Friday, April 14, 2006

Far from Xanadu, by Julie Anne Peters

Mike has more than a butch name. She presses 100 lbs, is a super fast-pitch softball player, and an excellent plumber to boot. But she and her family are haunted by demons - a brother who can't finish anything, a mother who is eating herself to death, and the memory of a father who killed himself two years ago. Then, the most gorgeous girl in the universe - Xanadu - moves to Mike's small kansas town, and she starts to dream again.

A lot of potential here, but there is too many plot lines and the characters are mind-bendingly dull. The book stretches on for nearly 300 pages, and from about page 20 onwards, I just gave up caring about their whining. The dearth of sympathetic characters makes reading this book a total chore. That is truly a shame as I've liked all of Peters's other books.

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