Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time!
Review: Let me begin by saying that I did not read this book expecting great literature, so at least in that respect I was not disappointed. However, I was disappointed to find that this book isn't even a good example of entertaining "chick lit". The characters were cliche; the premises were cliche; even the Bon-Bons in the title are cliche!! What I had hoped for was a look into the lives and relationships of "real" women, not overtly melodramatic whiners at the mercy of their circumstances. Some reviewers have said that this is a story of "strong women"--I wish it had been!! The only woman in this book that seemed even remotely convicted was Slip, yet she was the most annoying of all. The others merely reacted to life's ups and downs, and not in the way we would hope most of the time. Does anyone honestly believe that Merit would have left her abusive husband if the others hadn't found out about the abuse? Probably not! Would Kari have found meaning and purpose to her life if her niece hadn't conveniently given her a baby that she conveniently never wanted back? No! And why was it even mentioned that the child was bi-racial if there was no intention to use that information to cause conflict? That situation, and many others, offered so much potential had it been explored. Unfortunately, the author seemed to have lost her way long before then. Not only were these characters poorly-drawn, they all shared the same voice, and were merely attributed different catch-phrases. The characters were not believable, and Landvik should know that just because the characters cry every other page doesn't mean she has connected with the reader's empathy. Personally, I wished a hundred pages in that one of them would grow a backbone. I guess the title should have been "Weepy Housewives"! Better yet, "Weepy Democrat Housewives"! And if that is your political affiliation, the author has not done your party any favors by writing this weak, Republicans-are-the-root-of-all-evil drivel! Maybe next time the author should leave the politics out and write about something of which she knows a thing or two.