I’ll Take New York

by Miranda Dickinson

[Leah]

A new Miranda Dickinson novel is always something to savour and I have been excited to read I’ll Take New York, since it was announced around about this time last year. Which leads me to think that perhaps I had heaped a bit too much on this novel. After all, to hear it was going to be a companion to Miranda’s first novel Fairytale of New York, I was so chuffed to know we would be seeing Rosie and Ed, and the gang, again, as well as being introduced to new characters with new stories to tell us. At just under 500 pages, it’s quite the massive novel, and I have to confess I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to, or as much as I have loved other Dickinson novels in the past.

I always enjoy books set in New York. Despite the fact there are literally thousands of books set in New York, I still love the magical feeling I get when I know a book is set in New York. It’s a place I want to visit so bad. So the setting for the novel was awesome, and I was absolutely cock a hoop about the fact that Bea owned her very own independent bookstore, in New York! That’s the dream, am I right? I mean my dream is to own a bookstore period, but to own one in New York too? Wild animals wouldn’t keep me from doing that if I won the lottery, and I just adored how quaint Bea’s bookstore sounded (although I wish it had a better name than Hudson River Books. A bookstore like that deserved something better, I felt).

My problem with the novel wasn’t easily apparent to me. It’s not a bad read, at all, and Miranda Dickinson is one of the best storytellers there is, I just never felt fully connected to Bea or Jake. It took so bloody long for them to meet, and to start their personal tours of New York, and that was where the money was. The way they sparked off each other that night at Ed and Rosie’s engagement party left me feeling all fluttery inside, and I wanted more of that quick wit and fun chat. I didn’t really click with them separately, it just didn’t work for me. I can’t explain it, because I don’t really understand it myself. The novel should have focused way more on their interactions together, because that’s where the true magic happened. It was so fun to see Ed and Rosie again, I confess. That was so great, to see them happy (ish, when not planning their wedding).

The other supporting characters left a lot to be desired, especially Russ. Russ is supposed to be Bea’s best friend, but he’s a jerk. All through the novel, he doesn’t support Bea’s decision to break up with her boyfriend Otis (whether he’s Otis’s friend or not, Bea was supposed to be his BEST friend), he gets shirty and stuffy with Jake, and he was just a jerk in general, always whining about himself and whining at Bea because she was trying to make herself happy (HOW DARE SHE?). Best friends aren’t supposed to act like that, and Russ didn’t deserve Bea as a friend or a business partner. I wanted to love I’ll Take New York as much as I did the rest of Miranda’s novels, but it just didn’t happen for me. I kept reading, and I finished the book, but it just seemed to lack something which made me kind of sad. And it also went down that really predictable Chick Lit route of View Spoiler »

I was just so disappointed to not enjoy I’ll Take New York as much as I wanted to. I wanted to DEVOUR it, but it felt like a bit of a chore to finish, which is strange, especially as I read it over the course of two days. (Although perhaps that was telling!) It had its good points, but it didn’t exploit its good points (I felt) to the best of its ability. There should have been so much more of Bea and Jake’s interactions and more of their developing friendship, and less of the mention of Bea’s broken heart and Jake’s divorce (did you know Jake is getting divorced? You can hardly miss the numerous mentions to his divorce). It’s likely just me being picky, because I’m sure everyone else will love the novel so much, but it just didn’t work for me, unfortunately.