Book ReviewBubbles Unbound

Reviewer's Rating: 
3
Don't you hate a fence sitter, and yet, this is where this book falls, not bad but not great.
Publisher: 
Headline Book Publishing, 2001
Synopsis: 

BOOK ONE: BUBBLES YABLONSKY SERIES.  She may be a hairdresser with the body of a Barbie doll and a fatal weakness for hot pants, but Bubbles Yablonsky is not just another dumb blonde. She's determined to turn her taste for gossip into a talent for journalism, and she knows a secret about the death of Laura Buchman that could be her Big Break. Plus, she gets to work with photographer Steve Stiletto - a dead ringer for Mel Gibson, and exactly the kind of mysterious, dangerous man her mother warned her against. But Bubbles soon discovers that while brazen bravado gets results, some people will do anything to keep her quiet...


On the cover of the copy of this book I received it said, "In the fabulous tradition of Janet Evanovich"  Then I checked out the acknowledgements, "...Nor could it have been written without the encouragement of Janet Evanovich on whose New Hampshire kitchen table Bubbles was born.  She has been an invaluable role model."  SHWIIIING!  I settled down to love this series.  And then I didn't.  Huh?  I know, right?

One of Janet's signature's as an author is her pacing.  Fast, snappy, let's get to it people!  Sarah is able to mimic this timing but I suspect she wanted to be different, separate, interject a bit of her own style at times and I don't blame her but boy did it throw us as readers with chronic story-interruptus. 

For instance, we've followed Bubbles from her hairstyle job to an emergency journalist call to cover a suicide jumper on a bridge who happens to be her old physic's teacher, to actually falling with him over the edge and saving him because she'd been geared up to a harness first, to stumbling upon a dead man in a park only to discover the next morning that not only was her suicide story stolen, but so was her expose on the dead man in the park - she is enraged and seriously considering going for her extra-sharp scissors at work when BAM!  Let's talk about how her daughter dyes her hair with Kool-aide and throw in the recipe for the readers.  What the!  This happens time and time again for peppermint foot bath recipe's, hung over drink elixirs and anything you can think of that could disjoint the reader from the exciting flow of the story.

The story and mystery component is well crafted, thus the three rating.  But I was surprised to see a publication date of 2001.  I thought for sure this book was popped out in the mid to late 80's.  Bubbles is cliché blonde, make-up to make Dennis Rodman jealous, big bombastic upstairs, and long legs never in anything but high-rise heels.  Fiction is fiction, but Bubbles as a believable character stretched that for me a bit too far.

If, like me, you skip over the recipe's and time spent describing Bubble's appearances and various tight, spandex, neon outfits, it's not a bad read - certainly one you can put down and come back to anytime, but not one of my favourites.  Having said that, I much preferred Sarah's most recent book, The Sleeping Beauty Proposal.  So I think I'll put in a pin her Bubbles series and stick to Sarah's stand alone novels.

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