Cooking Up a Storm - Review

"When newly single Sarah Peterson rents a cottage on Kit Roseberry’s country estate and swops cooking supper for rent, she isn’t expecting TV producer, Magda Holmes, to fall for Kit and his culinary skills, or offer him a slot on her TV show.

Kit can’t boil water, but he’s got the look and needs the money. Magda is keen to go for a traditional feel, happy families, picnics on the beach and birthday teas, so Sarah - along with her two boys - finds herself as undercover cook, and an instant wife and family for Kit’s TV debut.

But what will that do to Sarah's fresh start, her new man, ex-husband and the rest of her life? Is it a recipe for disaster or does it have all the ingredients of a great romance?"

This is chick-lit at its best.  Cooking Up a Storm follows the unravelling of Sarah's marriage to the self-centred Colin and the beginning of her new life at the beautiful estate in Newnham Magna. Her eccentric landlord Kit, gets in over his head with a TV producer and what follows is a gentle and humorous farce which delivers that delicious falling-in-love excitement, without adhering to a romantic formula.

This is a novel for those who appreciate good food. There are recipes at the end of every chapter and they are mouth-watering. For heaven's sake eat before you start reading, you'll find yourself very peckish before you get too far.

If you are looking for a happily-ever-after experience that's well written, not formulaic and witty look no further. Sue Welfare has written well over 20 novels and knows how to tell a good tale that keeps a reader guessing as to where the happy ending will happen. Her heroines aren't written to type and neither are her relationships. For those of us who aren't 20-something, and know the perils that accompany being swept off our feet by Prince Charming, she ably describes the wonder of falling in love and the difficulties of having meaningful relationships in mid-life, without reverting to cheese or cynicism.

I am slightly biased, it must be said. When I first began my journey into writing, I did a 10-credit Introduction to Popular Fiction at UEA (when they still did Continuing Education). I'd never read chick-lit before, and on the advice of my tutor I took myself off to WH Smith and surveyed the crammed shelves. I picked up Guilty Creatures and loved it and I now have an excellent stash of her books on my shelves and in my kindle.

Cooking Up a Storm is currently only available in e-reader format, but a little birdie says that is due to change with the paperback version due to be released soon.

I can't recommend this novel enough. Enjoy!

The Stench of Success - HP and the Deathly Hollows

Last week, I took it upon myself to read the seventh and final installment of Harry Potter. It's been sat on my shelf, since I bought it. A guilty buy, spurred on by the hype of the release and peer pressure. I kept looking at it and have really not been able to face it. I'm not sure why I needed to read it last week, I just did. I picked it up and waded through it during the course of an evening.

If it were a report written for a developing country, I would say it was very successful; such reports are judged on their ability to kill local cockroaches when dropped from table height. As a work of fiction aimed for children and their parents, I have to say I was less impressed. Half-way through the first chapter I felt myself reaching for a red pen. I found myself wanting to annote my copy with: why is this here? Overwritten. Does not move the story forward. Show, don't tell. With a good editor, she could have had a much better read, using half the space. It's so disappointing. Rowling didn't know who she was writing for, which is a real shame. This confusion has led to her books becoming far more turgid reads from Goblet of Fire through to the Deathly Hallows.

The elements which made the books such good fun in the beginning, the sharp, witty writing have disappeared. I was left with the feeling that she was killing off people for the shock value, rather than to heighten the risk and realism. Realistically speaking, the wedding fiasco which took up far too many pages, was completely unnecessary. It didn't lead to us learning anything really new about the characters or move the story forward in an original or outstanding way. Yes, it did hint to a revelation about Dumbledore...but at what a cost.

The revelation about Snape at the end, which was by far the most interesting and enjoyable part of the whole bloody book, was over in a matter of pages. He died almost as a footnote. The thing which kept me wading through the book was Harry's discovery that Dumbledore was a mere human being was interesting, but I'd have loved to have seen more of Snape (and not just because Alan Rickman is a thinking woman's crumpet).

There. Got that off my chest.

I'm sure there will be people who will rightly say 'who are you to be critical of this successful writer?' and 'you're just jealous'. To you I say, success is not a good enough excuse for sloppy writing. I rest easy with the fact that I'm not going to be JK Rowling, earning however many millions per print run. I'm not sure I'd like to be. Her current court case over her rights over the Harry Potter empire is just crass and cringeworthy.

I think part of the reason Rowling's voice has changed so much since the Philosopher's Stone, is that she has grown into her craft. The true test of her success as an author will be what she writes next. Though, even if she writes a complete dud, she's amassed enough wealth to be comfortable for the rest of her life, for it not to matter one whit.