23. Quentins - Maeve Binchy

Whenever my friends told me about Maeve Binchy and how much they thought I would like her books this is the one they most frequently mentioned as a must read. So I finally did. 3 years later. I'm not sure that I loved it as much as they thought I would but that might be a case of too much hype making the book seem larger than life before I read it. Anyways. It was worth the read and I think I picked it up for $5 bucks and it was more than worth that.

Part of the reason I think my friends wanted me to read Quentin's is because the "heroine", Ella, falls for a guy who is pretty much the stereotypical type of guy that I fall for. On the surface he is charming and likeable and has everything going for him but really, secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) he is a more of an asshole than not and a user and a cheater. And I, like Ella, fall for the charms and overlook the little missteps and defend him to others and spend hours upon hours convincing myself that it's not really as bad as other people think, they just don't know him, they don't know how I feel. And in the end it is always a load of crap and I should have learned my lessons by now and maybe this time I have. Anyways, I am sure my friends occasionally feel towards me the way I felt towards Ella. All, "you poor sweet innocent and mostly dumb thing. Can't you see he is playing you for a fool. Oh god. Do not trust him." Of course none of the guys I have liked have stolen money from my family and friends and then fled the country.

Ha.

It is so much easier to see where other people should make different choices.

And inevitably there was a happy ending with everyone happily in love and the bad boyfriend in jail and Ella having learned not to trust the charm with only one go at it. Fairytale characters never make the same mistake twice.