dish on what restaurants are really like (since I was once a waitress, I get most of it). I also think that Heaven doesn't have many boundaries because when she starts getting her neighbours mail, she thinks nothing of opening it and telling him her opinions.

The neighbour is Brady but we meet him on a plane wondering over his past relationships and why he is still trying to be cool when he is over 30. He is forced to move when the woman he has been living with for the past two years refuses to believe he is breaking up with her and won't leave his rent-frozen (can't remember the term) apartment. He meets Heaven and is basically appalled by her noisiness and general mayhem.

This book is told from the POV of Heaven and Brady and they swap chapters. So the chapter heading will read Heaven and it's her thoughts etc. We don't get earth shatteringly deep thoughts out of either of these characters. They are not looking to solve world hunger or stop war, they are just normal and sometimes normal is down right hilarious cause who hasn't been there and done that.

Is it a story about finding one's self? I guess, maybe, damned if I know. I think it's more of a story about meeting the person you fall in love with and that makes me happy. I laughed out loud at parts and no, it's not slapstick funny like Evanovich so no worries there.

Why not a perfect grade? Believability.

There is a scene where Heaven is clueless to the point of stupidity and all I could think was 'stop, you can't be this dense.' Basically she's working at the restaurant and smells something extremely bad and she thinks the toilets in the bathroom have backed up. She apologizes to the table seated near the bathroom and everyone kind of looks away. She goes into the bathroom and finds the odor is not as bad in there - so she decides that someone at the table has stepped in something and tells them this. Nobody at the table reacts - I would think at this point you would shut your yap and let it go but no, she starts sniffing around the table until she gets to a woman and is bending to inspect her shoe when the woman bursts into tears. She has a colostomy bag - Heaven is mortified that she just embarrassed the woman but really, would anyone take something that far?

The other part that I stumbled over was a section about Starbucks and how people get to make choices. While reading it all I could think of is You've Got Mail and how the hero in that movie had the exact same thoughts. It definitely took me out of the story because I was no longer in the head of Brady but in the head of the movie guy.

Oh, and the ending was too pat. I mean there is a HEA and then there is an over the top HEA. I'm just saying, the guy gets the girl, good enough. The rest is gravy but then Crane threw whip cream and a cherry on top. But then, there are people in the world with over the top lives. Bastards.

Ahem.

If you already love Chick-lit then I would recommend this book to you but remember, I'm not well versed in this genre. If you are in a slump and need something a little different then this might be just the thing.

That's what this experiment was for me. I just didn't know which of the 200 romance books in my TBR pile to pick up next so I decided I needed to read something completely different.

I'm glad I did.