De Meeste Dromen Zijn Bedrog (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
3.5 stars for Here's Looking At You!The plot is that Anna (Aurelianna) and James met in school when they were 11. She was fat, an outcast, and very much a laughingstock. He was the quintessential popular kid who made fun of the un-popular crowd. Nowadays, they're 32 and the tables have turned. Anna has lost tons of weight (literally), has the career, but still feels like the fat girl she was in school. James is caught in a job where he doesn't like his colleagues, is still friends with his best friend from school, and has been left by his wife Eva. Oh, and he also is stuck with Eva's cat Luther. Anna and James connect through a work opportunity.Overall, the story was fun and the characters were likeable. The writing style was also easy and flowy. Here's where I had to dock some points: it was too long. At 400+ pages, there are a lot of side stories and subplots that were a) not always necessary or b) didn't always need to go into the detail that we saw. Aggy's wedding to Chris and all the storyline about that? Not so necessary. Laurence's party animal ways: I didn't need to see him with that many girls. I got the point after the first one.All of that being said, I enjoyed this book a lot and would recommend it to someone looking for not your stereotypical chick lit. I read this book because a friend suggested it as a good read for geek girls. I like Anna - her voice was suitably sharp and witty, her love of her subject was charming to see. It's interesting that the hero was the boy who bullied her at school. I didn't like James as much. In some ways he still hadn't grown out of that streak of cruelty that hurt Anna so much at school. On the other hand the gradual realisation that he wasn't as nice as he thought he was and that he'd actually ended up with a best friend and a wife that he didn't actually like were well handled and the change in James was plausible.In places this book was laugh out loud funny. I really enjoyed reading this book and will look out for more books by Mhairi McFarlane.
What do You think about De Meeste Dromen Zijn Bedrog (2014)?
nice, romantic, funny one liners, pleasant heroine: perfect read for a day at the beach!
—Katie
Light and frothy, don't expect a great work of fiction but enjoyable for what it is!
—ilia_sergeevich
