Well, I finished reading Cross My Heart and Hope to Die. Very underwhelming, yet infuriating at the same time. An interesting mix, but hardly what the author could have been going for.

What Claire Calman was going for, I couldn't say. In her author's notes, she makes a joke about writing 45 drafts. As a reader, I got the impression that the book was heavily rewritten. Plot points came up from nowhere, leaving me with the feeling that I'd missed a page, or even a chapter. And the Big Secret (all Calman books have a Big Secret) was obvious within the first quarter of the book, leaving me waiting for 300 pages while the characters caught up with me.

And the protagonist of the story . . . what a piece of work this bitch is. Wow. No wonder her partner is so snippy with her. If I were dating her I'd have killed myself after six months. The back cover describes the "Fair Miranda" as "beautiful, bold and baffling." How about "slutty, shrill and passive-aggressive?" Works for me!

All in all, what I take away from this book is the thought that I could have bought two more Marian Keyes paperbacks for the money I spent on this trade.