Rating: 
Summary: Golden nuggets of humor and truth abound! Fin is in!
Review: I really got into this book. Maybe it's because I got married over 35, and I loved the line about how "Harvard professors who say a woman is as likely to be married after thirty-five as she is to be abducted by terrorists...may they fall into open manholes where hard-body lesbians await them." I HOWLED!!! I can remember reading statistics like that and thinking they were messages from God. Absurd? YES!!! Absolutely absurd but so true! Finnamore has the knack for delivering a power packed novel of the indulgences, neuroses, wild thoughts and irony that exists when you finally get what you've always wanted!!! I think the sign of a great book is when you find yourself talking to the characters, and...this is key...even when the characters are driving you crazy! There were times when I wanted to slap Eve, but most of the time she made me laugh out loud. One more thing...one might ask why an intelligent woman with a high powered career would become so obsessed with getting her handsome, single boyfriend--who feeds her breakfast in bed and does a chilling Deepak Chopra to take the long walk. I lived in San Francisco when I was in my thirties and single and I had my share of surfer dudes from Half Moon Bay! Slim pickins'--SO YOU GO EVE!!! Otherwise Engaged is a refreshing change from the self- actualized commitophobic ya-yas of our time. Read it if you're married, divorced or dating pimply-faced boys ten years your junior!
Rating: 
Summary: PASS
Review: I wanted to give this book a try because I'm getting married in a few months and thought it would be interesting. With the different things I heard I wasn't sure. I didn't finish it, though, and will tend to agree that the book is no fun. Not that I was expecting a "fairy tale" type of romance, but this couple didn't even seem to LIKE each other. At least he didn't seem to like her very much.Ususally I also give first time writers the benefit of the doubt, and since it's a subject matter I am obviously interested in, I tried. I would not recommend this to someone who is in love and planning to be married.
Rating:
Summary: The zany truth at last revealed.
Review: When my husband (10 years now) proposed he just sort of asked me out of the blue. It wasn't even romantic, he just said, "We should get married, do you want to marry me?" I said yes. And then I spent weeks obsessing over the fact that he didn't kneel. And feeling like the shallowest Bi#&h on the face of the earth for caring about something that is so unimportant. But it was ingrained. So now along comes this book, Otherwise Engaged, that basically just splits the unspoken truth wide open for all to see. I was hysterical with laughter reading it because every other line was like, yes, yes, yes. I remember my husband and I decided not to do the ring thing because neither of us are comfortable rings on our fingers. Anyway, so we agreed to this. But secretly, I wanted him to break the deal, surprise me with a fifty carat diamond. It's just so pathetically true. I adore this book for being grown-up enough to stare the facts in the face and then laugh at them. LOVED it.
Rating:
Summary: The IT book of the summer
Review: Wow, and this is a first novel? Otherwise Engaged is wonderfully written, painfully honest and side-splitingly funny. It's in-your-face smart, stunningly original and deserves to be every bit the hit it most certainly will be. It's the hip, modern must-read for anybody who's not afraid to recognize themself in a book -and laugh at what they see.
Rating:
Summary: Had me in stitches!
Review: Tell it like it really is, Eve! It's bold, it's true and it's an absolute riot. I thought it was so refreshing to read something that just dared to admit all the things we think about but then feel guilty for thinking about. What a great, 'get-real' attutide this book has!
Rating:
Summary: A sassy, funny, honest look into the mating game.
Review: Otherwise Engaged is loaded with great humor, colorful characters and a narrator who shoots from the hip. It's refreshing to read a novel about getting married that chronicles not only the excitement--but the doubts and outright FEAR as well. Ms. Finnamore delivers the hilarious lines that many people wish they had thought about hours later. I love her take on dealing with in-laws, the lacquered ex and anxious clerks. Marriage is not only an institution, but a business and she nails it down with pizazz! I enjoyed how the main character is aware of her own compulsion to have it all. Eve can at once admire how her ring "throws off prisms of light" and in the next sentence cut to the payback of such an indulgence..."plowing head on into a semi, entranced. Exactly what such a person deserves." At first, I wondered why anyone could be so consumed with the idea of getting engaged. But Eve's character craves normalcy after her parent's bizarre marriage. She is not broken, but determined to make it right every step of the way. Eve knows there are no guarantees, but searches wildly just the same. Otherwise Engaged was a book I could not put down. Futhermore, once finished I wanted to call the writer and go have a cocktail. True grit, laughs and heartfelt emotions--Otherwise Engaged is a treat!
Rating:
Summary: Delicious
Review: What a thoroughly "engaging" and indulgent read this was. Reading Finnamore's novel is a little like succumbing to that forbidden desert - you know it's just a little evil, which is of course what makes it so deliciously fun. The sardonic humor and wit of this novel transcends the actual situation (the year of engagment) making it appealing to a much broader audience than the recently engaged. Let them eat cake!
Rating:
Summary: One funny book
Review: If you're looking for an engagement guide, this is probably not the book for you. But Finnamore definitely has a gift for sardonic humor, and for anyone who enjoys a laugh at the human condition (and what thinking person doesn't) I can't recommend this book enough.
Rating:
Summary: The truth at last
Review: Whatever engagement used to be, honey it ain't that now. The way women used to be, they ain't that way now. No one I've ever read has managed to combine today's woman with the rites of engagement like Suzanne Finnamore. This book is hilarious. Almost everything Eve goes through reminds me of my recent pre-alter experience. I felt so alone and ashamed sometimes -- like I was the only woman left who was feeling tortured through the whole trial. Now Finnamore comes along to help all women on the marriage trail understand that these feelings are universal with wry, sly humor. Every engaged woman there is should be handed this book by writ of law.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and so deadly true
Review: I only wish that I had encountered this book the first time I walked the aisle...it would have dramatically improved my outlook and made me feel less alone. Finnamore's style of writing appeals without becoming a distraction. A wonderful debut and poignant as well -- I hope to see many more books from this author.
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