While I enjoy reading about people who have great organizational skills and are wizards at running social events, this was too weird for me. I hated that Melissa was this naive doormat who couldn't say no to anyone, let her truly horrible family walk all over her, and let her boyfriends steal from and/or control her. Her philandering MP father strong-arms her into planning her younger sister's wedding for free, and continues to berate and insult her throughout. While the American businessman boyfriend tells off Melissa's dad and forces him to publicly thank her at the reception, I hated that it was a man who was in charge of the dad's comeuppance and not Melissa herself. I guess her being easily deflated every time she tries to stand up for herself is an accurate symptom of abuse, though.
This inability to stand up for herself affects her relationships, and she basically lets all the guys she dates call the shots and walk all over her. In Little Lady, Big Apple, Melissa is thrilled when American boyfriend (I forgot his name) flies her to New York City to stay with him and go sightseeing. However, his job and ex-wife (they are still going through the splitting up assets thing) keep him from spending time with Melissa at all, because he has no backbone. Unsurprisingly, Melissa has a hard time standing up for herself when American boyfriend wants her to stop helping guys altogether because he feels threatened like the chump he is and instead wants her to plan parties, which is not really what she does or wants to do. Thankfully she tells him at the end of LL,BA that if he's making her choose between him and her job, she chooses her job, even though it breaks her heart. Luckily he comes to his senses and begs for her to take him back.I'm also really tired of reading about heroines that just HATE their curves and think they're fat and ugly but all the men around them hit on them and drool and stuff. Melissa is always talking about how fat she is and how wide her hips are and how big her boobs are, and it gets so tiresome, especially when like every male character she is around basically does the BOING cartoon pop-out eyeball thing at her. Despite all her self-deprecation, which I believe a lot of curvy women go through and have in real life, it's obvious that she's this Nigella Lawson retro pinup type chick, and looks super hot in everything. Ugh. Oh, at the beginning of the book, a male coworker slaps Melissa on the ass and she's like "haha oh that Hughy" with no anger at all! Um, that's workplace sexual harassment! Why does she think that's normal??? I also found her naivety (misunderstanding men's sexual entrendes, the escort job, others' objectifying her) annoying, although she also chalks it up to having to deal with her dad's infidelities. Still weird and annoying rather than amusing.
If I come across the other books in this series I might read them, but I'm not spending more than $1 on them.
I have no real opinions on the book covers, other than that they're cute and girly. I do want to say that I kind of hate the name The Little Lady Agency. I find it difficult to believe that Melissa's business would be wanted or needed in like 2005 or whatever; it seems more a 1950s/60s thing. I know a lot of guys are clueless, but still. Of note: one of Melissa's friends/clients sounds like he's asexual and/or aromantic (she poses as his girlfriend to get his mom off his back, and he says that he's just not interested in dating anyone and is happy alone in the long term).
Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Read in: mid January
From: thrift store
Format: paperback
Status: giving away
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