Spitting Feathers

Rating:
Summary: Cute, fast read
Review: I'm surprised by some of the negative reviews here. No, the book isn't deep or realistic, but that's the point, right? I'd be picking up whatever incomprehensible classic is on Oprah's List if that was what I wanted to read this summer.

Tao Tandy is as flighty in the book as her (typically made-up) name. It's obvious as soon as she meets Chris the gardener that the air is rife with sexual tension and that they'll be hooking up in the last few pages. Tao's romance with the famous food guy is also amusing and predictable. The whole premise of the book, that Tao is house-sitting a smart-arse parrot (only in England!) makes it stand out from other RDI books.

If you want other books that resemble this one with a bit more substance, try Katie Fforde's books.

Rating:
Summary: A fine tale that readers will enjoy.
Review: Once she completed photography class, Tao Tandy headed to London expecting to take the big city by storm. A few months later, she remains unemployed crashing at the flat of her friend Sophie. However, things begin to look up when Sophie gets Tao a job bird sitting a Congo African Sir Galahad whose septuagenarian owner Adrienne Audesley is going to Portugal for two months. Tao will live in exclusive Hampstead.

Her luck grows when she also scores a photography job involving American TV chef Taylor Wiseman, whom she begins seeing. However, she finds herself attracted to Adrienne's gardener, Chris who one moment is her best pal and the next her most odious enemy even as she bonds with Sirg.

SPITTING FEATHERS is an enjoyable London chic lit tale that is fun to follow due to the interactions between Tao and the support cast including Sirg, who at times seems like the heroine's significant other (birds of a feather?). Tao's relationships with her mother is filled with frustration, with her friend's two roommates irritation, with Taylor romantic boredom, with Sirg's loving and finally with Chris spitting feathers as she wants him but he disturbs her. This is a fine tale that readers will enjoy.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: A fine tale that readers will enjoy.
Review: Once she completed photography class, Tao Tandy headed to London expecting to take the big city by storm. A few months later, she remains unemployed crashing at the flat of her friend Sophie. However, things begin to look up when Sophie gets Tao a job bird sitting a Congo African Sir Galahad whose septuagenarian owner Adrienne Audesley is going to Portugal for two months. Tao will live in exclusive Hampstead.

Her luck grows when she also scores a photography job involving American TV chef Taylor Wiseman, whom she begins seeing. However, she finds herself attracted to Adrienne's gardener, Chris who one moment is her best pal and the next her most odious enemy even as she bonds with Sirg.

SPITTING FEATHERS is an enjoyable London chic lit tale that is fun to follow due to the interactions between Tao and the support cast including Sirg, who at times seems like the heroine's significant other (birds of a feather?). Tao's relationships with her mother is filled with frustration, with her friend's two roommates irritation, with Taylor romantic boredom, with Sirg's loving and finally with Chris spitting feathers as she wants him but he disturbs her. This is a fine tale that readers will enjoy.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Amusing story, unlikable protagonist
Review: Photographer-hopeful Tao Tandy needs a job and needs a place to stay so, when she finds a house-sitting gig and a job photographing food for a sexy television chef, her life suddenly seems to be on track. Especially since the chef likes more than just her pictures. Admittedly, the housesitting job is a bit demanding since it comes with a needy parrot (African Grey) who hates everyone except his owner, Tao, and the gardener, Chris. But a needy bird soon becomes the least of Tao's problems when her parents' marriage disintegrates, valuable paintings get stolen, and the celebrity chef seems to be keeping a part of his life under covers.

Author Kelly Harte uses a breezy and fresh style as she details the life of Tao and her single girlfriends in London. Sir Galahad (Sirg), the bird is an amusing character with a strong personality (do birds have personalities or birdalities?) and always something to say. The human characters are a bit more problamatic. Peter Parker, sometime hoodlum and spiderman wanna-be who still lives with his mother shows promise but Harte doesn't really develop him. Despite Tao's problems, however, her constant egocentrism and snobishness makes her hard to like. Her obliviousness to what's going on around her and her terrible decisions about men would be funnier if she seemed to learn from them.

Despite some problems, SPITTING FEATHERS is a cute and well-written story.

Rating:
Summary: Funny, cute, entertaining
Review: Tao Tandy & the love interest get off -surprise!- to a bad start, but it's forced & lame. There's no chemistry between them, no tension, no romance. The storyline with the American chef fizzles out, goes nowhere. So we have to rely on the criminal aspect of the book, which is too small to carry the book. So all we have left is the amusing parrot (sorry -- "African Grey") and the neurotic mother. Too many elements, nothing well-developed. Ultimately I was left unsatisfied with the hero & heroine and the overall story.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent read!
Review: Tao Tandy is like so many real girls out here, wanting to make her way in life, and if she gets a bit of luck along the way, well great for her. Her luck comes in the form of a surprise break into the photography business,a great home because she gets on with parrots, and a good looking neighbour. However, he's not interested in her, or her in him. It's the cool American TV chef that Tao's got her eye on, but is he as great as he seems?
It's a good story, a fast read, and a lot of fun.