From the TBR Pile: Blog Tour: Love Literary Style by Karin Gillespie

Monday, November 14, 2016

Blog Tour: Love Literary Style by Karin Gillespie

Author:Karin Gillespie

Publisher: Henery press

Date of publication: November 2016

They say opposites attract, and what could be more opposite than a stuffy literary writer falling in love with a self-published romance writer?

Meet novelist Aaron Mite. He lives in a flea-infested rented alcove, and his girlfriend Emma, a combative bookstore owner, has just dumped him. He meets Laurie Lee at a writers’ colony and mistakenly believes her to be a renowned writer of important fiction. When he discovers she’s a self-published romance author, he’s already fallen in love with her.

Aaron thinks genre fiction is an affront to the fiction-writing craft. He likes to quotes the essayist, Arthur Krystal who claims literary fiction “melts the frozen sea inside of us.” Ironically Aaron doesn’t seem to realize that, despite his lofty literary aspirations, he’s emotionally frozen, due, in part, to a childhood tragedy. The vivacious Laurie, lover of flamingo-patterned attire and all things hot pink, is the one person who might be capable of melting him.

Their relationship is initially made in literary heaven but when Aaron loses his contract with a prestigious press, and Laurie’s novel is optioned by a major film studio, the differences in their literary sensibilities and temperaments drive them apart.

In a clumsy attempt to win Laurie back, Aaron employs the tropes of romance novels. Too late. She’s already taken up with Ross, a prolific author of Nicholas Sparks-like love stories. Initially Laurie is more comfortable with the slick and superficial Ross, but circumstances force her to go deeper with her writing and confront a painful past. Maybe Aaron and Laurie have more in common than they imagined.

In the tradition of the Rosie Project, Love Literary Style is a sparkling romantic comedy which pokes fun at the divide between so-called low and high brow fiction.

Love Literary Style is story about opposites attracting and finding their happily ever afters. Laurei and Aaron are as opposite as they come. I really wanted to love this story. It's about my one of my favorite subjects, the literary world. I know I am probably going to be in the minority when I say unfortunately, I didn't love it. I did find the insights and commentary about the publishing world to be spot on and amusing. That is the one thing I did enjoy about the book and that raised my rating a little.

But, I had a hard time liking either Laurie or Aaron. I felt like they were too extreme. Laurie came across as too much of an airhead. She wants to be a writer, but the only "Rom-Coms" I ever hear her mention are movies. She doesn't know who Toni Morrison is and has never heard the idiom, "The elephant in the room". Later, instead of taking constructive criticism on her book, she breaks up with Aaron. Those are just a few. I just found that a litle too far fetched. Aaron did have some redeeming qualitites. For instance, rescuing his puppy Dusty off the street. But, he was kind of dull. Are there people that clueless to social media still out there? He is in his late 20s but comes across as a 60 year old man. I just couldn't really see either of them together for a lasting relationship.

I'll just have to chalk this romance up as not for me. Check out what others on the tour had to say in the links below.

READ an excerpt at Karin’s website, HERE.

About Karin Gillespie

Karin Gillespie is the author of the national bestselling Bottom Dollar Girls series, 2016 Georgia Author of the Year, Co-author for Jill Connor Browne’s novel Sweet Potato Queen’s First Big Ass Novel. Her latest novel Love Literary Style was inspired by a New York Times article called “Masters in Chick Lit” that went viral and was shared by literary luminaries like Elizabeth Gilbert and Anne Rice. She’s written for the Washington Post and Writer Magazine and is book columnist and humor columnist for the AugustaChronicle and Augusta Magazine respectively. She received a Georgia Author of the Year Award in 2016.

Connect with Karin

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Karin Gillespie’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS

Tuesday, November 1st: A Chick Who Reads

Wednesday, November 2nd: Bibliotica

Wednesday, November 2nd: Lesa’s Book Critiques

Friday, November 4th: View from the Birdhouse

Monday, November 7th: Peeking Between the Pages

Tuesday, November 8th: Reading Reality

Tuesday, November 8th: Buried Under Books

Wednesday, November 9th: Wall to Wall Books