Finishing School 2.0

The Finishing Touches - Hester Browne (large print edition, Wheeler, 2009)

Remember how I said "No more chick lit for a while"??? Somehow this didn't stop me from leaving the library last Friday with yet another one. This one is British though, which I kind of think should be a separate category.

And I really enjoyed it. The storyline is sort of absurd: this baby is abandoned on the doorstep of a London finishing school (the morning of/before Princess Di's wedding) and raised by the lord and lady who run the place and two old maid employees. Flash forward to the present. Betsy's adoptive mother has died and Betsy returns from Scotland for the memorial service where she discovers that the school is in shambles. (Duh, b/c who goes to finishing school in 2008?) Betsy got a math degree instead of going to the school herself - she is bitter about this actually - and is recruited to save the place and her mother's legacy. High jinks ensue. [That is my standard ending for pretty much ever plot summary, if you haven't noticed.]

But here are the things that make it work: British heroines are almost always more self-aware and hilarious than their American counterparts, and the supporting cast is just better. The four students - crazy rich young women - are adorably written, and I got a kick out of how they and Betsy interacted. It was over-the-top, but it also seemed real. And the love story was well-crafted. Browne sets it up so you're like, oh, it's this cliche. And then immediately something else happens, and you're like, oh nevermind, it's this cliche. And then sends you tripping back and forth between them for quite a while. Well played.

(On a side note, I ended up with the large print edition, which made the book almost 600 pages long and more importantly often made me feel like I was reading a kids' book. I understand why a lot of people who don't need the large print refuse to read it. It probably took well over 100 pages to get used to it.)

And now, seriously, I'm going to try to take a break from the chick lit. I swear.