Amy Sue Nathan

I got the book for free. There, I said it.

There’s a lot of scuttlebutt in the blogosphere — the mom blogosphere to be exact — about reviews posing as posts and bloggers who accept cool stuff in exchange for promoting it on their blogs.   Some people hate it and feel duped.  Some people don’t mind if the blogger puts it out there as a review.  Some people actually go to blogs to read reviews.

Who knew?

The only reviews I seek online are book reviews.  So I was delighted when I got an email via my Twitter account asking if I wanted an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of Jane Porter’s new novel, Easy on the Eyes.  I said yes!  Actually I typed YES!  But I also said that I don’t really review books, what I do is recommend books that I just so happen to read and just so happen to like. If I read a book I don’t like, I don’t mention it.  Hell, I don’t finish it.

But I did finish, and like Easy on the Eyes by Jane Porter.

But in all bloggy fairness I did receive the book for the purpose of reviewing it.

That being said, if it annoys you, don’t read the rest, ok?  But you might miss out on a peek at a good story.

Easy on the Eyes is about thirty-eight year old Tiana Tomlinson.  Of course right off the bat I loved the fact that she wasn’t twenty-nine and that the book focuses on the fact that she is seen as “aging.”  Being forty-five, I choked a bit at someone aging in her thirties, but Tiana is a TV personality so I rationalized that part.  I guess in TV Land, thirty eight is old.  Those literary lights add pounds.  And years.  I digress.  The story is easy to read but it tackles some tough topics like divorce, death (you’ll need tissues) and equally weighty but easier to handle are the issues of friendship, career and romance.  I enjoyed the look inside a glamorous Los Angeles lifestyle and the honesty with which Porter allows Tiana to be both driven and dissatisfied.

As a writer I liked the way Porter wove the stories together of Tiana’s work and personal life.  I enjoyed the secondary characters and found the believable and likeable — and the threads of their stories worked well with the main plot.

This is delightful women’s fiction with strong romantic themes.  Does that make sense?  It’s as much about Tiana herself and her own foibles and accomplishments as it is about her relationship.

I read the book in two sittings — three if you count the fact that the last two pages had to wait and I read them much later than I usually even stay awake.  And, I didn’t skim anything.

Both are high praise.

So if it’s a rainy weekend or a beach day, or you like to go to bed at night reading something worthy of your time but that won’t weigh you down, I’d recommend Easy on the Eyes.

Even if you have to pay for it.