Chick Lit Reading

This post is for a friend of mine who recommended Emily Giffin's books, "Something Borrowed" and "Something Blue" when she stayed up 'til 2:30 am reading last weekend. The premise is a love triangle involving two best friends and a fiance who sleeps with and develops feelings for the BFF he's not engaged to. "Something Borrowed" is written from the viewpoint of the cheater, Rachel, while "Something Blue" is written from the perspective of the engaged woman, Darcy.

Before I heard about these books, I picked up Jennifer Weiner's new book, "The Guy Not Taken" and couldn't make it past page thirty. There was waaaay too much boring backstory for my liking. Frankly, the writing bored me as well. While not frowned upon in chick lit, but annoyed me no less, Weiner violates one of the cardinal sins of writing by using dialogue tags such as "quipped" or "whispered" or "snarled." If the writing is good, the tag is unnecessary. I couldn't get past this annoying distraction, given her book is littered with them.

So...I read the first couple chapters of "Something Borrowed" last night, relieved to read something far superior to Weiner's book. I was almost beginning to doubt my interest in the chick lit genre. It's been a couple years since I started and finished a book -- call it writers' eny or something, but I think I shall make it through this one no problem. Appreciative of the recommendation!