A review by mindsplinters
Dorothy Parker Drank Here by Ellen Meister

3.0

Hovering between a 2.5 and three - mostly because Dorothy was DELIGHTFUL. I read this as an ARC, though, so things might have changed some in the final publication. Part of me hopes so because, while Dorothy herself was well-done and the cranky author was well-done (and amazingly awful failure of a human being), the heroine felt less realized. In fact, she felt like a flat mash-up of various character traits with nothing binding them together at certain points. Sometimes even too naive to live and it's a wonder she can tie her own shoes when she has blinding moments of 'can't see past her own obsession.' Seriously, her beloved uncle should have put her in therapy when she was a young teen after The Loss. Other times she was kind of adorable in her attempts at fierce. But between the heroine and the author's ex-wife (holy cow, train wreck), thank god for Dorothy and the publisher's wife or we wouldn't have had any screentime with a balanced, capable female character.

I loved how the "magic" worked, the fly-by visits of other luminaries, the general feel of the world.

But when even I can see the plot "twists" coming a mile away, that means you're probably foreshadowing a bit too much. Unless you want people to guess? Then good on you.