Customer Reviews

Belle in the Big Apple: A Novel with Recipes

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Upon receiving this book, I immediately turned to the back cover for a synopsis to read. "Hmm...sounds interesting." If I knew then what I knew now...

The back cover synopsis is very misleading. I was expecting one thing and got another. The description of the book "Sex and the City" like is not true at all. I would've much rathered read about the exploits of Carrie Bradshaw and company.

The transitions of scenes do not go well and jump all over the place. The lead character thinks in her head a lot and then suddenly is talking to other characters in the book. The reader never knows when Belle is talking to herself or someone else. There is definitely not enough character development for the supporting characters. While Belle is the main character, her supporting cast needs to be developed as well. The prologue repeats itself halfway through the story. The story seems to jump all over the place. And the ending is outrageous and something right out of a fairy tale. I really did not enjoy this book at all. The recipes were so-so as well. I really can not recommend this book.

I got this book from the Vine program and I'm so glad I didn't have to pay for it. It was awful! I couldn't even finish it. The story's all over the place, I couldn't even follow what was happening. Characters are mentioned without ever being introduced, locations change from page to page, it was too hard to follow what was going on and where the main character was or what she was doing at any given time.

The only reason I gave it 2 stars is because (1) the idea was good. A journalist who goes into political reporting during an election year held such promise as it closely mirrors what's happening right now. But it almost seemed like her job took a backseat to the rest of her life. I was about 3/4 of the way thru the book and I don't even know exactly what it was she did at her job! and (2) the recipes scattered throughout the book was a brilliant idea. At the end of each chapter, whatever food or beverage was mentioned, the author provided a recipe for at the end of the chapter. I liked this idea and thought it was clever.

It's just too bad the rest of the book wasn't as carefully thought out. The writing was poor and seemed like it was lacking direction. I don't know what exactly motivated the author, but it seemed like she kept changing her mind throughout the book of which direction she wanted the story to go. Was this a story about a young southerner making it in the Big Apple? A small town journalist who hits the big time with a career in political reporting on television? The dating and romance escapades of a 20-something girl in NY? A comedy loosely based on the many cable news channels that exist?

I'm sorry -- I wanted to like this book and even finish it, but it took too much effort and I have much better books to read right now. I really felt like I wasting my time and I certainly wasn't enjoying myself while reading it.

Ambitious young woman comes to New York, set on conquering the city. Sound familiar? It's probably been done a hundred times, in books, movies and musicals. The protagonist of "Belle in the Big Apple" even moves to Sullivan Street, just like the Sherwood sisters in "Wonderful Town", but her approach couldn't be more different.

Belle is what we'd call a "trust fund kid", whose expenses (including for taxis, because she's directed to avoid the subway) and job leads come from her Southern family. Without giving the story away, it's no surprise that she and New York aren't a good match, although except for a neighbor, it doesn't seem she has contact with any New Yorkers outside the TV station where she is employed. This can be contrasted with the trip to the docks which Ruth Sherwood makes in search of a story.

Comic book writers know that even if their town shares some characteristics with New York, it's different enough that they should give it a different name, say, "Gotham City". The New York Belle lives in is such an alternative universe, starting with an unbelievable subway mugging--muggers and purse-snatchers throughout the world know to blend in and not wear expensive clothing and accessories which could be easily identifiable (not that we ever see any indication that Belle makes a police report)--and continuing to float above the ground, never coming in contact with any real New Yorkers.

If Belle had done any research about New York City before coming, including reading the New York Times, she'd know from that paper's "Metropolitan Diary" that you can't experience New York without traveling on public transportation, particularly the subway.

While the author biography indicates Brooke Parkhurst lives in New York City, this book creates a city so unappealing that it's really hard to believe this is so.

I was truly disappointed with this book. The main character is a bad caricature of the south (Her name is Belle Lee, for goodness sake, and it gets worse from there) who moves to NYC in hopes of being a news personality. I suppose that was meant to be the plot, though you really can't find one as you read the story.

Belle is supposed to be a debutante from Alabama with a grandfather who owns most of the town, including the newspaper she for which she worked. That said, the author seemed to prefer making Belle look like a backwards hillbilly. This girl from a rich family, whose mom has a maid and interior decorators, supposedly buy her only business suit second hand in Alabama before going north. Not deb behavior. Then the girl doesn't even know how to eat an artichoke in a scene that--I am guessing about but not laughing at--was aimed at humor. The accent is exaggerated and she is presented at stupid and vain.

I believe the author tried to carry this short novel on southern wit alone, though it just didn't work. You could see everything before it happened. The ending was anticlimactic and not too believable. At one point she meets a love interest that just doesn't have any spark or realistic base. He's a chef paid to cook her dinner, they kiss once on the porch, then he drops everything to whoosh up to her NY doorstep?!

The one good point to this novel is that there is a very nice collection of recipes included.

I really wanted to like this book, I love southern writers, fish out of water tales and novels with recipes. Belle in the Big Apple tries way too hard. Belle Lee is leaving her southern roots behind to make her mark on New York. Filled with every stereotype of southern women and more product placement than a Saturday morning cartoon, Belle in the Big Apple skitters about, from work to home to bad dates and a hellish workplace. There is little continuity (whatever happened to her furniture and apartment?) and almost no character development. There is a divine pound cake recipe that got 1 1/2 stars of this review. Very disappointing.

The story, unfortunately, doesn't live up to the promise of the cover. I just couldn't connect with Belle. Or anyone else for that matter. The chapters were choppy and the storyline not fleshed out.

It held a lot of promise but didn't deliver. Some of the recipes are good tho - expecially the Lemon Chess Squares for the Working (Sulking) Girl.

What I was hoping for when I opened this book was a magical combination of Sex In the City, The Devil Wears Prada, The Nanny Diaries and Nigella Lawson. what I got was a boring, insipid little story with unappealing recipes. Our heroine is wasting Daddy's money by seeking a career as a writer in the Big Apple. She plods from one unpleasant and completely uncaptivating relationship to another, sometimes having meals that she inadequately describes, sex that sounds ho hum, or other adventures -- most of which we have read about in other books. If this had been the first book in the Girl versus NYC genre, that delightful little literary niche would never have taken off! Want to take a bite out of the Big Apple? There are lots of other choices. Ditto food memoirs. This book leaves you hungry.

I was intrigued by the concept of a fish-out-of-water in New York City, laced with humor and recipes. Guess what? It wasn't funny, and the recipes didn't look particularly good, at least to this Yankee (bacon in a salad?). Belle is too enchanted with herself to be very likeable; she keeps mentioning her ego, which is already blatantly apparent, and the one mention of her "ample bottom" is clearly an editor's suggestion to bring her down to earth.

I agree with what the others said - the author seemed to suffer from genre confusion. The concept and cover are pure chick lit, while the writing style is strangely ponderous.

Not recommended. For a fun story set in the food industry, try "Turning Tables" (by Heather and Rose MacDowell) or "Waiting" (by Debra Ginsberg) instead.

Belle is tired of people thinking that the only reason she has her own column in the Mobile newspaper is because granddad owns the company - she longs to spread her trust fund wings in the Big Apple. Instead of her own column at the New York Times or anchoring the 6:00 news, she gets a position as a production assistant on a conservative cable news network during a heated presidential election, where she has to claw her way up from the bottom of the ladder. But her interests lie with the other more liberal candidate - can she reconcile her values to keep her job?

Frankly, I couldn't care less. I started and stopped this story so many times. It just never really held my interest. In Parkhurst's quest to write a clever chick lit story, every cliché and metaphor is tossed into this poorly written and predictable debut novel. The most annoying aspect (aside from the selfish and narcissistic lead character) had to be Belle's southern accent - Parkhurst uses so many colloquialisms (and annoying drops the g in all the ING words) that it got old really quick. I really hate when authors do this because they don't think readers have enough of an imagination to provide a voice to their characters when we read their novels. I'm fixin' to toss this one into the trash.

I'm a huge chick-lit reader and was looking forward to this new offer to the chick-lit world. It has an interesting, fresh approah-a story with recipes but I was disappointed with the story part of the book. Belle is the Southern debutante who decides that she doesn't want to be part of the newspaper that her grandfather owns and decides that she's going to make it New York City. The story just didn't seem very fleshed out. It seemed very rushed to me. I couldn't figure out how long Belle looked for a newspaper job before asking her grandfather to get her an interview at ANC (a fictional news channel) but it didn't seem very long. It didn't seem to bother her to be so dependent on her family.

The characters in the book are pretty one-dimensional. Belle, is of course, the Southern woman cliche. There are "y'alls" and other Southern cliche words abound in the novel. I'm not really sure that I cared for Belle all that much. With the other characters, I got confused who was who. I forgot who the producers at the ANC were, so I had to go back and try to refresh my memory.

So "Belle in the Big Apple" is an average chick-lit story. Nothing special about it. However, I liked reading a book about a 25 year old. I'm about the same age (I'm about to turn 25) so I could identify with some of what Belle was going through in her personal life. I also liked that the story was set in New York City. I'm a sucker for books set there. The best thing about the book was the recipes. There were some good ones,like the Seven Layer Salad, that I definitely plan on trying.