A Case Of Serendipity by K.J. Farnham

More of a 3.5 Stars really.

Somehow I found that I just could not connect with the characters in this book at all.  There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the writing or the characterisation, I think they were just too far away from the people that I know and so had no reference point for their motivations and behaviours.  Beyond Ruth's love of jigsaw puzzles and Henry's workaholism their lifestyles are polar opposites to mine, so much so that I did find myself a little bit (dare I say it, I dare, I dare) bored with the book from time to time.

The writing itself is well crafted and flows well.  However, the constant jerking back to legal(ish) emails and then chatty texts did break the flow and spoilt the read a little bit for me.  For some reason the constant full format email showing Henry's position and contact details at the law firm really irritated me and felt like page filler to bulk the page length out.  The text messages were far less intrusive and a good way of expressing dialogue in a way that is becoming more familiar to us than actual face to face conversation.

The insights in to each character's past and their relationships with their families was interesting and did flesh the characters out in a not too overt fashion.  You very definitely get the sense these are two grown-ups who have a handle on the whole adulting thing but are trying to still keep some of that childlike wonder at the world to milk the most out of every drop of life.  Although set in Milwaukee it did feel very much like it could have been Anywheresville, USA with the chain coffee shops, Keurigs and farmer's markets and there was little in the way of local colour to really differentiate this place from any other.  Mentioning the Keurig reminds that "things" seem to be a touch important with the odd little bit of brand-dropping here and there, not enough to really infuriate me but just enough to make me tut over the first 2 or 3 chapters but it soon settles down to barely there levels.  I suppose the brands do give you an idea of the stage of life the characters are at and their relative incomes, somehow it irks me - bit like reality TV shows irk me.  It certainly isn't a new device and it is highly prevalent in Victorian Literature (with servants and carriages replacing the brand names) but they were times much more delineated by class than our own.

The plot itself is quite a sweet and slow romance and although there are no sex scenes we know full and well that Henry and Ruth have "done the dirty deed" because both refer to it.  Fortunately the author has steered away from sex scenes - this is good for me as I find them ubiquitously cringy (as my husband said "if someone were to write a passage about swimming a few lengths of their local swimming pool it would be almost unbearable to read if you had experience of swimming; all that splashing and thrusting and pulling through the flat, chemical smelling surface.  It's just the same with sex").  The focus of the book is more about them each learning to trust another person with their heart and believing that they will be accepted even if you can't carry a tune in a bucket or have two left feet.  The unfolding relationship with Ruth and Henry is wonderfully tender and sweet without slipping over in to nausea inducing levels of saccharine, with their attraction to each other being more about personalities than looks (although they do find each other very attractive).

On the whole I did enjoy this book, I think I was just a little disappointed that it didn't grip me as much as "Don't Call Me Kit Kat" and may have been unnecessarily harsh in my reviewing of it.  If you do enjoy a good romance that doesn't rely on salacious passages to sell itself then this is a good book for you.  I have to be honest and say that if you are looking for a light read for by the pool this summer then you won't go far wrong with this one.