Review of Declaring Spinsterhood by debut author Jamie Lynn Braziel

Declaring Spinsterhood

Jamie Lynn Braziel

Amazon Encore

284 pages

ISBN 13: 9781935597544

Emma Bailey is a smart attractive woman, she owns her own children’s bookstore has great friends and a supportive if not wee bit overbearing family.  But when it comes to love, she’s a walking talking cliché, you know the one’s unlucky in love, always a bridesmaid etc., in fact if it weren’t for her interfering mother setting up a string of bad blind dates, she might not have a love life at all. After a painful breakup she’s entirely too dependent on her next door neighbor best friend Brian and now that he’s dating leaving her feeling old maid-ish she’s decided to “Declare Spinsterhood” and just put an end to dreaming about her very own Happily Ever After.

In her first novel Jamie Lynn Braziel gives us a lighthearted look at one woman’s fight for life liberty and the pursuit of happiness how she sees fit, she also adds some tense moments in the novel that come quite unexpectedly and really give the read more oomph. She uses down home Texas twang to give her characters the real deal feel of the Lonestar state and uses narrative that is easy to read, easy to follow and informative to her readers and even though the dialogue tends to drag in a few places it does not hurt the enjoyment of the novel and I’m sure that once this author feels more confident in her writer skin she’ll excel in this as well. Her characters are real stars of her show and they all are not only interesting but intricate pieces of this plot puzzle and as the pieces fall into place the characters get even better. Her heroine Emma is a bright light, a funny enigmatic girl who reminds me a little of The Unsinkable Molly Brown as she just keeps keeping on no matter what’s happening around her. Her other stand out characters in this novel are the best friend Brian, Emma’s workmate and friend Kathy and the mother from Hades. The romance will come up on you all of a sudden although by the time it gets here you won’t be surprised, but I won’t mention the hero because it’s the journey that stands out and I wouldn’t want to ruin that for any reader. The love scenes are G rated and would not offend any reader and yet it’s not because of prudishness or any Victorian ideals it’s just simple choice of the character and it’s really refreshing, and not to worry for those fans who like sensuality in their reads the kisses in here will heat up the pages.

Fans of Susan Mallery or Jennifer Crusie would like this author, fans of realistic life situation romance would like this read, contemporary romance lovers of simple genre romance too. So do yourself a favor and give Ms. Braziel a try, you won’t be sorry you did.
Visit the author’s website here – buy the book here