"Fireworks Over Toccoa"

I recently finished reading "Fireworks over Toccoa" by Jeffrey Stepakoff.  I confess I'm still not sure what I think of it.  Well, I guess that's not true.  I do know what I think of it and it's not entirely good.

I tried very hard to not be tainted by it's Nicholas Sparks-like draw.  (I'm not the biggest fan of sappy love stories about people who don't know what it is to be in love in the first place.  They kind of remind me of sappy high school love stories or bad country music songs.  And while I'm at it my least favorite in that genre is "Don't Take the Girl" by Tim MaGraw...  Seriously can't stand that one and I'm a country music fan.  Cheese. Bomb. But I digress.)

I wanted to go into it with an untainted mind, open to the possibilities of it's greatness. I suppose it would be prudent to tell how I got this book in the first place.  I am happy to say that I didn't spend a dime to get it.  Tawnya, the founder of our book club, got in on a deal where every member of our club would get a free copy if she would blog about it.  Very difficult to pass up free books.  It was decided that if it turned out awful then we could have a thoroughly enjoyable time "MST 3000"ing it. 

I confess I was drawn into the story as it got going.  There were some historical facts that I found interesting.  Like how Coca-Cola was so very much a part of WWII.  It explained why my grandparents usually had Diet Coke around for breakfast as well as every other meal of the day.  Overall I was okay with the characters.  The part that I wasn't okay with was the "love" story.  Only in cheesy romance books/movies/songs do people know each other for barely two days (one of which is spend in the throws of passion, be sure to close your eyes during that part) and decide that they are the love of each other's life.  Seriously, it takes at least 6 months for your best behavior to wear off and get down to the real you.  Love in two days?  I don't think so.

I can't say that I recommend the book, but I can say that I stuck through to the end. 

And Tawnya, hope this doesn't ruin the next book club, but I couldn't help but blog about it now.  Either because my life is pathetic and all I have to blog about is a book, or because I hope to fill in the next few weeks with many other books and I'm afraid that my pertinent fresh-in-my-mind impressions would be gone by that time.  Sigh.  Oh, I think we should totally cast the movie too.  I might be able to get over the shallowness of the love story if the main character was hunky enough.