From the blurb...Once upon a time an English girl went to New York to live out her very own fairyale...
Well that's not exactly true of the plot...so here's my version.
Once upon a time a girl (Rosie Duncan) went to America to get married, it didn't work out and she eventually went to New York to work as a florist. Mr Kowalski the owner had his own gentle philosophy on life which helped her a little and she bought the business when he retired. However, Rosie shuts herself away from romance for over six years, but surrounds herself with rich, amazingly talented and quirky friends, until a dashing book editor shows an interest in her. Other circumstances and people from her past appear to make her to break out of her shell and finally try to embrace life and love.
Okay, the good stuff first...The front cover is gorgeous, although apart from the scenery not particularly in keeping with the plot, but looks fabulous. New York is an amazing leading character throughout the book, it comes across sooo well. True, it does slightly over do the wonderful eatries and shopping opportunities, but hey, I can do girly stuff and cope with that! Overall, that aspect of the book makes me even more desperate to go and visit...especially as a friend went over Christmas hols and I saw the photos today, so double envy! I found the snippets about flowers and floristry pretty interesting too, I'm not well up on all things floral, but it convinced me.
The overall plot was true chick-lit and I'm fine with that, it does what it says on the tin. We know that the heroine won't see the obvious until the last few chapters and there has to be a token red herring man thrown into the mix, that's what happens in this genre! However, there was a couple of things that irked me and as I got further into the story I didn't get past them. Firstly, the way Rosie calls everyone "mate". Yuk! It was jarring, completely unecessary and if it's meant to remind you that she's English amongst all the native New Yorkers, then it's patronising as well. Finally, I wasn't sure about the subplot of Rosie's brother getting into trouble in Washington, it didn't really add to the story and he was such a non-entity as a character that I really didn't care...maybe it had a much larger part in the story originally and it got edited out and that's why it didn't gel.
Ed was lovely and grew on me as the story developed. Marnie was sweet.
Despite all my grumbles it was a pleasant read and I will definately try Miranda Dickinson's next book.
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