Okay, I'm in rant mode again...
Yesterday, after my rave review of Lisa Jewell's Thirtynothing, I checked out the Amazon reviews because I wanted to make sure everyone agreed with me (egotistical, much?). And, do you know what? They didn't. Some people didn't like it at all. Some people thought it was only okay. Some people really loved it. But pretty much every single person described it as "predictable"...
(Sort of spoiler over the cut, but only sort of...)
By predictable everyone seemed to mean that they knew, from the beginning, that Dig and Nadine would end up together. Well, of course! Isn't that how romance/chick lit novels work? And chick flicks? Did anyone sit down to watch, say, When Harry Met Sally, thinking that Harry and Sally *wouldn't* end up together?
My friend (and fabulous author) Luisa Plaja made a good point a little while ago: no-one complains that a crime novel is "predictable" because the perpetrator gets caught in the end, do they? ("I knew from page one that they'd find out whodunnit!") so why is that always a complaint about chick lit? Why?
Yes, we know that the hero and heroine will end up together (that's why they're the hero and heroine), the fun is finding out how it happens. Isn't it?
