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A review by fiction_aficionado
The Cul-de-Sac War by Melissa Ferguson
3.0
Melissa Ferguson has an uncanny knack for choosing premises that make me nervous about whether I will enjoy her stories. Two people dating but keeping a big secret from each other (The Dating Charade)? Yep, pretty nervous. But I took a chance and was surprised by how much I enjoyed the story. Next door neighbours who are determined to one-up each other in a prank war? Again, more than a little nervous. And as it happened, I didn’t enjoy this story as much as her first. However, there were definitely things I did enjoy, too, so let’s start there.
Firstly, I enjoyed Ferguson’s writing style; it’s engaging and well suited to the rom com genre, and the back-and-forth between Chip and Bree was entertaining. She also has a varied cast of characters to round out the story. I’m not generally a fan of pranks (hence the nervousness), but these ones were creative and relatively harmless, even if they did become a little over-the-top—the last one in particular. That said, Chip’s 230-pound English mastiff named Russell and his literally overwhelming love for Bree brought forth the most laughs from me. No pranks required!
There were other elements that didn’t work for me, however. The events that brought the turnaround in Chip and Bree’s relationship were believable, but I thought things progressed too quickly after that. I was also creeped out by the fact that these people apparently didn’t close their curtains at night time and could see into each other’s bedrooms (and yet managed to avoid any embarrassing moments). And there were aspects of their working lives that seemed a bit far-fetched as well. Would Bree really be able to support herself financially as a member of the local theatre troupe? I risk going into some spoilers if I mention too much about Chip’s situation, but suffice to say I wondered about his business sense and the plausibility of him getting a $2million line of credit in order to bid for the job he wanted.
And yes, I realise these are pragmatic quibbles and this is a rom com and “COME ON! It’s not supposed to be 100% realistic,” but everyone has their areas where they’re happy to suspend disbelief and areas where they just get stuck, and those were mine. That said, I can see this story appealing to readers who aren’t concerned about those kinds of details in their rom com reads.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.
Firstly, I enjoyed Ferguson’s writing style; it’s engaging and well suited to the rom com genre, and the back-and-forth between Chip and Bree was entertaining. She also has a varied cast of characters to round out the story. I’m not generally a fan of pranks (hence the nervousness), but these ones were creative and relatively harmless, even if they did become a little over-the-top—the last one in particular. That said, Chip’s 230-pound English mastiff named Russell and his literally overwhelming love for Bree brought forth the most laughs from me. No pranks required!
There were other elements that didn’t work for me, however. The events that brought the turnaround in Chip and Bree’s relationship were believable, but I thought things progressed too quickly after that. I was also creeped out by the fact that these people apparently didn’t close their curtains at night time and could see into each other’s bedrooms (and yet managed to avoid any embarrassing moments). And there were aspects of their working lives that seemed a bit far-fetched as well. Would Bree really be able to support herself financially as a member of the local theatre troupe? I risk going into some spoilers if I mention too much about Chip’s situation, but suffice to say I wondered about his business sense and the plausibility of him getting a $2million line of credit in order to bid for the job he wanted.
And yes, I realise these are pragmatic quibbles and this is a rom com and “COME ON! It’s not supposed to be 100% realistic,” but everyone has their areas where they’re happy to suspend disbelief and areas where they just get stuck, and those were mine. That said, I can see this story appealing to readers who aren’t concerned about those kinds of details in their rom com reads.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.