Customer Reviews

Dear Cordelia (Super Romance S.)

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In a house in Maine (you know, that state way up north bordering Canada), even though it's the middle of winter, the caretaker of your house a) doesn't keep food in the pantry, b) hasn't bothered to chop any wood to burn in the fireplace in case the power goes out, and c) doesn't have any flashlight batteries or candles in the house. Wouldn't you have fired that caretaker YEARS ago?

Not in Dear Cordelia. But wait, it gets better. Jack, who's staying at the house for a few days to try to find a pet-sitter for his deceased grandmother's dog who still lives in said house, doesn't bother to check the supplies (flashlight batteries, wood, etc.) either. Then, after the power in the town goes out during a blizzard, the hero of the book, Jack, goes next store to make sure his elderly neighbors are OK. There, thankfully, they do have plenty of firewood, so all the inhabitants of the house wind up sleeping in (individual) sleeping bags in front of the fire, trying to keep warm. When the power comes back on at 4 a.m., all the house lights wake everyone up. At which point two of the folks hop back next door to their house. Even though, at 4 a.m., it would be pitch-black outside. And they'd be wading through 30 inches of new-fallen snow. And the house they're about to enter would be freezing cold because the heat was off all night.

Sorry, I just had to rag on this. It was actually funny - I kept waiting to see what new inanity would pop up.

The only reason I got as far as I did was because I was staying at a friend's in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. Yup, I'd lost power at my place. Thankfully, she hadn't. So I picked up Dear Cordelia off her shelf.

The premise, actually, is kinda cute - our heroine wants to move up from her boring job as a food writer for a newspaper and become an investigative reporter. Thing is, she needs to get an interview with the author of Dear Cordelia, an advice columnist along the lines of Dear Abby. Trying to get cozy with Cordelia's publicist, Jack Graham, Liza follows him from Chicago to Maine, where he needs a dogsitter, and she just might be interested in the job.

I'm from New England, and I love Maine - I've spent a lot of time there. But a little prudent editing would have made this book much better. There are some basic things you have to do to make it through the kind of winters they experience in that part of the country. Whether the book improves in the home stretch is anyone's guess; my electricity is back and I've moved on.

Reporter Liza Dunnigan always does her best, but her stomach is not in her work even if she does the food column at the Chicago Sentinel as she has for seven years; instead she wants to become an investigative journalist. After her latest haranguing of her boss Kristin Coulter, she is assigned a chance to prove herself by performing an impossible task. She is to interview advice columnist Dear Cordelia, who no one has claimed they ever met her, let alone interviewed her.

Liza decides the only place to start is with Cordelia's only known contact, publicist Jack Graham. She follows him to Maine where he is visiting to arrange for the care of the dog of his late beloved grandmother. Desperate to make progress with her only link, Liza pretends to be a professional canine caretaker. However, her plot backfires when she falls in love with Jack, but fears once she tells him the truth he will distrust and drop her.

DEAR CORDELIA is a fine lighthearted romantic romp starring a delightful cast of characters. The story line is fun though it seems unrealistic yet the audience will not care because they will be so into Liza's efforts to meet Cordelia through Jack. Fans will enjoy her efforts as her heart and body betray her by falling in love with her meal ticket. He, in turn, desires her as much from the moment he watched her at his grandmother's table though he knows that she only wants to know Jack because of Cordelia.

Harriet Klausner