Friday Harbor series, part 2: Dream Lake

(continued from the previous post)

....Which brings us up to Dream Lake, the third book in Lisa Kleypas's Friday Harbor series, which came out last week and I read over this past weekend.  On the one hand, I loved it.  I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.  But on the other hand, I'd love to see a writer's group tear it to shreds, because there are a million things wrong with it.  So how do you come out of it with a good book, when she does so many things wrong?  How does she make it work anyway, in spite of all the gaffes?  I'd love to hear someone who knows what they're talking about discuss this one.

Anyway.  It's about the third brother, Alex.  All three brothers have some lingering problems due to their alcoholic parents, but only Alex has become an alcoholic himself.  He is a contractor, and in a down market with nothing else to do, he takes on the remodel of a house for Zoe Hoffmann, who wants to move into it with her grandmother who has alzheimer's.  Zoe is a chef at a bed and breakfast, and I kept having to stop and have something to eat while reading the descriptions of her incredible food.  Mark and Zoe are immediately attracted to each other, but they both feel that the relationship wouldn't work so they try to avoid their attraction.  But of course eventually they give in and fall in love.

So what works?  well, the attraction between Zoe and Alex, for one thing.  It's believable and you can feel it. And they are both thoroughly likable characters.  You root for them to get together.

I also appreciated that both characters were trying to fight their attraction, rather than just one of them, which happens often enough in romance novels that it has become a little tired as a plot device.  Zoe does get over it first, but at least at the beginning, they both have plausible reasons why they don't want to get involved and it makes sense.

And Alex's recovery from alcoholism seemed realistic.  There are probably few alcoholics who are successful the very first time they try to quit, but at least she didn't sugar-coat what it is like to stop.  Alex has DTs, he longs to drink, he has long miserable evenings of not drinking, he is fascinated by the sight of a wine bottle at one point-- it is very believable.

Also, one of the main characters is a ghost.  As you know, I'm not a big fan of paranormal, so this is a tough sell for me.  But I thought she made it work pretty well.

But what doesn't work?  Oh, my, where to start.  For one thing, although I liked the character of the ghost and the way he interacted with Alex (to whom he is mysteriously connected, and who is the only one in the book who can see him), the way he was written seemed very clumsy.  The book starts out from his perspective, but then suddenly, practically in the middle of a paragraph, the point of view changes-- it was like a big clunk, like in eight-track tapes when it would switch from one track to another.  And then there would be many pages where he conveniently didn't show up, so you'd forget about him, and then suddenly there he'd be again.  He was far more integrated with the plot than the paranormal elements in Rainshadow, but it was still just awkward at times.

and then there is the laundry list of stuff going on.  You've got Alex getting over his alcoholism (which is described in detail), you've got the grandmother with alzheimer's (which is described in detail, almost like an textbook entry about dealing with alzheimer's), you've got Zoe's ex-husband who left her for a man and comes back for comfort when the man dumps him, you've got the house that's being redecorated.  And  there are the multiple different kinds of paranormal:  there's the ghost, who is a major character, and Zoe has a kind of magic that works with her food, and there's Lucy's magic with the stained glass (from the previous book) becomes important toward the end, and then there's a miraculous healing in the final scene that comes out of nowhere and is never really explained.  I started laughing when we got to that one, it was just too much.

Then there are all the details that are dropped in and left dangling.  Like the gay ex-husband, who comes back and takes up an entire chapter, and then is never mentioned again.  Or the first time Alex and Zoe make love, he makes a big deal about getting three condoms out and putting them one by one on the bedside table.  Then they make love once and fall asleep.  In the next scene it's the next day.  So why did Kleypas put the three condoms in there?  She didn't have to say much, just something like "he reached for her twice more during the night," or even "they were so exhausted afterwards that they didn't need the other condoms" or whatever, but she just leaves it hanging.  That's one of the first rules you learn in a fiction workshop-- cut any details that don't advance the story.

But the one that bugged me the most was a scene where you as the reader know that Alex has been going through complete and utter hell with his withdrawal from alcohol, and he has to attend Mark and Maggie's wedding (Alex's brother, the hero and heroine from the first book).  He's been dreading the reception for weeks, where everyone will be celebrating with a drink in hand.  He's sitting miserably with a soft drink on the sidelines at the reception, not drinking but having to watch everyone else drink. Maggie comes up to him assuming that he's drunk out of his mind and with a great deal of caring concern, takes the soft drink away from him (assuming it has alcohol in it) and hands him a cup of coffee.  If he'd been drinking, it would have been a heartwarming show of concern for her new brother-in-law, but since he wasn't, you just want to slap her for being such a patronizing idiot.  You really want to see the scene where Maggie realizes what an insensitive bitch she was and apologizes, but it never happens.  It's just like that scene was thrown in there and forgotten.

So with all that going on, how does Kleypas make it work?  I don't know.  But she does.  It's a good story and I enjoyed it. I think I could only give it three stars out of five, but that feels like underestimating it somehow.  Maybe I'd give it four stars as a story, and two stars for the way it's put together.  yup, that feels right.