Happy first day of July! Here’s a review of June’s book The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale from the No Commitment Blogger Book Club. Please link or leave a comment below if you’ve read the book!
What was the book about?
The book is about a Mormon housewife pregnant with her fourth kid when she meets her celebrity crush Felix Callahan. After a very platonic evening out, they become BFFs off the bat. 
Did you enjoy the book? Why? Why not?
I liked the book after I finished, but I didn’t enjoy reading it all of the time. I felt a little… squeemish reading the story. I don’t like infidelity. Not in real life, in books, in movies, any story.
Now, let me clear the air before you dismiss this book altogether: it isn’t a book about affairs. It’s just a story of a married woman (with four kids) and a married man (who happens to be a Hollywood heartthrob) who become best friends. I won’t give any spoilers, but it brings back the age-old When-Harry-Met-Sally question, Can men and women just be friends?
Of course they can be friends. But best friends? Soul mate kind of friends? I say no, and I’ll let the book speak for itself. Those who read it know how it ends.
But aside from that aspect, the book was entertaining. It was your typical chick-lit in the sense that it was funny and I finished it surprisingly quickly, but there were themes and turns in the plot that was a lot deeper than I gave it credit for starting out. This is my first book by Shannon Hale (I may read her more popular book Austenland), and her writing (at least in this book) was very dialogue heavy. Go to a random page in the book and it’s likely it will be a page of witty, sarcastic dialogue between Becky and Felix.
Overall, a good book, though I am glad I borrowed it from the library (and not just for the protective plastic cover reading at the pool) because it wasn’t a book I would care to reread or pass along to friends.
Would you recommend this book?
Sure, it was entertaining.
What’s your favorite quote from the book?
“It was karma, it was kismet, it was magic. It doesn’t matter how it happened, just that it did.”
Have you read this book and want to participate? Write a review in your blog and post it back here, or comment below and tell me what you thought.
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Next up: In July we are reading Love Does by Bob Goff. I’ll be reviewing this Monday Augus t5th! Other book reviews this year:
January: Bossypants
February: What Alice Forgot
March: Happier at Home
April: MWF Seeking BFF
May: Bittersweet
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