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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing Doing for the Anglophile, January 2, 2010
This review is from: The Anglophile (Red Dress Ink Novels) (Paperback)
Shari Diamond has two main goals for herself: finishing her dissertation on the lost language Volapuk, and fulfilling her needs of all things English- including the men. Does it matter that she is living in the East Village of New York and dating a nice Jewish boy that makes her own Jewish family extremely happy? It just isn't enough for Shari, but on a conference to Chicago, everything changes. Shari quickly falls for (and cheats on her nice Jewish boyfriend) with the handsome, albeit not-so gorgeous, Englishman Kit Brown. Shari is shocked to discover the next day that Kit is actually a speaker at the conference- he is also studying Volapuk- and has found the last living speaker of the language that Shari has been searching for years to find. She is watching her dissertation go downhill with each convincing word Kit is speaking. What should her next move be? Why not invite Kit back to New York, meet her whole family, then travel across the Pond with him and finally see England for the first time. The Anglophile by Laurie Gwen Shapiro is not the best. It took me until Chapter 5 to figure out what exactly the book was about and where the plot was headed. It failed to keep my attention until the last few chapters, but then it went right back to confusing with strange love twists. The whole story line was not engaging and with characters just popping in and out of Shari's life made it even more difficult to understand what exactly was happening. I hate to say a book is a waste of time, but this is nothing that I would recommend to readers.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
This Anglophile definitely not a fan, March 30, 2009
This review is from: The Anglophile (Red Dress Ink Novels) (Paperback)
Thirty-five-year-old student Shari Diamond has a penchant for all things British. She meets fellow linguist (and super hot Brit) Christopher T. Brown -- Kit, for short -- by chance in Chicago, and there begins her romance and the perpetuation of her incredibly potent fetish. Kit and Shari become inseparable, making a jaunt from New York City to London in no time. But in his native land, Kit seems to have a whole lot of secrets -- and Shari has a whole lot questions without answers. I went into this novel with such high hopes. As someone obsessed with British culture and language and a devoted reader of chick lit, I thought this novel would marry all of my favorite things in one nice, pleasant package! I wasn't expecting The Great Gatsby, but this was just pure rubbish. Honestly, I pretty much hated it. For starters, Shari is a selfish, spoiled and self-obsessed -- and the fact that she meets Kit when she has a boyfriend and doesn't waste any time sleeping with him immediately turned me off this story. Going on a journey that spans more than three hundred pages with a character you don't like isn't exactly a good time. Still, I pushed myself to finish -- even though it felt like ripping my teeth out at points. The plot is just . . . thin. And meandering. Everything relies upon chance and a complete suspension of belief at points -- like the fact that Kit and Shari are suddenly in a serious relationship after knowing each other for a matter of days. Um, what? And while I did enjoy the very brief tour of London and surrounding areas in the latter half of the book, I spent most of the novel confused and overwhelmed. I mean, she's traveling the world with this guy? And there's some weird subplot with a childhood friend, and then we sprint ahead a year in time out of nowhere at the end of the book and Shari's aunt has a pet skunk and there's some strange medicine swap snafu and Kit becomes some secretive, weird guy and then they meet Ringo Starr and . . . I know, slow down. That's how I felt, too. As much as it disappoints me to say, I'd pass on this one. There are plenty of other British (and women's fiction) books in the literary sea to waste your time on The Anglophile.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
If You Like the Brits, You'll love this Book, August 11, 2005
This review is from: The Anglophile (Red Dress Ink Novels) (Paperback)
Americans are obsessed with the British. Or maybe not all Americans, but it's clear that many chick lit novelists are! Laurie Gwen Shapiro's latest offering The Anglophile in fact features a woman who absolutely loves anything to do with the British - especially the men. Shari Diamond, a linguist working on her Ph.D, is the Anglophile in question. She has been obsessed with nearly anything British since early childhood. Since she can't exactly go and live in England, she contents herself with dating British men who live in the U.S. During a business trip to Chicago, she meets an extraordinarily handsome and accomplished British man named Kit who is visiting the states. They end up hitting it off rather well. As a matter of fact, he turns out to be a Linguist also.. and professional competition. But they get along so well that he offers her a trip to England. How could Shari turn that down? Throw in a dead skunk, very strange family members, an old childhood school friend (who is rather cute himself), an ever-growing suspicion about Kit, and soon Shari doesn't know what to do. Will she end up having to choose between her dissertation and a man? Or two men? The Anglophile was an interesting read, especially for someone like myself that also loves anything British (including the men). The author has definitely done her homework with the subject of the Brits and their history. It was a refreshing change for the main character to have a slightly unusual profession as a linguist. The only downfall to this story was that the plot seemed to go all over the place at times. I couldn't figure out why the side stories of the dead skunk was in there, among other things. The romance subplot of the story was very predictable as well - due in part to the back cover copy. Overall, however, this was an unusually smart and offbeat chick lit story that I recommend. If you like the British, you will like this book.
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