Big Hearts and Body Parts

I had so much fun doing a book compare and contrast that I decided to do it again!  What's under the microscope and magnifying glass this time?  Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis and Elle Cosimano's Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead.  I read The Love Hypothesis on my own, and Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead was my sister's book club selection (as you may recall, my sister got us started on this series with Finlay Donovan is Killing It.) 

The Love Hypothesis is a romcom about Olive Smith, a dedicated but mistrustful-of-love Stanford scientist who embarks upon a fake relationship to help her best friend find true love (and yes, that premise is as farcical as it sounds and not something I'm getting into).  Olive's playacting paramour?  Biology department alpha Adam Carlsen, a gorgeous and brilliant specimen of a man who's awful to everyone except Olive.  With her, he's funny and charming, protective and tender, and so respectful it's an aphrodisiac.  Not that Olive falls for him right away.  Oh no, she fights Cupid with every fiber of her being, so intent on denying herself happiness that sometimes I wanted to shake her.  Still, I understand that she has her issues (her mom died of cancer when she was a teenager), and that surrendering to love can be scary.  But when her smarmy Harvard mentor crosses the line, she hits rock bottom and learns that the only way out is to open up and ask for help.

Then there's Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead, which isn't at all romantic unless you count Finaly's love triangle with a callow law student and a seasoned detective.  Which I don't, because the number one relationship in Finaly's life (after the one with her kids, of course) is her friendship with partner Vero.  Not only is Vero an ace accountant and nanny; she's also Finlay's ride-or-die when it comes to tracking down the killer contracted to end Finaly's ex.  That's right.  The sod farm king is now the quarry, with the Russian mob lurking in the background making sure the bodies stay buried.  And it all started in a chat room masquerading as a safe space for wives to swap cleaning tips and trash their husbands.  The whole domestic-life-as-a-front-for-illegal-activity thing reeks of Good Girls -- in a very good way.  And I do mean "reek," given that fish, visitors, and bodies start to smell after three days.

So, yeah, these two books are different.  Even if both have blue covers and represent the seemingly safe fiction genres of romance and mystery or, as I like to call them, sex and violence.  I enjoyed both.  The Love Hypothesis is a classic slow burn love story, and its characters have great chemistry (even if they are biologists).  I heart a hero who can honor the heroine's independence while also being chivalrous.  And Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead is just so clever and funny.  If it weren't funny, then I wouldn't be able to read it, because it's also pretty gory.  But as with everything else, the jokes set the right tone for me, reducing even the darkest scene to a merely macabre comic strip.       

Still, I preferred The Love Hypothesis.  

Knights in shining armor over armed robberies.  

Having a Ball: The Media Circus, Most Macabre of All

Shoes: Impo, DSW

Bag: Current Mood, Dolls Kill

Skirt: Macy's

Fabulous Felt Balloons Barrette

Top: Kingston Grey, Macy's

Belt: Belt is Cool, Amazon

Bag: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Circus Clown Barrette Brooch

Bow barrette: Carole, JCPenney; Rainbow necklace: Cloud Nine, Ocean City; Ring: Wet Seal; Red Necklace: Wet Seal; Bangles: B Fabulous

Dress: Zulily

Shoes: Ami Clubwear

Skirt: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Sunglasses: FantasEyes, JCPenney

Top: Candie's, Kohl's

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, then you know that I have a love-hate relationship with the circus that I can't stop talking about.  On the love side, there's color, lights, and the tutus of the tightrope walkers.  On the hate side, there's refuse, sad animals, and the mangy mane of the one-armed juggler.  Ball pits represent a sliver of that, what with their riveting rainbow of camouflaged pee (never mind that you're more likely to find a ball pit in a Chuck E. Cheese than under the big top; Chuck E. Cheese is a circus unto itself).  So I was excited to bust out these gumball-like globes (I've had them since Easter) to stage my new Circus Clown Barrette Brooch.  Because they bring the fun of the pit minus the pitfalls.    

Of course, these days, the scariest circus isn't the one stunk up by urine or even a two-headed clown, but the one with media in front of it.  And a media circus spins all its plates and then some in the dark comedy Breaking News in Yuba County.  It boasts an all-star cast including Allison Janney, Mila Kunis, Regina Hall, Wanda Sykes, Awkwafina, Ellen Barkin, and Juliette Lewis as well as, like any entertainment worth its salted peanuts, an array of wild wigs.  Janney leads as Sue Buttons, a mousy call center drone who's addicted to sensational news stories and chants affirmations at the grocery store (I am enough!).  Which sounds kooky, but sticking her head into the sands of self-help and pseudo-journalism makes more sense once we learn that her husband's a jerk who forgot her birthday.  It turns out that she's at the grocery store to pick up her own cake, which is misspelled.  Spoiler alert: the bakery clerk won't fix it.  Just when Sue thinks that things can't possibly get any worse, she follows her husband to a motel and catches him cheating.  He drops dead, and Sue seizes the opportunity to snag the recognition she craves by reporting him, not dead, but missing.  Soon she's the star of the biggest missing persons case on the news, much to the delight of her equally fame-hungry reporter sister (Mila Kunis).  But the stunt sets off a chain of violent events that reveal that hubby was hiding more than a mistress.

Always a fan of humor with edge, I enjoyed this movie despite its sometimes gratuitous gore.  Because for all its sensationalism, Breaking News in Yuba County delivers a message not so different from that of the sadly canceled (sniff sniff) Good Girls: Be nice to women or else. 

Thankfully, the weirdest thing to happen at my circus is a disembodied clown head bobbing up over the big top.  Because -- surprise! -- it's not a head at all, but a balloon.

Or is it?  I guess that's for its future owner to say.  

Talk about buyer beware.   

Ladies First Curse: Getting Ahead but Flirting With Dead

Cami: Mudd, Kohl's; Skirt: Material Girl, Macy's; Boots: Simply Vera, Kohl's; Bag: Betsey Johnson, Macy's; Belt: Belt is Cool, Amazon

Hairpins, Rite Aid

Midnight Magic Necklace

One of the reasons I love blogging is that it gives me a chance to play with outfits I like but would never wear (for yes, there are some, even for me).  Just like watching TV gives me a glimpse of exciting but dangerous things I'd never do.  Enter today's Goth club kid ensemble and NBC's Good Girls. 

If you've seen Good Girls (or even a commercial), then you know that the dark dramedy, which is in its fourth season, is about three ordinary women who turn to crime when faced with financial hardships.  Set in a suburb of Detroit, it straddles the no woman's land between the mean city streets and the cul-de-sac.  Ringleader Beth Boland (Christina Hendricks) is a domestic diva and mother of four married to her high school sweetheart (Matthew Lillard of Scream fame).  Yet when she finds out that her dear Dean's serial philandering and financial mismanagement have landed them face to face with foreclosure, she's forced to expand her repertoire from baking to burglary.  Beth convinces her sister Annie (Mae Whitman), a wisecracking supermarket cashier, and their lifelong friend Ruby (Retta), a happily married but struggling waitress, to join her in her crime spree crusade.  But no sooner do they commit their first felony than they learn that they've trespassed upon the turf of career criminal Rio (Manny Montana).  Like it or not, "gang friend," as Ruby calls him, soon becomes a fixture in their lives.  Yet as Beth plunges deeper into Detroit's underworld, she discovers that illicit entrepreneurship is the road to not only financial freedom but the kind of fulfillment that she can't get from the PTA.   

Good Girls isn't all back door deals and social commentary, though.  It's also funny.  Annie slings some first-class zingers, and the situations in which the "girls" find themselves are often so ludicrous that you can't help but laugh.  Even the background music is French noir cute reminiscent of A Simple Favor.  Finally, there are more than a few Cloud Nine references, which are an Easter egg of a reminder that the dearly departed Superstore is a fellow Midwestern star in the NBC universe.   

Layered and nuanced, Good Girls is masterfully crafted to make you think twice about everything.  Like this unabashedly badass outfit, it starts off as starkly black and white but eventually reveals shades of gray.  And it's the gray that urges you to question the difference between right and wrong, to wonder what you would do if you too were caught in a catastrophic cashflow catch-22.  Just as it's the gray that makes this sensational story not only entertaining but familiar, becoming the silver lining we seek. 

Still, whenever Rio pops out from the shadows, I can't help but think that baking -- which I usually loathe -- looks pretty good.