Jennifer Ann Shore’s fiction is the perfect provider when a reader is in need of something light but satisfying – the literary equivalent of a marshmallow: you know what you are getting; it will be light and fluffy with enough tension to keep it all together; you bite into it and immediately, you get what you want from it; it hits the spot.
Nothing Personal for Breakfast is just this and like the other books that I’ve read of Shore’s, you become invested in characters who are likeable and believable and who you root for, whether this is in their relationship with each other or in what they are trying to achieve. It is feel-good fiction at its best and easily devoured, for this reader, virtually in one sitting.
Shore has also adopted a dual perspective in this book between her two key characters, Gemma and Jack. This can sometimes be difficult as the clarity of the character’s voice and their personality needs to show, so that as a reader you can differentiate between them and I am pleased to say that Shore has done this with ease in this book. No confusion here.
The narrative switches between the two from their initial meeting to subsequent encounters. The tension comes from not knowing if they will continue and like all good books of this nature, Shore has found the sweet spot, where the right amount of confusion and uncertainty is thrown in with the right amount of coincidence to place the plot just this side of plausible in the realm of reader pleasure.
I rocketed through it. It delivered everything that I expect in a book of this type and left me feeling sated and eager to read more of Shore’s fiction. I have to say this is how I feel after every book that I read by her – I have been transported into a world where I am told a good story with strong characters and witty dialogue, which doesn’t tax me in the slightest, except in the way that it keeps me from doing chores.
One of my new favourite go-to authors.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Scuffed Granny 