Hating Valentine's Day (Red Dress Ink Novels) [Paperback]

Allison Rushby (Author)

Book Description

Series: Red Dress Ink Novels | Publication Date: February 1, 2005

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I hate Valentine's Day. . .
Just like you.

One of the top wedding photographers in town, Liv Hetherington, steadfastly single, hates Valentine's Day. This year she's putting her foot down and has vowed there'll be do dinner party set-ups, speed-dating frenzies or any other form of accidental dating organized by her father, flatmate or best friend.

What she hasn't counted on is that, this year, they've given up on her.

Liv's ecstatic, to say the least. Now she can concentrate on more important things like setting up her own studio and polishing off her Dickens collection. But are relationships really not for her? Drew, the new man in Liv's life, would beg to differ. As would Cupid, who's had enough of Liv being stubbornly single and sends the ghosts of Valentine's Day Past, Present and Yet-to-Come to teach her a lesson or two where love's concerned. . .

Valentine's Day. . .bah, humbug.

Or is all that about to change?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rushby channels A Christmas Carol into this Valentine's Day tale about one Liv Hetherington, a single wedding photographer whose distaste for February's signature holiday prompts a spectral intervention-of the Dickensian kind. Though her father, her roommate and her boss all disapprove of Liv's no-time-for-dating lifestyle, this Valentine's Day our heroine is determined to lay low-that is, until she's visited by the Marley-esque ghost of a deceased co-worker. (A true horror for single women, Rushby's ethereal guide is an old lady who devotes all her affection to cats.) Thereafter, Liv greets a trio of ghostly visitors with little skepticism as they show her Valentine's Days past, present and future. Because Rushby narrates the novel from Liv's point of view, she often repeats the salient plot points several times: that Liv was abandoned by her ex-boyfriend, that she's living in dreams of the past, that her new suitor is genuinely a nice guy. The book's humor is similarly over-explained. When Cupid calls a woman's skirt "materially challenged," Liv repeats his observation a few sentences later: "her skirt's not quite as long as it could be." It's as if the author doesn't trust her readers to get her jokes or her narrative arguments. (She also hammers home the Dickens connection with frequent, heavy-handed references to the tale.) The repetitions drag down the book's momentum and smother much of its humor, dulling what might have otherwise been a clever remake of a classic tale of transformation and self-discovery.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Many singletons will likely find themselves sympathizing with wedding photographer Liv Hetherington, who can't stand cherubic cupids and blind dates. Liv is still recovering from being dumped two years ago by her boyfriend, Mike, who broke up with her on Valentine's Day to go back to his ex-wife. She is thankful when her friends and family decide that this year they won't try to set her up for the big day. Despite her reluctance, she may have found a man all on her own--Drew, a charming friend of her flatmate Justine. But Liv isn't sure she is ready to trust another guy after Mike, so enter the ghost of Liv's deceased coworker, Mrs. Batty-Smith, who tells Liv that she is going to be visited by three spirits, ghosts of Valentine's Day past, present, and future. Anyone familiar with Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol can probably guess where the story is going, but Rushby does offer a funny, charming twist on a well-known tale. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Red Dress Ink (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373895119
• ISBN-13: 978-0373895113
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,905,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Having failed at becoming a ballerina with pierced ears (her childhood dream), Allison Rushby instead began a writing career as a journalism student at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Within a few months she had slunk sideways into studying Russian. By the end of her degree she had learned two very important things: that she wasn't going to be a journalist; and that there are hundreds of types of vodka and they're all pretty good.

After several years spent whining about how hard it would be to write a novel, she finally tried writing one and found it was quite an enjoyable experience. Since then, she has had more then ten novels published.

In February 2012, Allison's Shooting Stars (YA) will be released with Walker Books. In June 2012, she will release a six episode New Adult e-serial with St Martin's Press.

In 2011/2012, Allison will be living in Cambridgeshire in the UK, where she is writing a travel memoir called Keep Calm and Carry Vegemite. She keeps up her education by sampling new kinds of vodka on a regular basis.

http://www.allisonrushby.com
http://www.keepcalmandcarryvegemite.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scrooge for Valentine's Day, January 9, 2007

By 

C. Rodriguez "House Fanatic" (Birmingham, AL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hating Valentine's Day (Red Dress Ink Novels) (Paperback)

Another great story by Rushby. While the plot was slightly borrowed from Dickin's, it explained how most single women who've been burned feel about Valentine's Day. Rushby's heroine learns valuable lessons that push her from hatred to wanting to take chances on men once again. Great read.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun pun on a holiday classic, but could've been much better, June 29, 2005

By 

Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hating Valentine's Day (Red Dress Ink Novels) (Paperback)

After being dumped on Valentine's Day two years prior by a guy who returned to his ex-wife, Liv has no use for the holiday; except that she makes her living as a photographer and weddings (particularly romantic VD themed weddings) are her bread and butter. Liv is reluctant to enter into any more romantic entanglements despite the efforts of her friends and family. She never really meets anyone she likes until she runs into Drew. They go out a couple times, and through a series of misunderstandings, have difficulty trusting one another, and she won't give Drew the same second chance he afforded her when she misconstrues his intentions toward a former flame. She is visited by the ghost of a former colleague who warns that she will be visited by 3 Valentines ghosts (sound familiar?). Each ghost provides insight - into her relationships past, present, and potentially future.

You know there'll be a happy ending, but getting there should be half the fun. For the most part it is, however, after all the build up and narrative, I was expecting a little more out of those last 40 pages. The ending seemed so rushed, and the last visit with the ghost did not pack the wallop I was hoping for. It could have been so much better with a tad more development and attention to detail in the end.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sparkling spoof, March 3, 2005

By 

Rayna Gorowitz "Sparkina" (Pembroke Pines, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hating Valentine's Day (Red Dress Ink Novels) (Paperback)

This parody of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, with a woman who thinks love is a fantasy advertisers dreamed up to sell greeting cards and breath mints, is just what the doctor ordered for many an unpartnered lady. It tickles the funny bone, provokes the brain, and touches the heart. 5 stars -- or maybe hearts!