A week into the new year I thought it might be time to actually talk about what I'm reading, but since I was juggling three books at once it was a race to the finish to see which I would finish first. Dating Da Vinci by Malena Lott won out, but not by much. I actually found this in the advertisements in the back of The Trials of the Honorable F. Darcy, which I finish right before the new year. It looked like fun, light chick lit, and since I enjoyed the aforementioned Trials I gave it a whirl.English teacher Ramona Elise, 36, has stopped fully living her life ever since her husband Joel died from a sudden heart attack two years ago. Despite pleas from her family and friends to get rid of Joel’s belongings and try dating again, Ramona can’t imagine erasing her late husband’s presence from her home. Until one day, Leonardo da Vinci, an attractive young Italian immigrant, lands in her classroom, lonely and unable to speak the language. Taking him under her wing, Ramona gives da Vinci a place to stay and, in return, he brings her back to life.
I wish I could say that was true, but unfortunately the book was hardly what the summary promised. I imagined a lot of funny scenes with Da Vinci struggling with the language barrier, and awkward scene trying to avoid detection for illicit hot-for-teacher dating. That and sex scenes with a hunky Italian(don't bother looking there really aren't any, just delicate references and one or two showers). Rather than that (and yes I realize I was projecting, like you don't) it turned into the literary equivalent of The Family Stone. I looked forward to that movie so, not only because it was Sarah Jessica Parker's first movie post-Sex and the City, but also because it looked hilarious in the previews. With all the torture we go though at the holidays who doesn't want to laugh at someone else's trials. WHen I actually saw the movie for the first time, I hated it because while there were funny moments, it was very maudlin. I didn't come for a tearjerker, and Dating Da Vinci made me feel the same way.
The plot wasn't nearly as fast paced or interesting as one would expect, it wasn't even really a romance, or it wanted to be but no one clued Ramona the main character in on that fact. In reality I think I may just be too young and too not a mom to get this book, because everything Ramona does seems pathetic and depressing. While I appreciate that the main focus was pulling her out of her grief and depression, it wasn't enough to keep me engaged. Two hundred and fifty pages of her debating whether or not to throw away her dead husband's last jar of peanut butter just doesn't do it for me. The fact that Ramona's second love interest after Da Vinci was named Cortland also bothered me, but I guess if Gwenyth Paltrow can name her son Apple, why shouldn't a character in a novel be named after one? Tolerable, not terrific.
