Book Review: The Girls’ Guide To Love and Supper Clubs

One of my friends on goodreads.com recommended Dana Bate’s new novel and so I thought I’d give it a read. I’m a foodie that dabbles in gourmet dinner parties, I live in the metro DC area, and I’m pretty interested in the underground restaurant scene that is all the rage lately. These circumstances and my love of breezy ‘chick lit’ meant that The Girls’ Guide To Love and Supper Clubs was sure to be a book I’d enjoy and it was.

The protagonist, Hannah, is a smart and resourceful young woman living in DC and working the typical think tank job. She’s dating a handsome, wealthy, and upper crust type of fellow who is employed in the political arena. From the outside, life seems perfect, but on the inside, she’s unhappy. Like many DC types that have come before her, Hannah actually wants no part of the political policy scene and would rather spend her time on other pursuits, namely cooking. Cue a round of applause from the true life wonk who dropped out of life on Capitol Hill to open up Cake Love (a gourmet bakery) in downtown DC. Of course her parents don’t support these aspirations (might as well tell them you want to be a rock star) and her boyfriend begins to tire of her less-than-high-society demeanor as well.

It appears that something’s gotta give but Hannah isn’t quite ready to stand up to her parents or give up her dreams so she takes the route many would and finds a way to do it all without upsetting anyone, at least at first. As expected, things come crashing down spectacularly and she has to find a way to put everything right again.

It’s a great story, light reading, with a strong arc and happy ending (I love happy endings!). I never pick up on the clues in Sherlock Holmes stories and that always makes me feel dumb - no reader likes to feel dumb - so I also enjoyed feeling smart as Bate’s allowed the reader to tease out where Hannah’s relationship with her landlord was headed long before Hannah realized it. My only criticism might be that Bate provided a less than convincing emotional conversion for one of the key characters at the end of the novel. I just don’t see it as plausible that a person would have such a dramatic change of heart (I don’t want to give away spoilers, but you’ll surely understand when you reach the final pages).

Overall recommendation: buy. Great beach reading.

Comments

Dana Bate said…

I'm so glad you enjoyed the book! Thanks for the lovely review :).

June 3, 2013 at 8:36 AM

Board Game Review: Hues and Cues

Last week we received Hues and Cues from The Op Games. We recently finished playing through Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion (a fantastic game in The Op Games catalogue designed by Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim, and Kami Mandell that you should absolutely pick up to play with your family) and wanted to give another game from the same publisher a go. I picked Hues and Cues because I’ve been pleasantly surprised by other “test whether our minds think the same way” games such as The Mind and Wavelength. In Hues and Cues , players gather around a large central board comprised of 480 graduating colors of the rainbow surrounded by an x-y axis and scoring table. White and black (which are technically not colors) are conspicuously absent as are shades (mixtures of color + black; e.g., grey) and tints (mixtures of color + white; e.g., cream). On each player’s turn, they draw a card with four colors and the x-y axis codes of those colors depicted and they select one. They are in the

Board Game Review: Anno 1800

Whenever Martin Wallace designs a new game, I am all over it. This is because I absolutely love Brass Birmingham (another MW designed game); in fact Brass Birmingham is my #1 board game of all time. Over the years, his other games I've tried have been pretty good, but not necessarily amazing must-buys. Still, I keep trying each new release of his, searching for that next star performer. That's why I'm excited to report that Anno 1800 is, in fact, a star performer, and an amazing must-buy board game. Anno 1800 was adapted by the publisher (Kosmos) from a Ubisoft video game of the same name. In the board game, players take on the role of industrialists, charged with developing their island economies and exploring other islands. Each player begins the game with a personal industry board with trade & exploration ships, a shipyard, and industrial goods tiles printed on the board. A starting collection of workers (wooden cubes) of various types to produce the goods is a

Board Game Review: Obsessed with Obsession

I'm completely obsessed with Obsession! I received a review copy of the updated second edition along with all the expansions (Wessex, Useful Man, Upstairs Downstairs) and from the moment I took everything out of the boxes, my excitement was over the top. Actually, that's not even the half of it - I remember I was already quite excited before the game even arrived. I'd wanted to get my hands on a copy as soon as I learned there was a game that brought the lifestyle that we all fell in love with watching Downton Abbey to the gaming table. Back in 2021, I was having a great time at the Dice Tower Summer Retreat and a new friend Bonnie sang the praises of Obsession. She had seen me eyeing the box on the shelf and gave me a summary of the game mechanics as she owned the first edition. She explained that the theme is centered on running an estate in Derbyshire and competing against others to have the best home, reputation, gentry guests, etc. Based on her enthusiasm and descripti