Abandoned by Booklikes

Yeah, I said it.

Right now I am on a zero dollar book budget, which isn't that bad. I am reading things that I may have passed up on. Though now I am like, girl, get better taste in free books.

"Big Sexy Love" could have been so much better. I think in the end too many absurd things were happening and Greenwood lost the plot. And I liked the idea behind the plot so much. I also wish we spent more time with Birdie. Birdie was a great character, and we only get glimpses into her. I wish that Greenwood had included more scenes/dialogue with Birdie and Olive. I found myself loving the letters in the end and that Olive didn't just run after a dude. Other than that, I felt that this was an okay book to pass the time with.

"Big Sexy Love" has Olive Brewster going to New York to track down her best friend Birdie's ex who was her big sexy love. One wonders why Birdie can't do it, but you quickly find out that Birdie is dying, and it really will be up to Olive to track down Birdie's ex and give him a letter from her to him. Only issue is that Olive loves her routines (works at the fishmonger and goes home to watch Big Bang Theory with her brother and his pain the butt girlfriend) so traveling to New York isn't going to be an easy thing for her.

Olive meets a cast of thousands it seems, but she manages to shake up her routine and pushes through in order to make sure she keeps her promise to Birdie.

Olive was not a sympathetic character at times. We find out her parents separated and acted like jerks. So now she is living with her brother in their childhood home. the girlfriend is a nasty jerk, but she was still saying little truths here and there about Olive and her inability to take care of herself. I think if we didn't keep jumping from absurdity to absurdity the book would have worked better for me. Olive is almost arrested, arrested, and just running from scene to scene. We don't get to see her really take in New York except for here and there. I didn't like her love interest because guys who act like assholes are not my thing. 

The secondary characters are merely there to prop up Olive or be an impediment. The only one who is there and shines in this is Birdie. I do wish that Greenwood had worked with what she had more. The best friendship of Birdie and Olive are really the only parts of the book that worked.

The writing was so-so. I think that happening each chapter start with a text from someone in Olive's life didn't work that well. Also including twitter messages from one tertiary character was too much. The flow was pretty awful though. We just have ebbs and flows and nothing really works until the last 10 percent or so.

The setting moving from London to New York felt a bit blah to me. I just needed more color. Greenwood does at times have Olive pay attention to her setting. But it felt like a weird New York where everyone (mostly) is super helpful and things are apparently cheap as hell.

The ending was a surprise and I honestly think the epilogue was written very well.