Posy gets engaged but wants to make sure Matt is the right one for her so she goes back and sees her exes to learn why they did not work out.

 

Reading the blurbs and ads about this book I was expecting something funny but I found it to be a book that was sad. It was sad that Posy had so little confidence in herself that she could not believe Matt loved her. It was sad that she listened so much to others who did not seem to have her best interests at heart. They (her best friend, sister, and mother) were constantly putting her down because of her past failures. They also questioned why Matt would want her--a perpetual screw-up. Matt does not help when she goes off on her journey of discovery. He gets mad and quits talking to her (although I can understand why.) Both need to learn to communicate better. Posy's mother was--well, I cannot find the words to describe her but she did not build Posy up.

 

I did enjoy the book though it was not what I expected. I found the epilogue interesting. I enjoy reading Jenny Colgan.

I need to get ahead of the books that I have finished the past week. Due to me being at training right now I just don't have a lot of energy to post reviews. Going to post as many as i can before I finally fall on my face.

So this book, eh, the main character got on my nerves. That's before the reveal about what a loon he was when you find out the backstory on his and his girlfriend's relationship. I used to watch "How I Met Your Mother" and over time, the narrator of the story, Ted Mobsy got on my freaking nerves. Ted went around talking about being in love, and wanting to be in love and even finally got his dream girl (Robin) who he just wore down into going out with him. Do you know how happy I was when they broke up? Because initially the writers got that Ted just loved being in love and wanted every woman he met to fit what he wanted. He didn't really give a crap about them as independent people from him.

 

So here enters the lead character, Ollie Sweet. Unlike with his other books, Spalding's writing wasn't funny in this one. I just knew where he was going with everything. Har har, Ollie goes to a spa and we know he's going to get waxed. Ollie goes off to the forest, gets bored, and ha ha masturbates in front of deer. I just felt annoyed through the whole book. The only reason why I gave this three stars is that the book moves rather quickly and shocker of all, Spalding doesn't go for a HEA that is fairly well telegraphed from the beginning of the book.

 

Ollie plans on proposing to his girlfriend at an amusement park on her birthday. Yeah that right there would have me dumping you hard. I am not a public proposal person. Good on you all that have the ability to not recoil in fright if you are the center of attention. So Ollie proposes, gets rejected, goes into a tailspin, and the editor at his newspaper tells him that he should consider writing about his heartbreak. The newspaper is doing low numbers and any day now they will get the ax. Ollie turns his heartbreak into "Dumped, Actually" a play on the movie, "Love Actually." 

 

 

This part of the movie is still seriously messed up to me. I was maybe screaming at this point and wanted her husband to come out and kick his ass. Who does this?? Sorry, I am getting distracted.

 

Anyway, Ollie via emails from readers starts going through the things you do to get over a breakup. Get a makeover, go out camping, etc. Through it all though I just realized that Ollie is one of those guys who dumps his friends anytime a woman is around (he admits this) and he is obsessed with his parents happy marriage and wanting to have one just like it. Honestly, Ollie is a wanker. He's just one of those guys who is all, I am a nice guy. We don't get to read any of his writing, so who knows how good at it he supposedly is. But we just keep reading about his antics to get over his ex.

 

The secondary characters are developed in order to help Ollie learn more about himself. What made me laugh for all of his crap about his parents we don't hear much about them or his immediate family until his parents vow renewal ceremony. I think Spalding should have included more details on them. Just reading about Ollie doing things his readers suggest to get over his ex gets boring. He tries to throw in a side plot about the newspaper maybe being closed down and the terrible investor, but I don't want to get into how offensive I found that whole freaking thing and I don't feel like spoiling. Let's say, per usual nice guy antics, he can't just let his female boss handle things alone, only he and his words are there to save the day. 

 

The writing is typical Spalding, trying to make you laugh the whole way through, but just like "Dry Hard" I didn't find this one very funny. I hurt myself laughing while reading "Love....From Both Sides." The flow was wonky. The book honestly should have ended after Ollie has his heart to heart with his ex, but it lumbers along to the ending.

 

The ending as I said was a nice surprise. 

'Dumped In Oz' is the first book in Andrew Grey's series 'Tales From Kansas' and I liked the story well enough, but nothing about it really put me over the moon. 

 

When Lyle Powers is given the opportunity to transfer to his employers warehouse in central Kansas...he's not thrilled about it, but as his friends point out to him it may just be the change he needs to get himself out of the rut he's let his life slide into and it's only for a year. After giving it some consideration Lyle realizes that while he's not thrilled to be leaving his home, this just might be his opportunity he needs to give both his personal and professional life a re-boot. 

 

When Lyle arrives in small town, somewhere Kansas in spite of his reservations he's surprised to find how much he likes what he sees and while he's resigned to his fate, he's also determined that he's going to make the most of his year in 'Oz'.  He's determined to do his best at work and to get out there and meet people, maybe even make a few friends rather than hiding at home with his television. 

 

It's on one of his trips out to meet people that Lyle meets Roger Kypers. Roger's a local, he's lived in this town all his life, he's also an alcoholic who's fighting hard to stay sober for the sake of his teenage daughter and the restaurant that he's poured his heart and soul into getting off the ground all this from the closet he's hiding in the one that possibly connects Oz to Narnia. 

 

At the heart of this story is a sweet tale of friendship and love. While Lyle and Roger share a mutual attraction I was also left with a very strong feeling of friendship between these two as Lyle tried to be Roger's friend and help him navigate his fears over coming out and living life as a gay man. It's not so much living life as a gay man that Roger fears, but what he might lose if he does. Roger knows that his ex-wife...(let's just think 'wicked witch of the west' here), is determined to keep their daughter from him, if he doesn't 'act normally' (insert stay in his closet here). 

 

It's not only the love and support of his awesome daughter and his newfound friend and lover Lyle but a band of strong and supportive munchkins (think community here)

that Roger soon begins to realize that maybe...just maybe, his life can be more than just his restaurant and the occasional visit with his daughter...maybe, he can have a family...a real family that he loves and that loves him back.

 

As Roger finally begins to feel like life is on track where is daughter is concerned, he also realizes that there's still one unanswered question that keeps his happiness hanging in the balance...'can he be enough to keep Lyle traveling down the yellow brick road with him?'

 

I really liked the premise of this story and I like Roger and Lyle. Lyle was a genuinely nice guy and while he didn't always agree with Roger and felt that Roger was being a bit to timid about things he wasn't a bully in his actions and efforts to get Roger to see that standing up for himself wasn't the wrong thing to do it was the necessary thing, not just for himself but for his daughter's sake as well.

 

Roger's insecurities to me were very largely connected to his concerns over losing his daughter, whom he so clearly loved and adored. Roger's love for his daughter and the author's ability to make me as a reader feel the strength of if was one of my favorite things about Roger.  

 

I also really liked the ending for this story. I was very much left feeling like these two men were standing together on their yellow brick road and heading in the same direction towards a much deserved happily ever after.

 

The narrator for this audio book was Rusty Topsfield and while it's not my first audio book by this narrator I have to admit to being a little uncertain about how I feel. In terms of my basic 'things I look for in an audio book' he ticks the items on the list but somehow the voices he gives me don't quite match up to what's in my head. So just like when I listened to the audio book of Santino Hassell's 'Sutphin Boulevard' it wasn't a matter of bad or good...more a case of I just didn't connect with this narrators voices.

 

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An audiobook of 'Dropped in Oz' was graciously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars

I was hesitant to pick this one up. I liked the description well enough. Lyle Powers, a young men stuck in a rut after his last break-up, has the opportunity to be more and start over when he's send to Kansas by his boss. Reluctant and pessimistic as he might be in the beginning, his new life starts to grow on him. Especially after he starts seeing more of Roger, a recovering alcoholic desperately trying to walk the straight and narrow - literally - in order to be able to see his daughter on a more or less regular basis.

These two are not exactly easy characters and I was looking forward to reading about their development. But. And this is a pretty big but: I was disappointed after finishing the story. I've read The Wizard of Oz, so it was nice to understand the little allusions here and there. On the other hand the whole theme seemed to be pulled off half-heartedly. You either do it constantly and throw in references in all kinds of situations - which was what I expected because of the title and all; or you only use it as some kind of frame. In this story it felt like it was somewhere in the middle of that. There was something there, but it was too much for the one, and not enough for the other.

Another problem for me was the writing. I knew beforehand that Andrew Grey isn't exactly and 100% my kind of author. But I had this book on my TBR-pile for a while now, and I wanted to use it for my "Around the country"-Challenge. In the end though, I had to admit defeat. Even though I was interested in the story to a degree, it just didn't grab me. The dialogues didn't really flow, felt rather stilted at times. In general, the writing didn't feel natural to me. Some phrases made me cringe, because I was always thinking that nobody would talk like that, or say things like that while keeping a straight face. Some of the "emotional revelations" and inner musings felt absolutely out of sync. In some books even that kind of writing can work for me, but here it just never clicked. Also, the villains were way too one-dimensional for my taste. No layers, no explanations for their "over-villain-ness", everything black and white. A reference to the Wizard? I don't think so. All in all, the whole book felt too flat, too "simple" and too unnatural in writing and pacing for me to really enjoy it.

Lyle has been in a rut since his last relationship ended, so when his company gives him the opportunity to transfer to Kansas for a year, he decides to leave everything behind and start over. When he gets there, he meets Roger, the co-owner and baker at the local restaurant. Roger has plenty of his own demons, a recovering alcoholic with a teenage daughter and a cruel ex-wife, he is forced to hide who he is to keep his girl with him.

This was a nice, sweet story with a just enough drama to make it interesting. I loved all the Wizard of Oz references and Lizzy was the perfect daughter. Lyle and Roger were a great combo with wonderful chemistry and I can't wait to read book 2!