Lani Lynn Vale - My Bad (Bear Bottom Guardians, Book 3)

Ok, first of all, Ms Vale writes a certain type of book. Imagine a Disney movie. Say, Tangled. Include all the fun feel good part in the beginning, leave out the sad emotional part in the middle, and include the exciting happy part at the end. That sort of feeling is what you get in one of her books. The characters (primary and secondary) pop out funny one liners all the time. There's also this "feel good" emotional thing going on, for example, someone is mean to the heroine at work, and everyone shows up. The parents the aunts and uncles the cousins the neighbors the couple who was passing through town the packers in the supermarket BECAUSE THE HERO/HEROINE/SECONDARY CHARACTER IS SO WELL LOVED. Seriously. Well loved. The good characters are soooo good and wonderful and really just amazing (and conservative). The bad characters are soooo bad and selfish and evil (and liberal). While I don't care for the moral or political undertones, it makes for fun, feel good, shallow reads.

The heroines are pretty much spineless. ("Oh you are such a jerk but take me to bed anyway").

The heroes are pretty much jerks. ("I did think I made a mistake but now that I am here talking to you, it's your fault and I'm gonna take you to bed to get you over your bad mood").

But in most cases the heroes are just little jerks, they don't cheat, or stuff like that. They just make stupid decisions sometimes and blame it the heroines. And they ADORE the heroines. No push pull here, once they decide on the heroine they are in it to win it.

Plot wise, there are normally:

1) a natural disaster of some kind.

2) a main character who has cancer, has had cancer, or has an immediate family member with cancer.

3) extreme medical "stuff" - whether it is a disease or an amputation, they spend a lot of time in hospital.

4) a child being rescued by one of the main characters.

5) a tragic accident where children are seriously hurt because people are stupid.

Seriously, these small towns she writes about should have their water checked cause something is not right. Every time I read one of her books I think I really have to make a list of all the stuff that happens in each book, but really, who wants to take the time to do that.

But all in all, it's fun, feel good, OTT.

So now we come to this book.

So the characters are the same as always. The hero, heroine, secondary characters. There is not really a bad villain, just a skeevy guy at work who in the end smashes in her car windows, threatens her, and goes to jail.

None of the main characters, or even main secondary characters, get hurt. One character gets shot (it's actually an overlap from where she is the heroine in a previous book), but it's just a setup for the whole hero is a jerk scene, which is just a setup for angry sex scene, and that's it.

There are no heartbreaking scenes where the hero/heroine save a child or is too late to save a child, although someone does describe an appropriate incident.

There are no natural disasters. Thunderstorm, that's it.

No serious medical problems. Someone gets shot, as I mentioned, and the heroine gets pregnant. Oh, and the hero's parents committed suicide when he was a teen, it's mentioned.

WHERE IS THE DRAMA?

Normally, when I read a book by Ms Vale, I roll my eyes at everything that happens. And I skip over the overwrought bits that have nothing to do with the story. This time, there's hardly any, and I feel.... shortchanged.

There's still the fun feel good bit. You still have funny one liners. I think that if I went into this book NOT expecting everything and the kitchen sink, I wouldn't have missed it. But strangely, I do.