
I Love NY. Yes I guess I do love New York and I miss it.
It has been just ages since I was there, not since before 9/11. Manhattan is human sized, despite the skyscrapers. It is easy to get about in. Last time I was there it felt real safe too. I guess Rudy did a good job there.
Why am I reminiscing? Well blame JMB. She went and did a book review and I thought... why not?
Not for me the intellectual rigour of the more literary stuff she reviews. Oh No.. I happened to find myself in the book store and there it was with a buy one get one ½ price label on it no less.
So a mental lightweight... aaaand a cheapskate you will be thinking.
This is your printed equivalent of chocolate. Your, not too hard work, easy read, funny, romantic, feel good, type novel. Coincidentally titled...
I Heart New York, by Lindsey Kelk, ISBN: 9780007288380.
It would probably make a good romantic comedy with Sandra Bullock in the lead, provided she can manage a convincing Brit accent.
The heroine is Angela Clarke.
Her life is quietly trundling along, nothing spectacular, dull. She lives with her fiancé Mark. They have been together for 10 years.
It is at her so-called best friend's wedding reception that things come apart spectacularly. Mark is the best man and Angela is bridesmaid. She is wearing a great but uncomfortable pair of shoes, realises no one can see them under her meringue of a dress so she decides to change into something more comfortable.
She sneaks back to their vehicle only to find someone else already did that and they are still there... having sex on the back seat... and it is her fiancé. Big Shock!
It turns out this is a long term thing. It turns out her best friend knew all about it. In fact she and her new husband had played tennis doubles with cheating wretch and his new squeeze.
This proves too much for poor Angela. She ends up making a scene, breaking the groom's hand with her shoe... And after sleeping on it decided she can't face going back home or to stay with her parents. No she needs to make a complete break.
She needs to get away, to put space between her and her unravelled life, far away.
The following morning she goes to the airport, against her Mother's protests and puts an ocean between herself and her trouble. Grabbing her overnight bag for the wedding with her change of clothes she heads to the airport and gets the first flight to New York. Then grabbing a taxi asks to be taken to a random hotel.
On being dropped off at the Union hotel and then the reinvention of herself and her adventures really begins.
Almost instantly she manages to make friends with a savvy New Yorker Jenny Lopez (No relative to J-Lo).
This is a fast paced amusing story. One of those validating, "I so wish I could do stuff like that if it happened to me" stories. No rocket scientist-ery involved. But it will make you feel good.