You know.... I was really rather disappointed in this book.

Tangled - Emma Chase , the first book in this series is a 5-star favorite of mine.  It was funny as hell and written with such dash and verve that it stood head and shoulders above a lot of books I read last year.

I couldn't wait for this one.  To be fair, the writing is still fantastic.  I really enjoy this author's ability to create atmosphere, how she crafts her dialogue, and the fact that she write humor so well.  I think comedy is so much more difficult to write than drama.  And this isn't even broad comedy but sharp humor that manifests in great dialogue and a well turned phrase -- you know, the kind of humor that a good raconteur imbues into what is really a rather simple story, but makes it sound new and funny.

That is all there.  This time instead of getting a story told in Drew's needle sharp voice, this one is told from Kate's POV.  Honestly, I didn't quite connect with Kate the way I did with Drew.  Maybe I am a secret Dude Bro at heart?  Or maybe it could just be that it felt like the author was really going for broke with Drew and so the first book came off as a bit more fearless?  At any rate, Kate's voice felt more subdued.  Or rather more conventional.

But that isn't what disappointed me.  Not really.  My biggest issue with the book is the plot.  The basis of this book is that Drew and Kate needed to get broken up.  How to accomplish that because they were so in love at the end of the previous book?  Why, a Grand Mis of course!   And frankly it wasn't even that clever of a Grand Mis. 

The whole thing depended on Drew and Kate speaking at cross purposes.  He was talking about one thing without actually explicitly saying in actual words what he was talking about.  Ditto with Kate.  She was talking about something different, again without actually using real words.  I won't say what the Grand Mis was about, but it was unbelievable because all Kate needed to do was use one  very unmistakeable word and the whole misunderstanding would have been over right there.  But she never actually says it.  And I just couldn't buy that a guy like Drew -- the Drew from Tangled -- wouldn't spew out everything he was thinking.

So the whole foundation of the plot was really rather.... disappointing. 

Still I find the author's writing style and voice so appealing that even with the plot, I couldn't help but read the darned thing.  And late in the book, the POV switches back to Drew and BOOM!  Immediately the energy of the book spikes.

So yeah, didn't live up to the first one but still I'd recommend it.