In Her Shoes

Number: 63
Title: In Her Shoes
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Started: June 13, 2007
Finished: July 2,2007
Pages: 421
Genre: chick lit

Where The Book Came From: Tauschticket.de (a German exchange platform)

First Sentence: "Baby," groaned the guy - Ted? Tad? - something like that - and crushed his lips against the side of her neck, shoving her face against the wall of a toilet stall.

Cover Blurb: Rose Feller is thirty; a successful lawyer with high hopes of a relationship with Jim, Mr Not-Quite-Right, a senior partner at her firm. The last thing she needs is her messed-up, only occassionally employed sister Maggie moving in: drinking, smoking, stealing her money - and her shoes - and spoiling her chance of romance. If only Maggie would grow up and settle down with a nice guy and a steady job.

Maggie is drop dead gorgeous and irresistible to men. She's going to make it big as a TV presenter, or a singer, or an actress. All she needs is a lucky break. What she doesn't need is her uptight sister Rose interfering in her life. If only Rose would lighten-up, have some fun - and learn how to use a pair of tweezers.

Rose and Maggie think they have nothing in common but a childhood tragedy, shared DNA and the same size feet, but they are about to find out that they're more alike than they'd ever believe.

Reason For Reading: It's a group read at one of my online book discussion groups and it sounded like a fun read!

Comments: Considering that this is my first by this author, I have to drag out an often used sentence: Why the heck did it take me so long to discover this author? And it is true here. What could have been your average chick lit ended up being a wonderful story about life, what being sisters means (or brothers, or brother and sister), and that sometimes you just need to take a break from what you've been doing to get a whole new look at life and maybe seize opportunities you wouldn't have come across otherwise.

At first, I held back quite a bit while reading this book. I had long before set it down under "chick lit" in my mind, and I was not up for that then. And then I watched the movie, enjoyed it - but it was a chick flick. So when the book started out the way the movie started out, I didn't really get into it.

In the end, the book was definitely different from the movie, much better to be honest (I kept seeing the Maggie in the book as a Cameron Diaz look-a-like, depite the fact that she has brown hair in the book)! The characters were far more developed. You could see how Maggie developed from a woman who relied on her looks to a person who discovered that she could use her brains, that her teacher might have been right about her being intelligent, just not in the regular way. Rose, on the other hand starts out as a woman totally fixed on her career to someone who realizes that there is more to life. Once the sisters have accomplished this, they appear to find good men - in one case in a place she certainly wouldn't have expected it!

This means two things for me:
1) I won't watch the movie again before reading the book.
2) I will try my best not to put books into a certain category before reading it.

Favorite Part:

Miscellaneous: In a way, it reminds me a bit in my room mate and me - and my brother and me... Does that make sense?!?

Rating: A-