The Bright Side Of Disaster

Continuing with my desire to read everything written by Katherine Center, I had to go back to her beginnings. The Bright Side of Disaster was her first published novel. Although, I do wonder about her Duran Duran fanfic 🙂 The Bright Side of Disaster is about a young pregnant woman, Jenny Harris. When the story begins, Jenny is staying home waiting for the arrival of her first child. Jenny is sure it\’s a boy. She\’s enjoying her pregnancy and she\’s happy and in love with her fiance, Dean. But her happiness won\’t last. Dean becomes distant and suddenly one day, he just leaves and never comes back. The day after, Jenny is in labor and all her careful birth planning goes out the window. Being a single mother is not easy. The painful birth, the lack of sleep, the battered nipples, the constant worry about this new life you have created are all things carefully brought in by the author. There were many things I enjoyed about The Bright Side of Disaster. Katherine Center has a knack for making me smile and sometimes laugh out loud. Her characters can make me quite angry and some I wish I could hurt them physically. Dean was a perfect example. He was simply a bad man. A man who was not happy with his life and who was not mature at all. He thought Jenny was beneath him. He used her and left her high and dry when she was counting on him the most. A despicable man. Show/hide Other than Dean\’s parts at the end of the novel, the rest was quite enjoyable. I wished I had seen more of Jenny and Gardner together. Maybe after a year has passed. Cliffhanger: No 3.5/5 Fangs

Katherine Center is one of my fave authors, but I this is an earlier work, and it\’s not as good as the others. On the plus side, the main character, Jenny, is root-worthy and relatable. My first marriage was to a guy pretty much like Dean. I get it. I understand how being young and overwhelmed can lead to bad choices. Also, Jenny\’s mom was a normal, good person and the subplot worked to support the main story line. Her depiction of her dad was so poignant. He was a rich, successful, charismatic loser whom she loved without qualification. On the negative: structurally, I thought this book felt \”off.\” The crisis and Jenny\’s bad decision-making came pretty late. Also, too many of her solutions were in the form of other people stepping in to help her/save her. (The Meredith reappearance just at the right time was weak, IMO.) Her character arc was completed by virtue of her having a thought bubble at the end of the story, rather than taking action. The love interest was 2-dimensional. Why did he want her so badly? What was his issue, that required Jenny to be complete? But I\’m picky. It was a decent story that I enjoyed reading to the end (which was too abrupt).

I\’m not sure what made me purchase this book in the first place but I wish I could go back and rethink that decision. I found this story disappointing, on the whole. Jenny is a bit too whiny, neurotic, and forgiving for my tastes. I don\’t know what it\’s like to be a mother but she is so over-the-top neurotic in her thinking that it drove me insane. And how she didn\’t see the parade of red flags Dean performed for her was unbelievable. It was just a bit blah and I know there are more entertaining stories out there. I wouldn\’t recommend it.

I have read every one of her books now! Her books are so close to my heart and she always makes me laugh and cry! I hate finishing her books because I fall in love with her characters. Never disappointed!

Cons: $9.99 for an ebook is ridiculous and there was no epilogue so the book kind of ends abruptly. Pros: Well written, funny and charming, memorable secondary characters, one of the most honest portrayals of first time motherhood, and the arc of the protagonist was great. I definitely am a fan now!

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