I remember Laura Pedersen’s award-winning Hallie Palmer young adult novels in the early 2000’s. They made me realize I wasn’t the only person to somehow make it through those awkward teen years from hell by the seat of my pants. In 1994, President Bill Clinton named Laura one of Ten Outstanding Young Americans. She then went on every talk show, and soon started teaching in NYC. She’s been writing comedy, and this is her first novel in some time.
In FOOL’S MATE, like anyone of the characters in her previous YA novels, Josie Kincaid is playing cards and seeing the world though cynical eyes. She’s a journalist in her late 20’s who drinks too much, doesn’t eat right and sleeps with the wrong kind of men. Dad has passed away, Mom is living across the ocean in England and Josie she can barely keep the one thing that means anything to her – her career, which is basically her job as an investigative reporter 24/7. She’s constantly getting fired and rehired from the same job. But she’s good, she has that thing real journalists have that can’t be taught.
She finds herself teamed up with Mr. Yale trained preppy who has decided to dabble in news rather than follow his famous father’s footsteps into politics. He basically represents everything she detests. But when a huge assignment of a lifetime brings them together … well, you know where this is going!
Laura Pedersen has a real talent with dialogue. It’s crisp and clear and never gets in the way of the action. That’s a sizeable job with all the characters she has coming and going throughout the fast moving scenes. I really liked the pacing of FOOL’S MATE. The constant drama makes you want to keep reading.
In the future though, I’d reconsider the publishing format. You used a large type, so FOOL’S MATE came in at 450-pages and weighed over a 1 ½ pounds. That’s a lot for a novel, even an enjoyable one. However, you can get it for 99 cents on Kindle.
You can find Laura on Facebook and at her website.
You might also like:
No comments:
Post a Comment