Bookfreak Review: Naomi Neale's "I went to Vassar for this?"

I'd like to preface this post by stating for my huge audience of...three? Four, maybe people that this book is not sci-fi or fantasy. I found it in the Romance section, but I'd really classify it more as Chick-Lit. There was precious little in the "bow-chicka wow wow" department, knowwhaddamsayinandIthinkyado. Wink, wink.

So I was drawn to it because it looks rather ingeniously like an Anne Taintor creation. If you don't know the "Taint"ed ladies, then you better check yo'seff and make with the Googlin'. So I read the blurbs on the inside and every single one was raving over her wit and humor, the back cover had me cracking up, so I gave it a go. Believe you me, I didn't regret. If you're a hip, snarky babe like me, you'll definitely get some chuckles, if not straight up guffaws. Through out the book she makes several lists of pros and cons regarding her predicament, which had me howling. They start off amusing, but digress into hilarious internal debates about the hotness of Hugh Jackman. For those who appreciate the idea of Bridget Jones' Diary and VH1's Best Week Ever put in a blender with the movie Pleasantville, then this maybe the book for you. One of the things I totally adored was that the main character, a healthy, curvy girl, when zapped to the fifties (don't ask me to explain, just go read the book), she's a goddess. That's right, ladies. We have to stop being ashamed and just accept that everyone else is Time-Body-Dysmorphic Amnesia. We are totally hot, luscious babes, but our culture has just forgotten over the course of time since the fifties.

I haven't read a book this smack-dab-perfect for the big screen in I don't know how long. Seriously. The dialogue is better than anything Reece Witherspoon or Sandra Bullock has cranked out in...ever? Actually, I just caught Hope Floats the other day on tv, and I had totally forgotten how heartbreakingly awesome that movie is...also Harry Connick Jr in tight jeans. I don't care if his face is kinda crooked. (It's like his mama squeezed him too hard pushing him out or something.)

BUT I DIGRESS.

The book is totally cute, don't listen to that haterade-chuggin wench who wrote the first customer review on the Amazon site. What was she expecting? Willa Cather? Virginia Woolf? It's a paperback with bright colors on the cover, honey. Odds are they're not going to be including it in any American Literature courses any time soon. Yes, the heroine does some stupid, mildly annoying stuff sometimes, but that's pretty much par for the course. It's FAR less annoying than the standard romantic heroine, and while I don't know what that means as a statement on current literature, the author's conversational writing tone and humor makes up for any stumbles.

On the Napoleon scale of flippin' sweetness, I give it a four. Totally fun and funny.