Title/Author: Winter in Wonderland- The Ingrid Winter Misadventure Series Book 2
By J.S. Drangsholt, Tara F. Chace (Translator)
Genre: Fiction /
Publisher: Amazon Crossing
Date of publish: November 2017
Pages: 234
I received this book as part of the Goodreads Giveaway Program. My opinions are my own.
I finished this book with a furrowed brow, the truth is I wasn’t sure what I thought of it. While I could never quite get into sync with the story, it was a compelling read. I just don’t know if it went anywhere and I was certainly glad to move on to the next book on my list.
Interestingly a review on Amazon of the first book in the series caught my attention and summed up my feelings for this second installment perfectly.
“The read was really interesting. It got silly at times but I honestly could not stop reading the book. The main character was a little bit too much of a pain. I did not like her at all - whiny, hypochondriac, not a very good wife or mother. I was really glad when I got to the end of the book.”
This is the kind of book my husband calls “slice of life” and just the kind of book he lives to read, while I prefer a bit more structure to my fiction. It isn’t that I think this is a bad book, I just can’t FEEL anything for Ingrid Winters. She pops from one bad situation into a worse one throughout the story, but often it so much her own fault or from her own lack, that any sympathy I should have felt for her just evaporates and I am left simply feeling her frustration.
The author has however done a fabulous job of surrounding her heroine with complex, vibrant, often humorous or satirical characters that I would actually enjoy reading more about. I laughed more than once with Grandpa’s misadventures in the retirement home and with Alva’s solution to her own misadventures in preschool. As a wife, I could totally commiserate with a husband’s need to DIY and as a sports fan, well, let’s just say there definitely some elements to this book that will be imminently relatable to a lot of readers.
This book should find an audience with those that enjoy a dry wit and penchant for calamity.
JS Drangsholt is a Norwegian writer and academic. Her first novel, Humlefangeren, was published in 2011, but she is most known for her books about the neurotic and quirky academic Ingrid Winter. The movie rights to the first book in the series – The Marvelous Misadventures of Ingrid Winter – were obtained by the Norwegian comedian and actor Henriette Steenstrup before the book was even published. The English translation of the second book in The Misadventure Series is to be published in February 2018.
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